50's - Killer Leg Workout

 

If you find your leg workouts getting stale then it is time to spice things up. One little routine that I like to do that kills my legs is a little torture program that I call 50's. 50's are a killer leg workout exercise that are executed on a leg press.  As you have probably already guessed, you will be doing 50 reps for each set.

Now to begin with, you will want to chose a weight that is quite a bit less then your normal leg press weight. To give you an example, on normal workout I usually use between 16 and 18 plates on the leg press for about 8 to 10 reps per set (a plate = 45 lbs). When I do 50's I will use around 8 to 10 plates for the exercise. Also, keep in mind that the key to this routine is to save 50's for the end of the leg press workout. Lets use an example where you will do four sets of leg press in your workout. In our routine, we will do two sets with our regular weight and reps and save the last two sets for our shock training (if you never have done 50's before then I would recommend three regular set and save the last set for 50's).


Pay close attention to the pace you use when lifting the weights. The goal is avoid lifting the weight so fast that you end up cheating by using momentum to move the weights up and down the leg press. The key is to keep a steady pace and to slowly lift and press the weight. If done correctly you most likely will not be able to do 50 reps without stopping. Stopping is expected, but it should only be a pause for one to two seconds, any longer then that and your defeating the purpose of 50's. Another trick is to do as many reps as you can without stopping because once you pause, the weight seems to get increasingly heavier with each new rep.

Now there are a few key rules to 50s that will let you know whether or not you executed the movement correctly:
1. If you can do 30 reps without cussing me out then you did not start out heavy enough.
2. By the 40th rep you should be too tired to cuss me out
3. Your legs should feel fuller and more pumped then they ever had before.

I like to do two sets of these guys but if this type of training is foreign to you then I highly recommend you just do one set of 50's. Remember, depending on when you do the leg press exercises in your workout routine, you still have the rest of your leg workout to finish (squats, leg extensions, etc...). Also, 50's should be used to shock the muscle and I only recommend doing them either when your workouts start to get stale or once every 6 weeks.