FOUAD ABIAD'S HIGH VOLUME LEG WORKOUT
When it comes to building massive legs, it’s about heavy weight and high volume. IFBB Pro Fouad Abiad takes us through a high-volume workout that will annihilate your legs.
This is a comprehensive lower body workout, hitting quads and hamstrings. Four quad exercises and two hamstring exercises will exhaust the lower body and bring you closer to building the legs you want – if you work hard enough. Each exercise is broken down with specific cues to get the most out of each rep and really target the working muscle.
Keep your body fueled through the workout with INTRA[R3] intra-workout. This stimulant-free intra-workout provides clinically dosed ingredients to power through each rep. A full spectrum of essential amino acids supports energy, strength, and recovery. Cluster Dextrin is an easily digested source of carbs to keep energy levels stable, and PeakO2 improves oxygen utilization for endurance - even through the toughest high-volume sessions. The lighter, refreshing flavor makes it easy to drink during training and stay hydrated, take your pick between orange or watermelon.
Leg day should instill fear in you, knowing you’re going to push your body to its limits. This workout is not for the faint of heart. Can you make it through?
|
EXERCISE |
SETS & REPS |
CUES |
|
Leg Extension |
4 x 15 – 20 Double rest pause on the final set |
Warm up the quads and getting the blood flowing. Keep the full movement in control, not dropping the weight on the eccentric phase. On rest pauses, choose a weight you can get 15. Take a 5 second rest in the machine, then push out as many reps as you can. Take another rest, and push out more reps to finish.
|
|
Machine Squat |
4 x 6 – 10 |
Moving onto a compound movement that targets the quads. Push through your heels for more muscle recruitment through the full range of movement. When lifting, focus on pushing straight up with your quads.
|
|
Lying Leg Curl |
3 x 10 – 12 |
The first hamstring focused exercise. Make sure your hips and glutes are staying down through the rep. Focus on driving hips down, and lifting knees off the pad to get full hamstring contraction. Explode up through the concentric and control the eccentric without letting the weight stack release at the bottom. This will add extra tension on the hamstrings when they’re stretched. Stop the movement at the bottom to prevent using momentum. |
|
Hack Squat |
5 x 8 – 10 Add a set of dead stops after reaching failure on the 5th set |
Press through your heels and take a slightly wider stance to activate the adductors. Work your way up with weight each set to hit your working sets. On the last set, add a set of dead stops by raising the safety. Come to a full stop at the bottom of each rep, forcing your quads to do all the work to start the movement from the bottom. This rep range is a little lower to focus on building strength back up. Once strength is higher, the reps will increase to 12 – 15 |
|
Banded Leg Press
superset with
Dumbbell Stiff Legged Deadlift |
3 x 10 – 15
3 x 8 – 10 |
Finish the leg workout off by hitting the quads and hamstrings hard with this superset.
Adding bands to the leg press adds more resistance at the top of the movement, forcing you to control the negative and activating more hamstrings and adductors than regular leg press. Fully extend to the top of the movement with a slight hold, but do not lock the knees. This will add the maximum amount of pressure to the legs where the bands are fully stretched.
Follow each set of leg press with stiff leg deadlifts to further stress the hamstrings. Keep your back straight and push your hips back to focus on the eccentric, where the hamstring is stretched and loaded.
|