Newly anointed IFBB Professional and social media megastar, Sam Sulek is benefiting from his low season by going critically heavy along with his low season leg day exercises, however he’s additionally studying about management, as he defined in a current YouTube vide0.
“I’m gonna wreck hamstrings with as little mercy as attainable,” mentioned Sulek, as he began his health club session. However whereas there’s little question the 23-year-old bodybuilder likes to tax himself as a lot as attainable within the weight room, he’s additionally studying extra about the right way to activate his muscle tissues, usually tweaking the tempo for optimum success.
Sam Sulek’s Off-Season Leg Exercise
Mendacity Hamstring Curls — 4 Units x 10-12 Reps
Seated Single Leg Extensions — 2-3 Units x 12-15 Reps (to failure)
Seated Single Leg Extensions — 3 Units x 5 Reps (sluggish and managed)
Again Squat — 1 Units x 10 Reps (with most attainable weight)
Leg Press — 3 Units x 12-15 Reps (to failure) (Optionally available superset with Leg Extensions)
Exercise Breakdown
Starting with mendacity hamstring curls, it’s clear to see from this exercise that Sulek likes to go critically heavy along with his lifts, and he tries to finish as many reps as attainable, usually growing his pace to attempt to beat the exhaustion that’s creeping into his muscle tissues. However you’d be mistaken should you thought that Sulek merely throws his weight round. He describes his first set of leg extensions as being “within the center,” which means that he desires to go heavy, however not too heavy, in order that he can maintain on the high of the motion and make a sluggish launch for time below stress, ending with a deep stretch.
“By way of quad activation, per pound of weight (utilized), that is the place it’s at,” says Sulek of the seated leg extension. “The leg extension, in comparison with some other quad motion, it’s all squeeze,” he defined. After he completes his preliminary units to failure, Sulek provides some further lighter units. “Now, I see way more worth in a sluggish, lighter set,” he shares, “the place I maintain the squeezing place, after which slowly return to the stretch.”
Sulek says {that a} sluggish adverse motion makes him really feel like he’s activating muscle fibers that will have been spared on these quicker, heavier lifts. Nonetheless, the massive man can’t resist quantity, so his type begins to wane as he chases extra reps, however this solely supercharges the hypotrophy course of additional, which means he’s actually crushing his quads for large muscle constructing outcomes. Turning to again squats, Sulek says he works with the heaviest attainable weight that he can carry out ten reps with (for him, which means 4 plates on both aspect).
Earlier than ending on the leg press, Sulek returned to the only leg extensions to pre-exhaust his muscle tissues between every set, making for an epic superset. You would possibly need to take into account this superset too, should you really feel that you’re not getting sufficient activation from the leg press, though this possibly a greater plan for extra superior lifters. In case you are not used to such intense periods, you might be higher served by increase slowly to this epic regime, or simply skip straight to the leg press. As you’ll anticipate, Sulek characteristically provides it his all on the leg press to conclude his exercise, repping to failure as soon as once more. “Yeah, that was good,” he confirms.