Name: Playbook - Rob Riches - Legs & Shoulders (Ep 10.4 - Conditioning)
Uploaded: 2021-06-07T18:32:11.717Z
Duration: 45 min
Description: Legs & Shoulders (Ep 10.4 - Conditioning)

Welcome to workout #10 of the Conditioning part of my Lean Muscle Growth Program. Throughout this 2nd weeks section, you'll be performing a lot of circuits, often with a higher rep range to help improve muscular endurance and conditioning.

Keep rest times short, and select a weight that will challenge you towards the total reps shown per set, aiming to increase the weight (or add a few reps) for following sets.

Each exercise is performed once within a circuit with minimal rest between each one. Then repeat the circuit again, this time, trying to challenge yourself with a heavier weight.

You'll also see there is an abdominal circuit included at the end of the program. This can either be performed at the start or end of this program, or performed separately, usually first thing in the morning before eating when your gut is empty.

Perform at 70% your usual resistance and focus on a slower tempo with an emphasis on squeezing and engaging the muscles at the top of the rep. Don't let the weights touch at the bottom of the rep so as to keep tension on the muscles throughout the full exercise.

Start your second set using a weight that pushes you to reach the desired number of reps. For each set that follows, aim to increase the weight by a small amount.

Sit upright with your chest lifted and shoulders pulled back. Your lower back should be firmly pressed into the bench, and knees inline with the pivot point of the machine.

Grip on to the handles, or underside of the seat to anchor you down as you extend at the knee and raise the foot pad up as high as you can while engaging the muscles in the top of your legs. Pause momentarily as you flex them hard, and lower back under control. Perform the first  set with toes extended out, and the last set with toes pulled in towards you.

Leg Extensions

Hold a dumbbell in each hand (grip facing inwards) with arms at full length. Place your (right) foot onto a bench behind you (laces facing down), and step your other leg forwards enough so that as you lunge down (keeping shoulders directly over your hips), both knees bend at 90 degrees.

The added lift from the bench will help you to improve your stability and balance while strengthening your entire lower body.

You do not need to load as much weight when you perform single leg exercises helping to reduce the strain that can get placed on your lower back.

Lower down, holding both dumbbells still at the side of your body without bending at the elbows, and stop just short of your back knee from touching the floor.

Raise yourself back upright by driving up through your front leg (no need to lock out both legs), and flex the legs and glutes hard at the top.

Perform all reps on one leg, then switch over and repeat them on the other leg.

Bench Lunges

Box Jumps are great for explosive power, and uses multiple muscles to launch you up from the floor. Once comfortable with the movement, make sure you're exploding up onto the box with maximum power.

Squat down behind the box with you arms extended behind you, and ready to thrust yourself upwards. Spring up explosively, pushing hard through your feet, and swinging your arms forwards and up to help generate force as you leap onto the box.

Land softly by bending your knees, and landing on the balls of your feet (not flat footed). Stand upright with you hips pushed forwards to finish off the rep, then step down one foot at a time from the box, and set yourself up again for the jump.

The box jump is a plyometric move that strengthens your main lower-body muscles – glutes, quads, calves and hamstrings. Box jumps will help make you faster, more powerful and springier than ever, and if you do them for more than a few seconds, they'll raise your heart rate and burn calories.

Box Jumps

Stand next to a wall or vertical pole (for support) and lean slightly back at the waist, and place a weighted plate on your chest, holding it steady with your outer arm.

Start to bend your knees and lower yourself to the floor, allowing your knees to track forwards over your toes (this is to a greater extent than when you perform a regular squat). Allow your heels to lift off the floor so that you're pivoting more on the balls of your feet, with your chest and shoulders more or less directly over your heels.

Continue to lower yourself down until your knees are approximately 90 degrees bent. Briefly pause, then drive yourself back upright by engaging the muscles in the front of your legs (Quads), and bringing the heels back on to the floor. Squeeze the squads hard at the top of the rep, then repeat.

You may want to start this exercise without the use of weight to first master the movement, then build up to adding extra resistance.

Weighted Sissy squat

Stand with your feet shoulder-width part, and with a barbell in front of you, bend down to pick it up using an overhand grip just outside the width of your foot position. Stand upright with chest lifted and shoulders pulled back.

From here, keep your knees soft and lower the bar down your body to just below your knees. Your back should remain straight, and your hips are pushed back, hinging at the waist to allow you to lower the bar.

You shouldn't be squatting down with the bar, as the hinge at the hips will allow you to lower the bar. The knees are just short of lock out to allow you to feel the tension in the hamstrings.

Pause at the bottom of the rep, then focus on engaging your hamstring and glute muscles to pull yourself all the way back upright.

Stiff Legged Deadlift

Lay on the floor with your arms at your side (palms facing upwards so you're less likely to cheat by pushing your hands down during the movement), and knees bent with your feet flat on the floor as close to you glutes as you can.

Raise your right leg up (keeping your knee bent), so your heel is aligned with your left knee. Keeping your abs pulled in tight, push down on the ball of your left foot and drive your hips upwards, ending with a straight line from your knee, through your hips and to the shoulders. Hold this position for a split second as you squeeze the muscles in your glutes and hamstring.

Lower back down under control until you feel your glutes make contact with the floor, then drive back up again to the top of the rep.

Perform all reps on one leg before switching over to the other side. (You can also place a smash ball or weight on your hips to increase the resistance).

Single Leg Bench Hip Bridge

Sit upright with your lower back pressed into the back of a bench set at, or close to, a 90-degree angle.

With a dumbbell in each hand, raised up to shoulder height with palms facing inwards towards you, and elbows tucked in directly below your wrists. You should have a firm grip with knuckles pointing straight up.

Press the dumbbells directly up over your head, rotating your  grip outwards to the palms face forwards at the top, without fully locking out the arms, and without allowing the dumbbells touch each other over your head.

Flex your shoulders hard in this position, then lower the weights back to the starting position at a slightly slower rate, while reversing the movement, ending with your grip facing back towards you.

On set 2, keep hands facing neutral for entire set, and set 3, perform drop set by 33% less weight after failure.

This exercises focuses primarily on two portions of the shoulder (the front and side deltoid heads).

Seated Arnold Press

Set a cable pulley to the lowest position and attach a short bar. Standing with your back to the cable machine, reach down take hold of the bar with a shoulder-width, overhand grip, so that the cable is between your legs.

Keeping your back straight, and shoulders pulled back, raise the bar upwards in front of you, keeping your arms straight but with a slight bend at the elbows. 

Pause momentarily at the top of the rep, when your arms are parallel to the floor, and slowly lower back down, stopping just before your hands touch your thighs. 

It's important that your arms are kept straight, and not to use a heavy weight, as this exercise targets the front deltoids of the shoulder, and should be kept strict and controlled at all times.

Cable Upright Row

Stand upright with feet shoulder-width apart and your shoulders pulled back with chest lifted up. You can either have a slight bent at the knee with your hips slightly back, or have one leg back behind you with the heel raised (to help stabilize you during the exercise).

Keep a slight bend at the elbow at all times and raise the dumbbells out to the side of you, leading with the elbows up to shoulder height.

Your upper arms should remain within the same plane as your body, with your forearms slightly forwards. At the top of the rep, your shoulders, elbow, and wrists should all be at the same height. Lower the arms back down under control without leaning forwards at the waist.

The Lateral Raise primarily works the lateral deltoid, which is the middle portion of the deltoid muscle. The anterior (front) deltoid, posterior (back) deltoid, upper trap, supraspinatus (a rotator cuff muscle) and serratus anterior (muscles along your ribs under your armpit) also contribute to the movement.

Standing Lateral Dumbbell Raises

Set a bench to an incline of around 45-60 degrees and lay forward facing  down on it, with your head and shoulders just above the top of it (Your legs may be straight behind you as though you're resting against the bench and not quite sat on it).

Holding a dumbbell in each hand, allow your arms to hang at your sides with your grip turned inwards (so both hands are facing each other).

Retract your shoulder blades and raise your arms out to the side (maintaining the same "Hammer" Grip). Your elbows should be slightly bent, and the focus is on driving the back of the upper arm up to the same height as your shoulders, focusing on the squeezing the rear deltoid at the back of the shoulders.

Pause momentarily at the top, then lower the arms back down at a controlled and steady speed.

This exercise allows you to really isolate and focus on the read deltoid head located to the rear of the shoulders.

Incline Bench Rear Delt Raise

This Abdominal circuit will focus on the upper and lower region of the abs, as well as the obliques (the side muscles), and is ideal for beginners just starting out. 

Perform a set of the first exercise, then immediately perform one of the second and third exercise without rest. You can rest for up to 60 seconds after completing all exercises (that's one round) before starting the next round.

Remember to actively engage your abdominals during each exercise, and  focus on your breathing pattern so that you really feel your abs working and contracting on each and every rep.

Attach a rope to a high cable pulley and kneel a few feet back from it holding on to the rope your arms bent a 90-degree angle at the side of your head.

Keeping your arms fixed in this position, exhale and contract the abdominals and you drive your elbows down towards your knees. You should only be moving them a few inches to be able to fully engage your abs.

Pause momentarily at the bottom of the rep to fully flex your abs hard, and then return back to the starting position as you take a breath in through your nose.

You'll find you can manage quite a lot of weight with this exercise, providing your form is good. Match your exhale with the crunch movement and you'll really be able to feel the abdominals flex hard at the end of the rep.

This I've found is one of the most effective exercises for developing six pack abs, especially the upper region.

High Cable Crunch

Find a pole or chin up bar that ideally allows you to hang from it without your feet touching the floor (although this can also be performed keeping your knees slightly bent if they do).

Using an overhand grip about 1.5x shoulder width, arms straight with shoulders pulled back, engage your abs and raise your legs up towards your chest, bending at the knee to keep them as close to your body as possible. 

As you raise the knees up past your waist, you should be able to flex the lower abs hard and start to curl the hips up and forwards (This is the whole point of this exercise - to target and engage the lower abs).

Try to pause momentarily at the top of the rep before controlling the legs back to the starting position where they are fully extended below you. 

Continue to  engage the abs and exhale on every rep.

Hanging Knee Lifts

Using a decline bench to lock your feet in, lean back far enough until you feel your abs are fully engaged. Holding a medicine/slam ball in your hands, arms bent so as it's about 6- inches from your chest , rotate it over to the left of you, then take it over to the right of you and repeat

Engage the abs and exhale as you rotate only the upper body, keeping the hips firmly fixed and pushed down into the bench.

Think of your elbows following an arc-like trajectory from the left and right of you. You should be exhaling deeply, while contracting and engaging the abs on every rep.

This will primarily work the side obliques of the abdominal area.

Decline Med Ball Rotations

Abs Circuit - Stage 12

Legs & Shoulders (Ep 10.4 - Conditioning)

It was very clear instructions and the video was very helpful

MilosLuffy

Donald Lozon

Back & Forearms (Ep 1.1 - Strength)

I felt like it had some repeating shoulder exercise, but overall good

Liked the Ab workout in the end 

Especially the hanging Ab- great for chest stretch

Thomas Anthony 

Richard

Shoulders & Chest (Ep 1.3 - Strength)

I enjoyed this workout I did not have access to dumbbells for my level so I swapped out the calf dumbbell lifts for the hip abduction. Did not have access to standing calf raises machine so swapped for seated calf raises machine. Over all good directions.

Sunil Deep

Adam

Quads & Calves (Ep 1.2 - Strength)

Very challenging and clear directions. The videos were helpful.

Andrés Giordano

Traps & Hamstrings (Ep 1.4 - Strength)

Matt

Biceps & Triceps (Ep 1.5 - Strength)

Francisco

Bünyamin

Cardio (Rest Day - Week 1)

Victor

Amadou Sow

Back & Forearms (Ep 2.1 Strength)

I could not get a smith machine so I opted for walking lunges instead if you run into the same problem I recommend walking lunges or in place lunges using dumbbells or weighted straight bar

Quads & Calves (Ep 2.2 - Strength)

The video was incorrect for the chest press first exercise

It was great. The workout video for the smith machine shoulder press is the wrong one though. It’s a leg press video. Other than that I love it

Ryan Baker

Shoulders & Chest (Ep 2.3 - Strength)

I felt like it did not include enough trap exercises.

Legs & Shoulders (Ep 10.4 - Conditioning)

More workouts from Rob Riches