It feels like so little!
 

It's my 2nd week now and I'm combining CKD with BFL. As a result of the carbup I felt quite powerful.
I had to up the weights from what I had planned, but though I felt half of the exercises where quite strenuous, I thought that I could have done more...
I didn't wait very long between the sets, as I wasn't tired enough.. so was finished in 40 minutes.

I must add that I'm a long-distance cyclist, so have quite strong legs, yet, I'm still suffering from a heel injury (skipping rope) so I was a bit careful about doing e.g. squats and do leg press instead.

Now I'm wondering.. I don't want to add too much weight to my exercises at once but build up gradually. Could I add 1 or 2 exercises to the lower body work out?

Or, change them? I am doing leg press and leg extension for quads, but I guess that a squat and leg extension would be more intensive?

For hamstrings I am now using the Romanian deadlift (to save my back, as the stiff-legged DL gave problems). I have tried to keep good form, and succeeded in sofrar that I wasn't hurting in my back, but my hams didn't hurt either..

Calves were OK, they aren't very strong.. and I definitely put enough stress on the abs.. somehow I turn into a masochist when I'm doing these exercises.. perhaps also because i'm not too afraid of hurting them..

I was wondering whether to add an isolation exercise for my eh, gluteus.. and inner thighs. Most women love to have strong thighs and do the abductor/adductor machine exercises as well as the standing gluteus..

What's your thought on this?

Re: It feels like so little!
 

The goal of your workout is to get your muscles to the point of fatigue (be it positive or negative failure, or just 'fatigue') in the shortest amount of time using proper form. Contrary to what most gym rats think, it's not about how many plates you can put on the barbell or how long you can workout. Forty minutes is a good amount of time for a workout; anything over an hour is counter productive to building muscle. How do you feel after your workout? Any DOMS?

IMHO, abductor/adductor machine exercises are excessive and unnecessary if you're also doing squats, lunges and dead lifts. You can hit everything you need to hit with those 3 compound exercises. Being that you cannot safely do squats right now you might benefit from the machines.

Nat

Re: Re: It feels like so little!
 

No, I'm not doing lunges yet.. I was looking into www.exrx.net for ideas and decided to add the gluteus, and more specifically the lunge and the step-up. I have done both exercises a couple of months ago as a part of physical therapy. Then I also had to do the squat and a good morning. I am now finally learning which exercise hits which muscle.
Abductor/adductor exercises now seem pretty redundant to me as well, esp. given that the abductor (?) muscle is tiny (but very long).
As soon as I feel a bit more confident I will try to do a squat rather than the leg press.. I could still keep the leg extension though, as the leg press is very similar in movement to the squat, isn't it?

I'm still puzzled where the good morning was used for.. it's when you have a (light) barbell in your neck and bow forwards.. hey, I felt it in my hamstrings, now I remember, is that true?