Hey everyone, my current goal is to gain muscle mass and definition in my quadriceps. I'm 8 months out of knee surgery and am awaiting medical clearance from my doctor which is partly dependent on having enough muscle mass and definition on my left quadriceps. I'm 6 weeks away from seeking medical clearance and would like to know the best way to gain hypertrophy in my quadriceps. I started a routine this week of working out legs 3 times per week. Mondays is heavy leg day (barbell squat), Wednesday is light leg day with some dynamic work (DB rear foot elevated split squats), and Friday is sub-maximal leg day (front squats). Here is what my routine looks like, please feel free to give to comment on what I should add or drop, etc.
MONDAY â?? MAX EFFORT LOWER BODY
PRE-WARM â?? FOAM ROLLING
DYNAMIC STRETCHING
DYNAMIC MOBILITY
MUSCLE ACTIVATION
CNS ACTIVATION
MAX EFFORT LIFT â?? work up to a max set of 3-5
â?¢ Barbell Squats
UNILATERAL MOVEMENT â?? 3 sets of 12
â?¢ Barbell Reverse Lunges
HAMSTRING / POSTERIOR CHAIN MOVEMENT â?? 3 sets of 12
â?¢ RDL
CORE â?? 3 circuits of each exercise
â?¢ Partial Ab Wheel Rollout + Hanging Leg Raises + Back Bridge
WEDNESDAY â?? DYNAMIC EFFORT LOWER BODY
PRE-WARM UP â?? FOAM ROLLING
DYNAMIC STRETCHING
DYNAMIC MOBILITY
MUSCLE ACTIVATION
CNS ACTIVATION
JUMP TRAINING â?? 3 circuits of 3 jumps per exercise
â?¢ Single Leg Depth Jumps + Jump Squat
UNILATERAL EXERCISE (W/ ADDED ROM) â?? 4 sets of 8-10
â?¢ Goblet Rear Foot Elevated Split Squats
HIP EXTENSION EXERCISE â?? 3 sets of 8-12 reps
â?¢ Single Leg DB RDL
CORE â?? 3 circuits of the following:
â?¢ Flag + Hanging Leg Raises + Weighted Rollout + Plank + Bridge
FRIDAY â?? MAX EFFORT LOWER BODY
PRE-WARM â?? FOAM ROLLING
DYNAMIC STRETCHING
DYNAMIC MOBILITY
MUSCLE ACTIVATION
CNS ACTIVATION
MAX EFFORT LIFT â?? 5 sets of 5
â?¢ Front Squats
UNILATERAL MOVEMENT â?? 3 sets of 12
â?¢ Walking Lunges
HAMSTRING/POSTERIOR CHAIN MOVEMENT â?? 3 sets of 12
â?¢ Weighted Hyperextensions
CONDITIONING â?? 5 sets of 30 second sprints
â?¢ Hill Sprints
CORE â?? 3 circuits of the following:
â?¢ Weighted Rollout + Windshield Wipers + L-Sits
I don’t know about doing Legs 3 times a week, but I max out on squats and power cleans 3 times a week. I only started doing this 2 months ago and have seen massive gains in strength.
However im not so sure about hypertrophy
What are your current squat numbers like?
I personally do legs 3x a week and has been working great so far. Depending on how heavy you go tho, you may not want to full out kill legs 3x a week. I find 2 workouts of only 6-8 heavy sets of squats and then 1 day of extensive legs works best.
But that’s me. Try if out for yourself and then adjust. You may wanna focus more on strength gains as opposed to hypertrophy in the beginning tho.
My only concern for you is unnecessary tendonitis/bursitis issues from over use. I can’t hit anything more than twice a week without it beginning to set in. Give it a whirl, you will soon find out if you are over doing it.
Depends on your recovery ability. For strength I’d say go for it. He’ll coach bros is having his athletes train everyday and they’re seeing serious strength gains but for hypertrophy I’m not so sure. Most coaches
Wouldn’t advocate more than twice a week. Personally after I hammer legs
It takes me a good 5 days to recover but that’s just me. Problem with training so frequently is you’re not giving yourself much time to grow. Don’t forget size comes when you’re out of the gym, not in it.
Wait, you just getting back from KNEE SURGERY and now you want to jump back into training your legs 3x/week??
Like, wtf dude?
What was the nature of the knee injury? If it’s like 98% of them the LAST thing you should be focusing on is destroying the quadriceps, but developing your hamstrings, glutes, and hips to enforce proper tracking of the knee. If you haven’t already I’d invest in Robertson’s “Bullet Proof Knees.”
Sounds like you’re going to grind yourself right into another knee injury.
Wait a minute … let me get this straight. You’re awaiting medical clearance (to lift I’m assuming), so you’re jumping into 3xweekly leg program with ME work and a lot of dynamic movements in order to get medical clearance 8 months out of knee surgery?
Haha! Shit I totally missed the ‘awaiting medical clearance’ knee surgery part!
Forget about my above post!!!