Immortal Squatting
Today was my first dedicated leg session at Immortals Gym in Sheffield. I didn’t go too overboard, however, because I have a gig later this week and I need my legs in order to leap around as pictured.
With squats being my main big exercise for the day, I decided to go for a few sets at 100kg. At around 1.3x my body weight, this is also a good benchmark for me.
You see, 10 months ago I set myself the Ten Ton Challenge of performing 10 sets of 10 squats at 100kg without extended rest periods, thereby shifting 10 tons of weight in no longer than half an hour.
I completed it too!
However, four months later I left the country for three months, came home for 6 weeks of chaos and then left for another month. I’ve been back for two months now, but the reality is that I have probably done less than half a dozen dedicated leg sessions since March…or even February.
That’s an average of around 0.7 leg sessions per month. Given that my proper routine involves 8 leg sessions per month, that’s…well it’s as good as nothing. In fact, it’s probably worse than nothing – I probably just damage my legs once every few weeks!
So today I decided to see if I could manage just three sets at 100kg. Being a fool, however, I didn’t warm up properly. I know I should, but I just wasn’t in the mood. I just jumped around a bit, did a couple of light sets and went straight in. Luckily, 100kg isn’t very heavy so it worked out alright…but I really must stop this negligence.
Anyway, after three good sets of 10 reps with 90 seconds rest between each, I performed one final set of slow squats – pausing at both top and bottom to make sure my technique was solid throughout. It was. I felt I could have done more sets, but held back for the good of the gig on Thursday.
Then it was onto slow leg presses, a extended set of hack squats and some isolation work using the extension machine. At the end, I also threw in some light shoulder work. It was nothing serious because tomorrow is chest day, for which I will need my anterior delts to be capable of at least holding their own. That said, I tend to over-use my triceps and delts during chest work, so it might help me to pre-exhaust those muscles…so that is something for me to think about.
Then, of course, it was time for the hell of abs. It hurts and looks silly, but core strength is one of the many things that sets a Guildsman apart.
The session went as follows:
Squats: 60kg x 10; 80kg x 5; 100kg x 10 x 3 + slow set of 5
Leg Press: 160kg x 8 x 3
Hack Squats: 40kg x 30
Leg Extensions: 44kg x 10 x 4; 52 x 10
Barbell front raise w/ barbell upright row: 20kg x 10 x 3
Dumbbell lateral raises: 7.5kg x 10 x 3
Hanging leg raises
Hanging leg…spin…things
The plans is to do more posterior chain work (hamstrings and lower back) on my back day, thereby reducing the amount of time I spend in crippling pain and incapable of twirling like a demon mid-performance.