GAIN 3'' ON YOUR LEGS REBALANCE YOUR LEG TRAINING WITH HUNTER LABRADA'S PLAN TO TRIGGER NEW GROWTH AND MAXIMIZE RECOVERY!

Yes, it's possible to train hard and still have space for recovery. Spread your lower-body work across four biweekly sessions and get ready to shop for new pants!

by Hunter Labrada 

VITAL STATS

Name: Hunter Labrada
Age: 21
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 235 lbs
Education: Texas A&M University
Sponsor: Labrada Nutrition Athlete
Location: College Station, TX

Leg day. Whether you hate it, fear it, or love it, chances are it's for the same reasons: Leg training is exhausting, nauseating, and routinely tests your threshold for both strength and pain. It tested me so much so, that in my early days of training, I felt like certain parts of my leg workout inevitably got the short end of the stick.

For example, one day I would perform a brutal calf workout and kill my quads doing extensions and squats, and by the time I got around to hamstrings, my body had reached an overall point of exhaustion that severely hindered the amount of reps and weight I could use. Yes, the hamstrings were still worked during the squats, but they weren't getting nearly the same overall stimulation as my quads.

Sure enough, after my first couple of years of training, I noticed that my quads were developing more quickly than my hamstrings, since they were always getting the attention first. As this imbalance began to show up in my physique, I knew I needed to make a change. There simply had to be a better way to train legs!

A SUSTAINABLE LEG PROGRAM

I decided I would start alternating the focus of my leg day. One week, I would train quads followed by hamstrings, then calves; the next week, it would be hamstrings followed by quads, then calves. I stuck with this for a while, and it definitely helped even out the imbalance between my hamstrings and quads, but I noticed that my overall leg development was slowing. I still needed something more.

I decided to focus on bringing my hamstrings and calves up, which I tried to accomplish by splitting my leg training into two separate training days.

"I NOTICED THAT MY OVERALL LEG DEVELOPMENT WAS SLOWING. I NEEDED SOMETHING MORE."

On the first leg day, I trained quads and calves, and on the second leg day, hamstrings and calves. This, I thought, would finally allow me to hammer my quads and hamstrings. Furthermore, it would allow me to train my calves twice every week.

This new split worked great, and I experienced excellent progress at first, but I quickly ran into another problem. Performing heavy squats or leg presses on quad day, and heavy stiff-legged deadlifts on hamstring day, week-in and week-out, began to take its toll. My muscles felt like they were recovering just fine, meaning the post-workout soreness was gone within a reasonable amount of time, but I began to feel much more tired and "blah" outside of the gym, and my joints and lower back started to feel achy.

After some research, I arrived at the conclusion that I was overly shocking my central nervous system (CNS), joints, and connective tissue by repeatedly performing hard and strenuous leg workouts every 2-3 days. The cumulative effect of heavy squats and stiff-legged deadlifts at near maximal effort began to produce counter-productive consequences.

Your CNS is responsible for firing nerve impulses into your skeletal muscle tissue, causing muscles to contract. The big "aha" moment for me was that my CNS needed recovery time, just like my individual body parts. Call it acute overtraining or whatever you want; my training program simply didn't leave room to overcome the immense stress I was placing on my body.

Armed with this knowledge, I set out to design a leg training cycle that would allow for maximum stimulation and growth, but still keep my CNS and body feeling fresh and recovered.

THINK OUTSIDE THE WEEK

The challenge was to find a way to do the hard-and-heavy lifting I love and know is effective, while spacing it out sufficiently to optimize recovery. From experience, I knew that I liked to devote equal energy to my quads and hamstrings, but also wanted to continue working my calves on both days. There simply didn't seem to be enough room in a week for all I needed to get done.

Then I saw the answer. I needed to stop thinking purely in terms of a one-week schedule. I needed to give myself more time!