T Nation

Leg Training 3x a Week High Volume

Bigger Stronger Leaner
#1

I am a powerlifter but I figured it’d be best to post in this section. I had an elbow scope last week and have also been suffering from a back issue that is going to force me to take two weeks off of squats or heavy leg presses. This leaves me with my only option for some high volume single leg and machine work as well as a plan to implement blood flow restriction training.

I’m posting here because I want to achieve as much hypertrophy as possible in the next two weeks while being limited in what I can do. BB are best at hypertrophy so here I am. Are there any BB programs or protocols out there that have you training legs 3x a week? How much would it honestly overwork you to train with high volume (3-5 sets of 15-20 reps for most exercises) with machines and single leg work?

Any suggestions on rep schemes, supersets, protocols that anybody has? Any suggested reading? I can come up with stuff on my own to get my through but I’m not super familiar with BB schemes for maximum hypertrophy. I also work 55 hours a week so any quick help or suggestions would be awesome.

#2

I’ve never heard of such a program that meets your needs, but you could easily create one, just dont go so overboard that in two weeks time you now have a new injury to heal from.

#3

[quote]cscsDPT17 wrote:
I had an elbow scope last week and have also been suffering from a back issue that is going to force me to take two weeks off of squats or heavy leg presses.[/quote]
Are those the only two exercises you can’t do or do you have zero use of that one arm also? So, like, could you do hack squats, not-heavy leg pressing, lunges (with one or two dumbbells), trap bar deads?

Exactly how much actual growth do you expect in two weeks? The only answer is “not much.” Also, if your body’s dealing with elbow and back problems, it might not be the best idea to go balls out on hard training, and instead consider training enough to “maintain” while letting your body heal and recover 100%. Just a suggestion. That would include addressing nutrition.



#4

How about taking the two weeks off to heal? 1. You won’t get much growth, if any, out of two weeks. 2. It’s two weeks.

#5

Well I don’t want to take two weeks completely off, I want to at least maintain some of what I worked so hard for. I’ve already been modifying my program for 3 weeks prior to my surgery dealing with my back. My back isn’t severe, it doesn’t bother me during light squats (275 lbs or less) but gets there with heavy, however after squatting anything above 225, I can tell I’ve aggravated it. Basically, I need to give it a solid active rest. Active recovery is always better than just complete rest, I’ve found that out the hard way.

I basically don’t have use of my R arm due to the scope. I’m only 10 days post surgery so I’m stuck with no resistance AROM right now for that arm. But my plan is since I have a 20# vest, I’m going to use that for a lot of lunges and squats. I’m going to throw in some leg presses as well as leg EXT/curls and single leg hip thrust as well.

I’ve got a decent arsenal of exercises I can do, but I guess my questions for posting on a BB forum were, what kind of set rep schemes could work the best for maximizing/maintaining hypertrophy during this time? Many BB use partials, or pre-fatigue their quads with leg EXT first, or even work up to sets of 30, or drop sets on exercises. Basically, what is a smart way to incorporate different schemes like that into legs 3x a week?

Also of note, I have been squatting 3x a week and deadlifting 2x a week for over 1 year now so I’m well accustomed to training legs 3x a week so I shouldn’t be overreaching too terribly, it’s just increased volume now since things will be lighter.

#6

You’ll be fine. I’ve done lower body 3x a week for long periods of time before due to injuries/surgeries. Simple way to do it is to do something like leg extensions, curls, leg press (which you said you couldn’t due), RDL’s, things like that with both legs one day, then do all 1 leg versions another day, then do a mix of the two but at a different rep range. Or you could mix 2 and 1 leg work in the same day. It’s really pretty open, if you’ve been squatting 3x a week and hitting legs often like that anyway it’s really unlikely you’re going to have any issues doing 1 leg work 3x a week or anything like that.

Another thing is just doing something like 8-12 reps one day, 12-15 another, and 15-20 another day (not necessarily in that order). Or doing roughly the same rep schemes each time but just using different exercises (or doing 1 leg versions). Switching up the rep ranges would probably be good though.

But yeah, for 2 weeks you won’t really make noticeable progress.

#7

good suggestions all around…if your doing ‘legs’ 3x a week i asssume its a full body type thang right?

i would do something like this…

day 1- squats - light x high reps high sets
day 2 - lunges - 100+ reps
day 3 - bodywuehgt squats - 100+ reps

if you can bang out 200 straight bw squats your quads will be indeed jacked no doubt…

or i guess if its only 2 weeks…just bang out as many bodyweight squats every day.