Destroy. Erase. Improve. Your legs.

Recently had someone ask for me to post about my workouts. And since I'm a leg fiend, I figured I would post about my favorite day of the week: Leg day.

Brandon Lilly. The inspiration for decimation.

My current program is The Cube Method by Brandon Lilly. If you don't know who Brandon Lilly is, get to fuckin' Googlin'. Definitely one of my favorite lifters. He gives it to you straight, doesn't believe in bullshit, and is strong as fuck. So, why wouldn't you follow a program like his? To give you a breakdown of it, it essentially couples powerlifting compound exercises with bodybuilding-style accessory work. So, your big 3 lifts (deadlift, bench, squat) will all be geared towards strength and power. You alternate the style of lift you do on a 3 week rotation. What that means is your first week would be heavy deadlifts, bench for reps, and explosive squats. Week 2 would be explosive deadlift, heavy bench, explosive squats. So on, and so forth. This continues for 9 weeks, then a deload week for recovery before testing new maxes, or competing in a meet. Then, all of your accessory work will be high reps with whatever amount of weight you can handle for 3-4 sets of 10-20 reps. I try to aim for a moderate weight that will let me reach 20 reps for 3 sets, with the last 3-4 reps being pretty excruciating. This gives me a pretty ridiculous pump, and it promotes muscle growth. So, what this program does is make you stronger, but it also makes you look stronger, which isn't a big part of most powerlifting programs.

So, here's the layout of what my day consisted of yesterday:

Squat: 5x2 @ 285
Olympic Squat: 2x1 @ 305
Paused Box Squat: 2x5 @ 250
Front Squat: 3x3 @ 135
Leg Press: 3x15 @ 320
Leg Extension: 3x20 @ 150
Ham Curl: 3x15 @ 150

The difference between a powerlifting squat and Olympic squat is bar and foot placement. A powerlifting squat consists of a wide stance, outside of shoulder width, with angled feet, and a lower bar. Olympic squats consist of a narrower stance (roughly shoulder-width), and a high bar placement. The difference between the two is that Olympic squats work more of the quads and trunk, whereas the powerlifting squat works more of the hips, hamstrings and glutes. Both are effective forms, and will both serve a good purpose in your squat routine.

I recommend anyone to give this leg workout a try if you want some serious pain and pleasure. And if you want to try out the program, check out the digital copy of The Cube Method, and Black Iron Beast's Cube Calculator to get started.

And as always, keep it grim in the gym.

Back in the saddle again

Come on. You know you wanted there to be a picture of Aerosmith with that title.

So, basically, I've sucked at keeping up on this. I've been really busy lately, which most of you may or may not know. After trying to get into the US Army, and being disqualified because of tattoos (because, let's face it, you lose your ability to shoot a gun once you get a tattoo), I've taken the route of the US Air Force, and I've been getting my ducks in a row for that. On top of that, I've been working my dick into the ground, and training hard. Over the past 3-4 weeks, I ran the Smolov Jr. Squat program. It was fucking terrible, in the best way possible. If you want a program that runs you into the ground and leaves you begging for an off day, but at the same time, makes you strong as fuck and want to push through every physical and mental boundary you have, do this program.

It's kind of like that.

Since this program is designed to add weight on to your max in a very short time, I will be doing just that and retesting my squat max this Saturday. Aiming for a 30-40 lb PR. And in finishing that program, I've moved on to The Cube Method by the one and only Brandon Lilly. Being only two days in, I can't totally comment on the progress, but so far I'm loving it. I'm back on a routine that is giving me ample time to build power and strength, but also size. With the past handful of PL programs I've been on (Smolov Jr, Starting Strength, Stronglifts 5x5), I've gotten much stronger, but not a whole lot bigger in terms of definition and size. I've gained a good amount of weight, but I want to get bigger, and that has somewhat stalled lately, though, I did have to get rid of 7 pairs of jeans after Smolov Jr. Looking at the programming alone, I can tell this will be a fun 9 weeks, and I will be hitting some PRs shortly thereafter.

With all of that being said, and now that you're caught up on what's happening in my life, as if you gave a fuck, I'm letting you know that I will be devoting more time to writing on this blog again, as well as doing more activities on the Facebook Page, and Instagram (@LethalForceFitness), so be sure to check those out. Keep hitting those weights and STAY GRIM IN THE GYM.

Oh, and always try to become Hammers McPligue from Harm's Way. Always.