Advice With Leg Routine Next Cycle

[SilverBullet]

So,I am really tall and my legs are lagging behind in hypertrophy (and strength), or at least it seems that way due to my height.
I've been doing pretty basic lower body routine, Mon,Fri Squats and Weds Conventional Deadlift. I've added some romanian deadlift on Mon and Fri for the first 6 weeks, mainly to help my tight hamstrings, then I drop it. I was thinking of adding more volume for legs and also playing around with different styles to help me figure out what's best for my freaky dimensions,long torso, long arms.

Order of my full body routine (Mon,Weds, Fri)
1. Pull ups
2. Bench
3. Back squats (only Mon, Fri) / Conventional DL (only Weds)
4. Bent over rows
5. Weighted dips
_________________ the following I drop after week 6_________
6. RDL (only Mon, Fri)
7. Bicep Curls
8. Tri extensions
9. Calf raises
10. abs


Proposed leg routine
Mon,Fri - Back Squat, Sumo DL (maybe keep sumo for all 9 weeks?)
Weds - Conventional DL, Zercher or Front squat (maybe keep the squats for all 9 weeks)

If I add these routines, should I keep them as secondary (i.e. use 75-85% of their respective maxes as the input to the calculator) since it might be too fatiguing to try to do to two major legs exercises in the same workout.
Thanks for any input

 

[Totentanz]

Do you have access to a leg press? I prefer to pair deadlifts with leg press. Pair squats with SLDL or RDL and do them the entire cycle, don't drop them part way through.

 

[SilverBullet]

Do you have access to a leg press? I prefer to pair deadlifts with leg press. Pair squats with SLDL or RDL and do them the entire cycle, don't drop them part way through.

Right now I am working out from my garage. I have a half rack and an Ironmaster bench plus bar and plates.

It sounds really stupid but the only time I've hurt myself (lower back) is on a leg press machine. I am guessing I brought my legs too far down and my "butt wink" caused a tweak. Since then I've been too afraid to step in that thing. But anyway, I don't have access to one right now.

As far as RDL, I love the ROM on that movement but how do you test maxes with this lift? Isn't this more of a high rep exercise due to the load on the hamstrings? I've been too afraid to go heavy with it because I can't tell if/when I am overloading the hamstring (thus afraid to tear it).

When you pair these lifts do you back off your RMs for the leg press and the SLDLs? In other words, if your 5RM for SLDL was 300, do you take a percentage of that and use that as your 5RM?

Thanks!

 

[adpowah]

I think the easiest solution (without a leg press) is just squat more. You can squat 3 days a week fairly easily. Since you have a home gym you could even consider squatting every day. Though you would really want to ease yourself into that much volume.

 

[Old and Grey]

Depending on your stage of development and that you are at least an intermediate, I would recommend working lagging muscles every day, several times per day. Squat, deadlift, RDL.

You probably strained your psoas muscle on the leg press. If that happens again, rolling around on a fairly hard tennis/baseball sized ball on the sore spot will help loosen it back up.

 

[Totentanz]

Treat SLDL or RDL just like any other exercise. Don't go too fast on them when you go heavy. To test RMs, find your 10 RM and then use an online calculator to extrapolate your proposed 5 RM, then test that. But like I said, don't go fast on the reps. Take them easy so you are controlling the bar and not gravity. Don't go too low, if you can't touch your toes then that's too low to take the bar on an RDL or SLDL. If gravity is pulling the bar down, then that is too heavy for you. Trust me, many of us have done them in the 5 RM range, it is possible. If you don't feel comfortable with them, however, try Good Mornings. Those are a great hamstring exercise that I highly recommend. I actually prefer them over SLDL.

Leg press, believe it or not, requires proper form. A lot of people think you can just climb in there and start pumping reps out but then they get an injury.

I would probably recommend doing Squats every session as well and on the day you had deads, either drop them completely or do Rack Pulls instead and use those to replace your rowing exercise that day. You could do squats daily as Old and Grey suggested. I would probably do your normal squat work 3 times a week and do some lighter, higher rep and lower volume squats on your "off" days. This is actually great for helping with your technique as well.

 

[SilverBullet]

You guys are throwing me a lot of good information and advice and I am trying to process all this and make sure I understand.

I would probably recommend doing Squats every session as well and on the day you had deads, either drop them completely or do Rack Pulls instead and use those to replace your rowing exercise that day.

Are you recommending to drop deads altogether? But this one of the 3 major lifts, no? I really want to improve my form on the deadlift, and try to find a style that suits my body type.
I will definitely sub rows for rack pulls on my Weds routine. My traps need work.

You could do squats daily as Old and Grey suggested. I would probably do your normal squat work 3 times a week and do some lighter, higher rep and lower volume squats on your "off" days.

This sounds like it would be very beneficial for me. For some reason (thought I read it somewhere) I was under the impression that the body needed the days off to repair the muscle fibers for the legs. But if you guys suggest to do them every day then I definitely will. So how do incorporate them with HST numbers? Do I still keep the 15x1,10x2,5x3 using a percentage of my max or do you recommend just doing 15x1 or 15x2 on my days off for the whole cycle? But how does the weight on those increase with each workout?

Don't go too low, if you can't touch your toes then that's too low to take the bar on an RDL or SLDL.

After watching a few videos the SLDL scares me due to the rounding of the lower back. I might just stick to RDL at least until I improve my form. I will also give good mornings a try.

 

[Old and Grey]

SB, in answer to your second question, your muscles do not need to "repair' per se. What happens is your satellite cells will stop growing or multiplying at some point after after your last training session for that muscle. That is the ideal time to exercise them again to keep them in a growth stage. It is also the reason that once a week body part workouts are not ideal. In beginners, that is usually 48 hours, in intermediates it can be 24-36 hours and advanced it can be 18 -24 hours. (Some recent studies suggest it may be as low as 12 hours for advanced lifters.) That is why we profess here that frequency is a lifters best friend as they progress more and more.

What Totz suggests as 3 regular leg days supplemented on your "off" days by doing lighter weight, higher rep metabolic work is an excellent choice. Also, Totz would never suggest dropping deads. I believe he is suggesting dropping squats on days that you do deads (or vice versa) as the combination of the two may be too much on your CNS. However, I will leave him to answer that definitively.

And start out with 'baby' weights on the good mornings for the sake of your back.