Ongoing Soreness in Quads

[BGD]

Scott,

Thanks for your advice, I appreciate it!!

I'm not sure how your thigh pump sets differ from those for other muscle groups. Do you just train harder?...

I think I do end up training harder on my leg pump sets purely because of the total load I'm still using. Probably the best analogy I can think of is that it appears I've turned what is supposed to be a Leg Pump day into a still very heavy - Higher Rep Leg day

There should be continuous tension during the entire set, so no stopping. A widow maker is intentionally discontinuous so you can get as many reps as possible without resting by putting the load down.

In that case my reference to doing 'Windowmaker' sets is incorrect....but they feel like they are! My reps are continuous, deep and as full range as possible without locking out or stopping at all until reaching failure.

OK, so if you're going to do sort of mid-Tier version like this (only one isolation exercise), I'd make that isolation exercise a ham exercise, not a quad one (at least for the time being).

Got it!

Lunges really can't be used for pump sets b/c you can don't continuous reps when taking steps.

Dead right, I'll make the change!

You're doing something different in the execution, I think, even when doing the reps continuously, but the main thing I'm seeing is doing discontinuous reps, which can be a much tougher way of doing these.

As mentioned above, my reps are discontinuous but I think my overall loading on leg exercises is probably too heavy. Again, purely because I am trying to achieve failure within the15 - 25 rep range so I think to counter this I really need to decrease the weight's I use on leg movements and increase my reps to 30 - 50 to failure?

This is the key thing I would advise against - if an exercise is causing pain, right form the get go, don't do it. Find another one and if they all cause pain, find a treatment (which you could / should do anyway).

I've avoided what I feel is certain overuse injuries continuously for years upon years by just using some common sense so to speak and self-restraint and NOT done exercises that were exacerbating / causing / flaring up arthritis, tendonitis, etc. /quote]

I guess I've been a little hesitant to drop both Squats and Smith Squats because they have always been staple exercises in my routines and I've had pretty good success with them. That said, when I did recently stall on them and as in the FT book ' when you stall, drop and select another exercise' has made the choice a no-brainer.



[quote='Scott Stevenson' pid='16665' dateline='1512779203']

I can't diagnose you, but this looks like patellar tendonitis and what I had for a while a few years back (top of the thigh issue). #2 was from my belt catching / driving into my thighs at the bottom of squatting movements. I moved my belt up my waist and it was fixed. /quote]


I always wear a belt on by lower body exercises so I'll see if this might be the cause! - Thanks



[quote='Scott Stevenson' pid='16665' dateline='1512779203']

Do you stretches after training the muscle group you're stretching. This will create a metabolic stress effect you're not getting from doing them after the muscle is recovered, whereas doing the stretches when "cold" means the connective tissue is less pliable (lower temperature) so you've got less potential to increase flexibility (theoretically), but you'll be stretching more along the longitudinal axis of the muscle (series elastic component) and less perpendicular to this axis (under stretch b/c of the edema d/t the pump you've just causes), which would hypothetically stretch the muscle to allow for greater volume. (This 2nd part is a bit iffy, but if you get greater range of motion on the stretch, the when cold, this will pull MORE on the patellar tendon, which isn't happy right now, whereas there probably is no true need for improving flexibility so the focus here should be on metabolic stress.)

If you do an occlusion stretch (without trying to stretch too much but rather focusing on the effort in creating occlusion), you'll get more stimulus from your quads.

STILL - if the stretching causes pain (when warm or cold), i'd NOT try to force a stretch at all.

Stretching doesn't really cause too much pain. I will certainly change things up and ensure I now stretch right after working each body part instead of leaving it until the end of my workout.

[quote='Scott Stevenson' pid='16665' dateline='1512779203']

I'd drop the lunges and split squats (if you're alternating legs as with a lunge) for now and stick with things like leg extension, sissy squat, somersault squats and smith sissy hack squats.

Done!