Ongoing Soreness in Quads

[Scott Stevenson]

I've doing really well in the last few months on FT and progressed to Basic Tier 3 but at times hover back to Tier 2 when I'm nearing the end of a blast or have a long week at work.

My training schedule is:

Sat: Upper Load/Lower Pump
Sun: Rest
Mon: Lower Load/Upper Pump
Tues: Rest
Wed: Upper MR
Thurs: Lower MR
Fri: Rest

Over the last two blasts I've been struggling in the leg dept. Not so much with incremental weight or rep increases but in respect of my quads and both patella's being constantly sore and a general feeling tiredness in them. It's a little hard to articulate. It's not the soreness you would feel when coming back from a lay-off and doing multiple sets of Leg Extension to failure, more like the dull soreness and feeling of tiredness you get from long distance running. btw, I'm not having any issues in my calves or Upper Body. I'm happy that my nutrition is in check. Sleep is always an issue as I'm a nightshift worker but I have been making a concerted effort in this dept and am now able to track my sleeping patterns etc.

I posted on the forum a while back where I thought I was doing my Leg Pump Sets incorrectly as I was basically making them out to be all out widow-maker type 15 - 25 rep style sets. I was still doing continuous style reps on these sets but the weight certainly wasn't what I would call a light (for me anyway) pump set. It would class it as more of a 'high rep' working set

So, just to be sure, a "high rep working set" is what you've been doing for quads since you stopped doing the WM's (instead of pump sets)?...

During my last two intensive cruise period's I dropped the Thigh/Quad MR's entirely but coming back into a new blast I was still feeling them.

I'm thinking I'm still using too much total weight (which I do to allow be to reach a true positive failure) on my pump thigh exercises and this combined with my total weekly leg training volume is causing a lack of recovery time?

This is how I foresee some options:

1. Focus on Thigh Exercises using '5's in the Hole' so I'm forced to really back of my working weights to achieve failure. Same with 21's etc

2. Pre-Exhaust sets..... Leg Ext before Thigh Compound Exercises. Again, I will be forced to lower total weight on thigh movement.

3. Drop back to the 3 day 'Family Man Plan' for more rcovery

4. Drop Leg Pump & MR's back to Tier 1 protocol.

5. Keep the same training schedule but don't work to failure on Leg exercises, stop 1 - 2 reps short.


Any feedback would be appreciated.

A few questions:

Are your quads growing and getting stronger (in isolation movements)?

What kind of stretches are you doing for quads?...

What exercises are you doing for quads, esp. the isolation exercises? Knee extensions are notorious for patellofemoral pain (pain "on" / underneath the patella)...

Are you quad dominant in your thighs and / or do you feel you drive moreso with the quads vs. hams / glutes. As and example, some folks (myself) will tend to just grow better hams and glutes doing barbell back squats unless performing them with the quads very much in mind, whereas others naturally squat in a way that produces great quad growth (think Tom Platz and an upright / Oly squat posture).

-S

-S