It begins. The apprehension grows as the hours dwindle. Leg day is coming and you fucking loathe it. You hate the unbearable pain. You hate the tons of defiant steel. You hate what you must become today. Gone is the family man, the best friend, the bearer of good will. For a few hours each and every week he must go away. The shadow must emerge from that dark corner of his soul.
It is this side of you that you keep from your loved ones. The man on a lonely mission, bent on challenging what was thought to be possible, even if he must do so with his last dying breath. To go to a place where few men have been. To not know the meaning of limitation. You hate the task that lies before you. It is this hate that nourishes the Animal. This hate provides the sustenance for new growth. Shit. You love this hate.
Today is different, though. Today is worse. You are not satisfied with being a mere “freak”. It is not enough to strike fear into the heart of mere mortals. You want more. You demand more. Today you will push your body beyond the shackles of your mind. You will break the physical and mental bonds that have chained your growth… Yeah, today you will beat your legs into a fucking pulp. You ready?
It is this side of you that you keep from your loved ones. The man on a lonely mission, bent on challenging what was thought to be possible, even if he must do so with his last dying breath. To go to a place where few men have been. To not know the meaning of limitation. You hate the task that lies before you. It is this hate that nourishes the Animal. This hate provides the sustenance for new growth. Shit. You love this hate.
Today is different, though. Today is worse. You are not satisfied with being a mere “freak”. It is not enough to strike fear into the heart of mere mortals. You want more. You demand more. Today you will push your body beyond the shackles of your mind. You will break the physical and mental bonds that have chained your growth… Yeah, today you will beat your legs into a fucking pulp. You ready?
#1: Squats
We are talking about pulling the fucking growth trigger, so let’s cut the bullshit. It is time to head to the squat rack. We will begin this odyssey in a traditional fashion. Open with 5 work sets for squats. For example, you might warm up with 135 x 15 and then go to 225 x 12, 315 x12, 365 x 10, 405 x 8. On a normal day, that would be a damn good squat session. But this, alas, is no normal day. With a nod to The Golden Eagle, we will strip the bar back down to 225 and we will see what you are really fucking made of.
This is a high rep set. The first 15 should be pretty easy. Reps 16- 25 should bring a serious flood of lactic acid into the quads (it’s around this time when you’re going to have to dig deep and stay mentally tough). You can play a trick on yourself and begin to count in groups of 3 or 5, but, whatever you do, you can’t stop. Not until you reach your goal. Only you can impose these limits and only you can break the fuck though to the other side.
Best case, at the end of the set, you might feel lightheaded or sick to your stomach. Maybe you’ll forget your name. Worst case, you are lying unconscious in a pool of your own bodily fluids. Either way, you win. Take a few minutes to catch a breather, because we are just getting started.
# 2: Leg Press/Hack Squat Superset
At this point, hobble over to the leg press. The cold sweat that you have broken out into is due to the fact that all of your blood is in your quads. That and you know that the torture has just begun. You will load the leg press and hack squat with a weight that, under normal conditions, you could do for a tough 12. You will now proceed to do 10 reps through a full range of motion on the leg press and the immediately follow that with 10 reps on the hack squat. You will repeat this ritual of anguish twice more, knowing in your heart that this pain you feel is fleeting, but that the glory of accomplishment endures.
# 3: Super Dropset Leg Extensions
Now with quads numb, crawl onto the leg extension. This exercise is ideal on the plate-loaded version of this machine, but if you must, it can easily be done with the stack. Load the machine with some plates and then, with the assistance of your training partner, begin repping. As muscular failure arrives, your partner will strip one plate away. Continue to rep to failure again and strip another plate. This continues, rep by agonizing rep until there is but one plate left on the machine.
In this heightened state, you are all alone. An island unto itself. You don’t hear or see the others, the weak ones, drifting around you. You are made of sterner stuff. These people begrudge you for being all that they will never be. If you looked, you would see it in their eyes. Their resentment is fuel for the machine you want to become. So focus on the iron. Build. Shit, don’t lose fucking focus now… You’ve still got hams and calves left. But we’ll save that for the next time.
