This is Lawrence Ballenger, Team Bodybuilding.com,

a Team Dymatize athlete.

Today, we're here to show you guys a great leg workout that

really helps to promote growth in your quads

or hamstrings and your glutes,

and the great thing about this workout is that you

can use this pre-contest or any time throughout the year

to really help gain size and definition in your thighs.

This workout is more focused on your actual hamstring,

calves and glutes, more than just your quads.

'Cause usually when you do any other leg workout,

you're mostly focusing on your quads and you kind of leave

your whole back side alone.

So this is a great way to actually incorporate

your hamstring and glutes

so you can actually make your squats stronger,

your lunges stronger,

and get a more developed physique.

The great thing about all this exercise is we'll be

ranging from supersets to pre-exhausting to heavy weights

so you'll be able to incorporate almost every different type

of training inside this workout.

So it'll be really hard, really strenuous,

and it should be a great time for you.

Today's workout is designed for anybody from the beginners

all the way to the advanced level,

people that have been working out for years.

This workout's really great just because you add the weight

and incorporate your rest time depending on how long

you actually been working out.

If you're a beginner, you might need a little bit more rest time

so 60 seconds is great but if you're a expert,

you up the weight, cut the break time down to 45 seconds

and then that'll help you pre-fatigue your muscles

and really get your blood flowing.

You'll really get the growth that you're looking for.

So we're gonna get started with a warm-up.

It's really, really simple.

We're gonna start with the Stairmaster today,

just something a little bit different.

You can start on Treadmill or Elliptical,

whatever works for you.

We want to go at a slow to a moderate pace

and just want to get your blood flowing.

You really want to focus on squeezing your glutes,

squeezing your hamstrings and really contracting those because

that's--a lot of the focus is gonna be on your glutes

and hamstrings on today's workout.

So we'll be doing about 10 or 12 minutes of cardio

and let's just get you warmed up

and ready to go into your leg workout.

The reason I like doing cardio before all my leg workouts is

'cause odds are you were sitting down for most of the day

if you were at work and then you work out later,

or if you woke up in the morning,

you were sleeping all night,

your blood's not really flowing throughout your body.

You will be lifting so heavy that you actually need your body

to be 100% warmed up and focused and blood

actually in the muscle groups that you're targeting.

Now we want to get started and start on the leg extensions.

We're gonna do 4 sets of 20 reps.

What you want to do is pick a weight

you can do about 25 reps of.

No more than 25 'cause you're gonna do full reps

and partial reps.

So you sit down, you get a good seat,

keep your back flat against the bench

and you want to come up to a full extension.

Slowly come down.

You're really focusing on the contraction of the muscle

and really focusing on the detail.

So we get our ten reps in,

ten full reps and ten partial reps.

So then slowly let it down, halfway,

and then back up.

Squeeze, contract the muscle, back down.

Keep it going.

You just want to make sure you're fully contracting

the muscle each and every time.

Hold the contraction just for a slight second at the top and

really put emphasis on your quads and your outer swoop.

And that's complete so that's one set.

We're gonna do four more--or three more sets

and keep it rolling.

Leg extensions.

The way we're doing 'em is we go nice and slow so you're actually

pre-exhausting your smaller muscle groups.

So by pre-exhausting on leg extensions,

you're actually able to use more of your hamstrings and glutes

throughout your squats so when you do do heavy squats again,

without pre-exhausting,

your strength just goes through the roof.

Now the reason I do full reps and then go to partials,

the full reps are to obviously get a good stretch

and a full length of motion

throughout the workout and then the partials

are really the finishing touches.

Just because you're not going all the way down so your muscles

don't get a full chance to relax,

the weight stays on the muscle group

and then you're contracting it right back,

so you never get a break.

So that was the final set of leg extensions.

Now we're gonna go over to our heavy sets with squats

and that's gonna be our heavy compound movement.

We're gonna start with a low weight,

work our way up until our heavy sets

of four sets of eight to ten.

You want to do about three sets of warm-up sets,

progressively getting heavier

so we're just stretching the movement,

work our quads, work our hamstrings and glutes so

we're really ready for the three working sets of eight reps.

So we're gonna start off.

I'm gonna start off light with 135 and progressively go up.

You don't have to start there.

Start wherever you're comfortable at and slowly work

up to what's a heavy set of eight for you,

as you should be able to get more than ten on your first set,

but no less than eight on your last set.

So find a weight that's very comfortable for you.

We rack it, wait about 45 seconds

and then we're gonna go,

increase the weight and do another set.

The reason we start with squats kind of,

and it's not really the first exercise but it's our first

real heavy exercise, is to incorporate

and get out all your strength

and really get your testosterone going,

get your energy levels going and really just push

the hardest part of the workout

out the way while you have the most energy possible.

And with heavy squats, you really fatigue

every other muscle group.

It really incorporates your glutes,

your hamstrings, your quads, your calves.

It even incorporates your back to keep you steady.

As we're getting progressively heavier,

I like to personally put on a belt.

It really saves my core and my lower back from getting too much

blood into it or saving me from actually injuring myself if you

wiggle a little bit on your squats 'cause you're working so

hard to push up with the heaviest weight possible.

I also use my knee wraps.

It saves my knees and my joints

so I'm actually able to work out harder.

So this is our first real working set.

I want to make sure that you guys really get in

a mental mind state, take a second, gather yourself.

You want to think about just getting down to proper form

and bursting out as fast as possible.

When you start lifting heavy, you always want to get into

a mental zone and a mental planning state,

'cause if you don't really hype yourself up and get excited

and get ready for a lift,

sometime you get too nervous about the actual weight

that you can't finish off your reps.

So that was set one.

As you see, I'm drained.

You get a few quick seconds' break and then on to set two.

[music]

So now, we're moving into single-leg leg press and then

we're gonna go over to standing calf raises.

There's no warm-up sets in this 'cause you're already warmed up

from your squats and everything else that you did prior to this.

So we're gonna get started.

We're gonna do ten on your right leg,

then follow immediately by ten on your left leg.

And then immediately right after that,

there's 20 double legs.

You want to keep your feet close together and high on the pads so

you're really working your hamstrings and your glutes

and your outer swoop and you're really focusing

on the contraction.

So you want to make sure you put your foot

in the middle of the pad,

keep your knees slightly pointed out and toes

slightly pointed out as well.

Push up, unlock, then you come down,

and back up.

Nobody ever works just one leg throughout

really a leg workout ever.

So this actually stops that dominant leg from actually

becoming bigger or stronger and you don't have a weak side.

And also the reason we put our feet in the middle

and a little bit higher

'cause you actually work your hamstring and glutes

more and then you're able to really just isolate that one leg

and not get any extra help in.

Then you go hit your 20 doubles.

Going close in works your hamstrings and your outer quads

because when you usually do squats,

your feet are so wide that you're working your inner quad

and your hip abductor so you want to put your feet in and

then you're just working slowly the outside of your quads

and your hamstrings and glutes.

I like going higher reps in a lot of my workouts

when I'm looking for more growth.

It really helps me focus on actually getting the blood flow

into the muscles and opposed to doing what I really like doing

is really heavy lifting.

I didn't really see any growth from that,

of doing sets five to six, but that does let you get

a lot stronger over time.

So now I'm pretty tired.

Your legs should be pretty pumped.

So now we're gonna move over to our Smith Machines.

We're gonna superset a Smith Machine squat

with standing calf raises

but I do my Smith Machine squats a little bit differently.

So let's go over here and let me show you guys

what we're gonna do.

What we're gonna do is a drop set and we're gonna do

three drop sets.

So it's gonna be 7, 7, 7; 21 total,

so 7 with 315, 7 with 225, 7 with 135.

Then immediately after that, we're going to go

to our standing calf raises.

Now with our standing calf raises,

we're gonna do three different angles.

We're gonna do out, normal, and in.

I do my Smith Machine slightly different than everybody else.

It's not just a normal squat.

So you get underneath like normal.

It's not just sitting straight on your traps;

it's slightly on your lower back.

So I'm gonna walk it forward,

have our feet shoulder width apart

or just outside of shoulder width,

toes pointed out, chest up, chin up as well.

We're going to drop it down, keeping your back straight.

That's a really big focus on this one.

The purpose of the Smith Machine squats is to fail.

You want to make sure that at the last drop set that

you're just totally fatigued and you're tired.

If you're not really tired, go up a little bit in weight,