When i return to training after a back injury i’m not goin to squat very much, maybe once a month if that much, except for box squats for speed. I was wondering if i could do a knee dominant workout involving heavy lunges and step ups to increase my squat along with a hip dominant workout. Would something like this work?
Knee Dominant day
step ups- 6x3
lunges- 3x8
leg press- 2x15
glute ham raise- 4x5
I’m not so sure about the reverse hypers but i think its one of the reasons i hurt my back. Of couse i wasn’t doing them on a dedicated machine it was makeshift with a high bench and my ankles attached to a strap to a low row pulley. I think i may have been injured before the reverse hypers though, but just because i think thats what did it i would be leary of doin them again.
Your ‘Knee Dominant’ day is really a quad dominant day, and provided you’re doing wide-stance squats, your ‘Quad Dominant’ day is really a Hip-Dom day.
Ike: I dont do wide stance squats i do shoulder with squats and i’d only be squatting about once a week so the squats would be making my quad dominant day a hip dominant day.
Sorry Ike i ment i’d be squatting only once a month, and it’d prolly be a box squat. But do u think i could still increase my squat poundage using this protocol.
disregard me if im way off, but heres my take. i havent heard too much classification of lower body exercises as knee or quad dominant, but rather quad and hip is whats most often used. if youre going to be working the same muscles of the legs on both workouts then thats fine. in fact, i would suggest it as long as there is some variance in teh exercises used. however if you were classifying “dominance” to avoid overlap from workout to workout, then i suggest you search for Ian King’s listings of Quad vs Hip dominant exercises. this will give you a better idea of the difference.
p.s. why squat once per month?
Reverse hypers are used in rehab clinics to help strengthen the extensors. Of all the exercises you are doing, the one you should be least worried about are the reverse-hypers. Make sure you are using proper form and don’t go too heavy. Even the Westside guys go light on this exercise(light being defined as a low intensity/percentage of1RM)
I did light weight high rep back extensions and heavy low rep ab and oblique work to rehab my back. I iced it after every workout even if it didn’t hurt and took flax and glucosamine to keep the inflammation down. Leg exensions, curls and the leg press machine didn’t hurt my back so I did them to keep my leg strength up. Over a few months time I slowly brought back deadlifts and squats but started with a low weight and worked up so there were no major setbacks. Now I’m fine as long as I keep my ab work up, never go so heavy my form breaks down, and ice my back after every workout.
Squating once a month is a waste of time and will probably just do more harm than good. Id take the time to fix the problem so you can get back to buisness.