Lower Body Training Under a Time Crunch

Dan Green is a MONSTER

Sometimes there's no way around it, you just don't have time to get everything done in the gym that you want to do.  Today was one of those days.  A good friend of mine was in town for only one more day so I had to see her, had to become once again gainfully employed, and had family things to do, so my time was limited.  Basically, I had to change the workout I had planned to do, but I still needed to get in a kickass lift.  Remember, when you're short on time, get your core lift done, it's the most important part of your lift and the reason you're there in the first place.  Then, when choosing your assistance exercises, choose lifts that give you the best training economy.  That is, the lifts that work the most muscle with the most weight for the most reps in the shortest amount of time.  When you're on a time crunch, you don't want to focus on isolation exercises that are going to take up time and only work one muscle group at a time.  

Heavy Olympic Squats

Right now in my training I'm experimenting with a number of different assistance exercises to build muscle and strength in my legs, because as my training partners and I agree, our legs are small and weak as shit coming out of football season.  So, with that in mind, after my core lift of speed deadlifts and the assistance exercise of pause squats which are staples of my dynamic effort lower body lifts during this cylce, I added in a couple classic bodybuilding exercises to add some mass and strength to my legs.  Instead of performing barbell step ups, which is a great single leg exercise, I decided that because I was short on time, I would use heavy leg press and Olympic style closed-stance squats as accessory work.  This workout was brutal, and my quads were killing me throughout.  With all my focus on the posterior train, I sometimes neglect my quads which I recently recognized, which is exactly what accessory training is all about.  This is a great workout for building a shit ton of muscle with very little time.  Crank it out and see if you can even stumble out of the gym after!

Foam Rolling

General Warmup

Dynamic Warmup

Bodyweight Squats

Band Good Mornings

Band Lateral Walks

Power

Broad Jumps--6x2

Speed

Deadlifts--8x2 at 65% of estimated 1RM from first month with no more than 30 seconds rest

*300 lbs for 8x2 with 30 seconds rest

Assistance

Pause Squats--6x3 at 55% of estimated 1RM

*195 lbs for 6x3 with 45 seconds rest in between

Pausing in the hole builds strength
in the stabilizer muscles of the squat

Supplemental Lift

Leg Press--50 total reps

*8 total 45 lb plates for 20, 8 total 45 lb plates + 2 25 lb plates for 2 sets of 15

Quad Work

Heel-Elevated Closed-Stance Squats--65% of back squat estimated 1RM for 3x8

*235 lbs for 3x8

Finisher

Heavy Lat Pulldowns--8

Band Good Mornings--15

**Finished with ab work later on in the day