Quad Training with Calisthenics: A Guide to Lower Body Pressing

[raykay]

@confusedfather111 Yes to the SRDLs. Holding a band with the RDL would add accomodating resistance to make the top of the exrercise not too easy.

 

[richardsamuel69]

@raykay As obviously excellent as this exercise is, for those of you who have weights available, they will always supersede calisthenics in strength and size. If you’re training for hypertrophy, your leg day should be in the gym. There is reason to believe that sprinting (and I mean heavy, hardcore sprints) can grow your legs as well.

 

[raykay]

@richardsamuel69 I agree with both of these statements. I personally train my legs pretty extensively with heavy kettlebells in addition to my calisthenics work.

I just hoped to demonstrate that the gap between weights and calisthenics is not as large as people tend to believe. The existing resources were scarce and of low-quality.

In regards to explosive leg work, I'm eventually going to release a post on explosive training in general. I'm still in the research and experimentation stage of that, as I frankly need to gain more knowledge and experience with that type of training before I make a statement about it.

 

[richardsamuel69]

@raykay Fantastic. Super glad to see somebody going out and doing the work to find out what works and what doesn’t.

 

[allforchrist316]

@raykay Why is a 90 second rest between sets important? Usually if I'm doing like say 5 sets of 10 pullups or something (or I guess squats for this example), I'll just leave like an hour between each set. Am I missing out on something by doing this? I was always under the impression that you're moving the same amount of weight regardless.

 

[quedee]

@allforchrist316 Energy systems and adapting to load in the set time. If your only goal is purely improving skill and strength (power if done explosively at a low enough percentage of one rep max) then you have the potential to get better quality sets doing it your way. However, if you care about capacity to do work, and other secondary adaptions then resting matters more. If you're attempting to grow muscle (hypertrophy) then one hour rests would be counterproductive (probably - the three ways to induce hypetrophy are mechanical tension, muscle damage, or metabolic stress. The training stimulus should induce the adaption and taking 5 plus hours to train would mean you would have to train harder in each set (you are losing metabolic stress by resting so much and probably muscle damage - so relying solely on mechanical tension).

At the end of the day train for the adoption you want.

 

[allforchrist316]

@quedee Interesting info - thanks! I mostly train for strength, but good to know the correct way to work if I want to focus on hypertrophy!

 

[raykay]

@quedee This covers it quite well. Being able to do multiple long sets with short rest is an indication of adequate muscular endurance in the legs, and will also induce some hypertrophy. I think these are both very important qualities to develop as a beginner.

It also sets a high bar for technical proficiency, so that people are not going to skip to the next harder exercise before their body (especially their connective tissue) has had time to adapt.

 

[deborah123]

@allforchrist316

Why is a 90 second rest between sets important? Usually if I'm doing like say 5 sets of 10 pullups or something (or I guess squats for this example), I'll just leave like an hour between each set. Am I missing out on something by doing this? I was always under the impression that you're moving the same amount of weight regardless.

90s is minimum between PAIRS of exercises. In other words, if you are alternating between 2 different exercises that do not use the same body part. Example: squats and pushups.

3 minutes is generally required for 99% ATP refill rate in muscles, so if you go too early you are reducing the amount of reps you can do in a set which means decreased quality of sets and thus less strength and hypertrophy stimulus.

After 3-5 minutes you're generally mostly recovered and taking an hour does not provide such a big bump in quality that it's way better. Also, you have to warm up again usually which takes time. With some really heavy advanced lifts like 600+ lbs deadlift and squats you can find some athletes resting upwards of 7-10+ minutes as the nervous system recovery becomes more of a limiting factor than muscles.

 

[godschild4ever1989]

@allforchrist316 I think the implication is minimum 90 seconds. I've read repeatedly that short rest times turn strength exercises into more of a cardio workout, although I can't comment on the accuracy of that (it makes sense to me though).

Personally I do something similar, and it works great for me. For push ups/pull ups I usually wait 5-10 minutes between sets as I find them taxing for your whole body.

 

[mercy1]

@raykay I skip leg day

 

[queendream]

@mercy1 Username uncheck

 

[vnct0000]

@raykay I don’t see how a lot of these exercises like the pistol squat can be used with a resistance band.

 

[raykay]

@vnct0000 That is why I recommend the resistance band platform (foot plate) as it gives you more versatility with how you anchor the band. If you don't have a platform you can just attach the band like it is demonstrated in this video.