Quadzzz Workout: Back at the Gym!

So yesterday morning I hit the gym since I haven't been in a couple months. I've been doing most of my workouts at home with lighter weights/higher reps because I wanted to give both my foot and back time to heal. Injuries are never fun! Well, I was itching to get back especially for leg days because that is the day especially where I can go super, super heavy. I still have some PR's to hit this year as part of my fitness goals so I need to get caught up! 

I'm happy to say that my back feels 100% normal today even after yesterday's brutal leg day so I'm going to take that as a good sign! Before even if I would try to squat or do the leg press, my lower back would instantly be in pain. I've taken a good 3 months off heavy lifting, and that time spent was definitely worth it. 

Here's the workout that I did yesterday! 

I tried out this quad workout from Erin Dimond who I follow on Instagram. She posts so many videos and workout ideas that I'm constantly trying out new ones thanks to her! These leg extensions were KILLER but I also saved them for last on purpose, and my legs were already fried from doing drop sets on squats. I guess I was thinking that walking was optional for the next few days? Haha! 

So I had gotten some questions asking to explain drop sets and basically what happens is you reach failure with a certain set of weight, and then decrease down a certain amount of weight and continue. It might sound easier but it's not! One of the main goals of this method is to increase muscle mass because by dropping the weight and continuing on, you're recruiting more of those muscle fibers. You have reached failure with the heaviest weight and can't do another rep, but when you drop to a level below that weight (moderately heavy) you're able to keep going. Overall, the big picture is to allow you to keep going past failure from a higher weight by decreasing it to a lower weight level. That way you're able to reach a deeper muscle level, and effectively grow that muscle more. 

This is how I did my drop set for squats: 

x6 heaviest weight

x8 moderately heavy weight

x10 medium weight 

x15 lowest weight

x10 bar only, pulse at the bottom

In terms of finding your weight levels, that is all relative to each person! It took me awhile in the beginning to play around with finding the right level for me. Just make sure you're reaching failure (i.e. you can't do another rep even if your life depended on it) for each weight level. For my drop sets, I usually do a decrease of about 15-20% but again just find out what works for you! 

Hope that explains it!