Vacation Leg Workout. November 21, 2025 Workout of the Day

11/21/2025 Workout of the Day 

Leg session 

Warm up: hanging leg raise x 12; machine crunch x 2x10; rebound hops x 2x10; Hindu squats x 2x10

Ex 1: alternating reverse lunges EMOM-4/4, 4/4, 4/4, 4/4, 4/4, 4/4, 4/4, 4/4, 4/4, 4/4 (10x4/4 Every Minute on the Minute)

Ex 2: Bulgarian split squats-3x8/8

Ex 3: single leg hip thrust (with dumbbell)-3x8/8

Ex 4: calf raise-(leg press machine) 3x15-20

Total Time = 35 minutes 

Those alternating reverse lunge EMOMs were excellent. Each set took 22-23 seconds to complete. I rested the remainder of the minute. I did 4 reps each leg, alternating legs every rep, so 8 total reps per minute. It's a great way to accumulate lots of reps in a dense period of time while keeping form and technique super high. 

I think 3-5 reps per leg is ideal for this exercise when using EMOMs. Today, I did 4/4 each minute and finished with 40 reps per leg  – or 80 reps total – in just 10 minutes.

My leg days look different than most typical gym bro leg days. That's for a few reasons, not least of which is that I've dealt with many labrum tears in both hips, FAI, chronic hip impingement, and arthritis in both hips since 2018.

Therefore, I have to avoid deep (below parallel), bilateral squat patterns. That's okay. I overtrained deep barbell squats for 5 years straight doing every high volume, high frequency, high intensity squat program under the sun. That's not how I recommend training barbell squats – or any lift – by the way. High frequency + high intensity + high volume = recipe for disaster, regardless of exercise. Even moreso if it's a barbell exercise. To give you an idea of some of the things I did, I went back to back Smolov squat program for 13 weeks then moved onto "squat every day" for almost a year – with some weeks off in between due to mild tweaks....which were warning signs that a big tweak was right around the corner. Long story short: I did a lot of deep barbell squats for half a decade. I trained the exercise in some variation at least 3 days per week during that stretch of time. 

Over doing squats may not be the sole reason for my hip issues (it's a combination of genetics, irregular hip shape, and over use injuries due to sports, particular physical activities like overly prioritizing the powerlifts and olympic lifts, and even from some previous jobs), but it certainly didn't help.

My leg training structure is also a result of my current training preferences (since 2020): frequent, 25-40 minute workouts using primarily dumbbells/kettlebells, and bodyweight exercises.

These are some of the reasons why I do a lot of unilateral leg exercises and even frequently incorporate explosive lower body exercises such as kettlebell swing variations or jump squats.

My lower body workouts are simple and cover all the necessary bases, and even then some:

Exercise 1: Squat or lunge pattern (knee dominant with hip extension, as well)

Exercise 2 (or in today's case, exercise 3): hinge or hamstring curl pattern

Exercise 3: secondary squat or lunge pattern (knee dominant)

Exercise 4: calf isolation 

That's it. It's simple and effective.

I would personally define my leg workouts – not as bodybuilding style – but, rather, a functional bodybuilding approach. 

Functional and functional bodybuilding can be confusing, woo-woo terms, but the way I think of functional bodybuilding lines up perfectly with how I train legs.