HRT: Animal Hellraiser Trainer – Hell Workout 2, Quads & Hamstrings

You made it through Hell Session I, but today is Hell Session II, where we hammer quads and hams. My victim is Mike "Wicked" Van Wyck. We'll see if he can handle it.

Leg day in HRT is by far the most brutal routine of the series. So we need to prevent injuries by thoroughly warming up. That way we'll be ready to go.

Predominately focuses on the vastus medialis. By placing the feet at a wider stance, we can also incorporate some of the adductor along with the glutes. Have your partner or partners put as much pressure as you can handle on the weight for the Hellcentrics.

As with many movements, you have a tremendous amount of power at the start of the position, so your partner(s) should be working as hard if not harder than you in the beginning.

As the weight descends, your partner needs to lighten up as you enter the weaker portion of the movement near the end of the lift.

Let's move into the outer sweep of the quad by working the vastus lateralis primarily. Keep the feet low on the platform and about shoulder width apart so the emphasis is on the quads and not as much on the glutes.

Again, put your partner(s) to work on this heavy movement as your legs can handle a heavy load.

Most seasoned bodybuilders will borrow a fellow gym rat to assist their partner in applying more pressure, especially at the top of the movement where you are strongest. Just make sure they ease up on the pressure as the weight descends.

The quads should be on fire if you've done the preceding movements properly. Each movement hits every quad muscle and even incorporates the glutes and sometimes the hamstrings. Leg extensions focus primarily on the rectus femorus.

The rectus femorus is the only quad muscle tied into the hip instead of the femor. By keeping your toes pointed straight, apply even distribution across the quads with the majority of the tension and workload on the rectus femorus.

We just finished destroying quads with leg extensions, now we're going to move right into hamstrings and do reverse hack squats. Keep your knees slightly bent, keep the back straight and place all of the emphasis on bringing the weight up with the hamstrings only.

You're going to incorporate the glutes in this, which is a great tie-in exercise after quads. Apply pressure on top of the squat for the Hellcentrics.

This will be our knee flexion movement to finish off the hamstrings. The hamstrings should already be plenty warmed up, so let's just get after it. We're going to completely destroy hams with this exercise.