Workout Log 59 – The Sweaty Leg Day

Core activation, actual weight lifted and free weights compared to machines.

Yesterday – Thursday’s workout routine… I will be adding my body weight to my weights to keep track and to monitor my progress when doing strength training with free weights on my legs. It is a good way of tracking your fitness levels since I will be using the “FitNotes” app to track and log my strength training from now on.

It is easy to lift 300 kg on the leg press try doing one legged squats with no weights it is much harder, because you use all of your body weight on one leg plus you use your body’s core muscles and other stabilizers or smaller muscles to keep you balanced while lifting ,which you wouldn’t have used while doing machines. Think of it this way when you do the leg press you don’t actually push your own body weight you push the weight on the machine ,but if you do squats you push your own weight plus the weight on the bar. I am not ridiculing the leg press or other machine equipment just here me out there is a place and time for everything.

So if you weigh 68 kg + 47 kg on the barbell you have lifted 115 kg when doing the squat. So let’s increase the intensity a bit… When you do one legged step ups with the same amount of weight on one leg. E.g. lifting 115 kg it will be more or less equivalent to pushing 330 kg with two legs on the leg press machine just a little bit harder to stabilize, because when doing free weight you have more core activation compared to lifting machine weight.

When you leg press you have a cussing behind your lower back that protects you given that you already have a history of weight training and you don’t already have back problems. When you train with free weights you don’t have that support if you don’t use a weight belt. I actually don’t believe in weight belts your body has its own natural weight belt it’s called your core muscles and you have to make time to train them as well. 
If you don’t train your core you actually missing out on a lot of gains that your body could have made plus you can rest other areas of your body if you would have put in one day for core training. This will also allow your body to rest other muscle groups as well when you put in a training day for core and stretch. This also refers to active recovery which athletes use do to continue training without stopping their actual training regime you just work around the recovering muscle groups.

It doesn’t matter how you train your core if it is with free weights or isolating your core the point is you have to strengthen it. Even if you’re a professional weight lifter you should use a weight belt sparingly to strengthen your core more often. Hernias are not fun one of my friends got one while wearing a weight belt on the day of his lift. I am so discussed right now just by thinking about this.

I think I want to do core today… You can see my training log in the photos above will be posting more of that in the future and if you enjoyed this read give it a thumps up and please follow this blog. You can also follow me on Instagram @dirk.okennedy_fitness or facebook Do it fit I will gladly appreciate it.

Thank you for your support :)

Dirk O'Kennedy.