Speaker A
Oh, welcome to my office hours. That's why I'm dressed a bit more casually today.
Clark Kent breaks down his quad-focused leg day: sissy squats/booty bounces, stiff-legged deadlifts, and single-leg calf work, with moment-arm reasoning.
Key Takeaways
- Sissy squats with a forward lean isolate the quads by minimizing hip involvement due to small moment arms
- Stiff-legged deadlifts target the hamstrings' hip-extension role and are performed with a controlled range of motion
- Two sets per exercise with leaving reps in reserve is a practical structure for high-frequency training
- Exercise ordering matters: prioritize the target muscle first in a session
What the video covers
- Presenter explains he restructured his leg day into a quad-focused session starting with the quads as the priority muscle
- Sissy squats (called 'booty bounces') are the lead exercise, performed with a belt and chain attached to a machine while leaning forward to keep hips stable
- Leaning forward minimizes hip extension so the quadriceps, rather than the rectus femoris and glutes, do most of the work
- Moment-arm analysis: the line of force stays near the hip, so there is little hip torque demand, making the movement mechanically quad-biased
- Sissy squats feel comfortable on the knees, which the presenter says has been a rare finding for him
- Recommended volume is about two sets, with one rep in reserve on the first set and possibly taking the second closer to failure
- Stiff-legged deadlifts follow, targeting the proximal hamstrings and hip extension; the presenter notes this differs from a Romanian deadlift
- Stiff-legged deadlifts are performed with a more upright torso and standardized range of motion rather than a powerlifting-style lockout
- Single-leg calf raises are suggested, with foot placement varied to hit different parts of the calf
- Presenter discusses fiber-type specificity and whether hip-dominant exercises are needed for full quad development
Chapters
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
And who knows, maybe I can I can squeeze out a little more gains cuz my leg days have been going very well recently. So, yeah. Basically, uh, in this video, I'm going to break down every single exercise that I choose for my leg day
Speaker A
Um, I wanted to go over my leg day since I have been restructuring it.
Speaker A
So this is going to be the leg day that I would do if I wanted to do a quote unquote quad focused leg day which you know when I say focused that essentially just means that you are starting with
Speaker A
And who knows, maybe I can squeeze out a little more gains, because my leg days have been going very well recently. So, yeah.
Speaker A
has been the booty bounces, the sussy squats, whatever you want to call them, um, for the quads. Now, what we're doing here is we get a belt, uh, around our waist, and then, you know, you got your little hook on the chain, you attach
Speaker A
Basically, uh, in this video, I'm going to break down every single exercise that I choose for my leg day currently.
Speaker A
while stabilizing yourself on those bars right there. But but but why do we want to lean forward so much? The reason is because we want to keep our hips completely stable and we don't want any hip extension to occur because you want
Speaker A
Um, what joint actions I am training, um, how to set them up, etc., etc.
Speaker A
shortening it across one joint um when it functions at best at a long length, but there is still a tiny bit of hip extension occurring. So, I just don't think either way that there's going to be any real wreck fam involvement
Speaker A
So this is going to be the leg day that I would do if I wanted to do a quote-unquote quad-focused leg day, which, you know, when I say "focused," that essentially just means that you are starting with the muscle that you want to prioritize, because when it comes to exercise sequencing, we know that muscles are prioritized in order from start to finish.
Speaker A
something like a hack squat. So, uh this is pretty much taking out all of that.
Speaker A
So, yes, this is my quad-focused lower day.
Speaker A
Um, this exercise is truly amazing in in terms of foot position and how far up to put your feet. Just find a foot placement that's comfortable for you that also allows you to um safely grip onto the bars and stay in a deep hip
Speaker A
And a recent favorite of mine has been the booty bounces, the sussy squats, whatever you want to call them, um, for the quads.
Speaker A
Very, very easy to set up in my opinion. Now, this is a working set and you can see my hips are moving a little bit. Um, you can see I'm coming all the way up, which you don't really need to do, but I
Speaker A
Now, what we're doing here is we get a belt, uh, around our waist, and then, you know, you've got your little hook on the chain. You attach that to the belt, and then you hook it onto a Pitch Shark or any kind of similar machine. I know there are gyms that have other machines that are pretty similar to this.
Speaker A
that way. But that just was not comfortable with the belt on my back. Now, a big thing I haven't really covered yet with booty bounces or sussy squats is moment arms. All roads lead back to moment arms. All right, so we
Speaker A
And essentially, you want to lean forward as much as possible while stabilizing yourself on those bars right there.
Speaker A
And you know, let's say they're doing a squat pattern where the weight is pushing through their feet, right? So, the direction of resistance, let's say, um, for the for the sake of what we were doing, right, which was the sussy squat.
Speaker A
But why do we want to lean forward so much? The reason is because we want to keep our hips completely stable, and we don't want any hip extension to occur, because you want this to be truly just the, um, vast muscles of the quadriceps.
Speaker A
you were to draw a perpendicular line, um there would be, you know, relatively even moment arm of hip and knee contribution. Um you can kind of visualize this like a uh leg press too, right? Like if I had like a leg press
Speaker A
I've seen people make the argument for it being that it mechanically disadvantages the rec fem, which is completely true as well, because the rectus femoris crosses the hip joint. So you are extremely shortening it across one joint when it functions at best at a long length, but there is still a tiny bit of hip extension occurring.
Speaker A
right where the chain is uh pulling onto me, um the line of force is literally staying right over my hip. Like you can literally you can see that throughout the movement. Um especially right where it's hardest and there's the longest uh
Speaker A
So I just don't think, either way, that there's going to be any real rec fem involvement regardless.
Speaker A
Meaning there is almost no moment arm between the hip and the external load. So what this means is that there is very little uh hip ex or there is very little contribution that the hip can have to overcome this load here because it is
Speaker A
As we know, on other squat movements, it tends to be a lot of glute and adductor, simply because you are going into deep degrees of hip flexion, and then you extend at the hip while you extend at the knee to perform something like a hack squat.
Speaker A
but very little torque occurring at the hip joint because this is basically just expressed by the moment arm which is like zero practically. So, all right. So, now we've gotten that out of the way. The whole booty bounce full
Speaker A
So, uh, this is pretty much taking out all of that.
Speaker A
in 48 hours with a high frequency program, um, I would leave one rep in reserve on the first set, maybe take the second one to failure, but to be honest, I think it would be better to just leave
Speaker A
And another very big upside to these is they feel so good on my knees. For the first time in years, I have found something that does not destroy my knees whatsoever. I've talked to other people who have historically had knee issues.
Speaker A
actually been doing my hinges after that movement simply because I like to get all my, you know, uh axial loading movements out of the way first cuz it's just a pain uh using my lower back on everything and then putting the weights
Speaker A
Um, this exercise is truly amazing in terms of foot position and how far up to put your feet. Just find a foot placement that's comfortable for you that also allows you to, um, safely grip onto the bars and stay in a deep hip flexed position throughout the whole movement without moving your hips too much.
Speaker A
extensions after this, but for me, I like to do a stifflegged deadlift. Now, what we're training with that is the proximal part of the hamstring, which is responsible for extending the hip. Um, it is not an RDL, okay? Again, there's
Speaker A
It's pretty self-explanatory.
Speaker A
even though you might feel it eccentrically right as you're lowering the weight. Rip a set of a stiff-legged deadlift just one one set because it is uh a longer length thing as well and it also destroys your adductors.
Speaker A
Very, very easy to set up, in my opinion.
Speaker A
explained it on my Instagram story a little bit ago, but the reason why [clears throat] holy voice crack. The reason why um you want to round your spine uh or at least your upper back when you do a stifflegged deadlift is
Speaker A
Now, this is a working set, and you can see my hips are moving a little bit. Um, you can see I'm coming all the way up, which you don't really need to do, but I like to standardize my range of motion.
Speaker A
So, you're not going to be great cuz you don't need to go like this. You don't need to extend your lower spine or you don't need to lock out, right? It's not like some powerlifting deadlift. You don't want to do that. So, it also
Speaker A
And also, I just found it to be most comfortable if I stay a bit more upright rather than really, really sticking my butt out the whole way through. Um, I've seen some people perform it that way, but that just was not comfortable with the belt on my back.
Speaker A
can just push my hips back a lot more easily, right? If I'm like, see, versus if I if I'm keeping my lower back too tight, this is what happens.
Speaker A
Now, a big thing I haven't really covered yet with booty bounces or sussy squats is moment arms. All roads lead back to moment arms.
Speaker A
you're going to be forced into extending your spine a lot more. And probably you're going to end up bending your knees to compensate, right? And you don't want any knee bend to occur um because that'll just make it a glute and
Speaker A
All right, so we have these two stick figures. This is the hip joint. This is the knee joint.
Speaker A
yeah. It's by far the most comfortable way to do it. Um, obviously it takes time to get the movement down, [snorts] you know. Um, and the important thing to remember with stiff leg deadlifts is we are not training a deadlift. We are not
Speaker A
And, you know, let's say they're doing a squat pattern where the weight is pushing through their feet, right? So the direction of resistance, let's say, um, for the sake of what we were doing, which was the sussy squat, let's say we do a sussy squat, but we stay more upright. So the weight kind of ends up going through our feet, and it kind of just makes a line evenly between the hip and knee joint.
Speaker A
Each rep ends after you have performed hip extension. We don't care about completing some powerlifter arbitrary range of motion with these at all. It doesn't make any sense. Yes, there's going to be some lower back invol involvement. Um, you're going to have an
Speaker A
So if you were to draw a perpendicular line, um, there would be, you know, relatively even moment arm of hip and knee contribution.
Speaker A
um been doing is hip thrusts. I've added these back in recently because my girlfriend was like, "Yo, she getting kind of small." And I was like, "Dang." Yeah. Like low key in my prime, bro.
Speaker A
Um, you can kind of visualize this like a, uh, leg press too, right? Like if I had a leg press machine here, this person's seated, and then, you know, the weights are on the rack, and it's going, "Ah," right? Hip and knee are both extending to resist the external load.
Speaker A
prevention, for, you know, staying strong on on everything and and being nice, well-rounded, balanced, etc. Um, I do need to have a hip thrust incorporated, and I should not just be super wishy-washy with it. Also, cuz it looks weird to not have any kind of
Speaker A
But if we take the booty bounce sussy squat, um, you can even see right where the chain is, uh, pulling onto me, um, the line of force is literally staying right over my hip. You can literally see that throughout the movement, um, especially right where it's hardest and there's the longest, uh, moment occurring at my knee. On the booty bounce, right? The chain is pulling straight over my hip joint.
Speaker A
to failure. It's a short length movement and your glutes have a lot of type one fibers, so I really would not worry about um trying to recover from one set to failure of hip thrust uh every 48 hours. I think you can probably do that
Speaker A
Meaning there is almost no moment arm between the hip and the external load. So what this means is that there is very little, uh, hip extension, or there is very little contribution that the hip can have to overcome this load here, because it is very mechanically disadvantaged due to that small moment arm.
Speaker A
recover from. On my quad focus leg day, I'll typically do one set of a seated hamstring curl. Um, this is going to hit your whole hamstring, including the biceps forous short head, which does not cross the hip joint. So, this was not
Speaker A
And we know that torque equals, you know, F·r·sin θ, which I've been over all this biomechanical crap in my biomechanics video, so go watch that if you haven't. But very little torque is occurring at the hip joint, because this is basically just expressed by the moment arm, which is, like, zero, practically.
Speaker A
rep reserve on those because you don't want your hamstrings to be shot. Um, and I don't lean forward on those anymore either, simply because it's excessively long lengths that um, don't really provide much benefit and the whole stretch fascination is a
Speaker A
So, all right. Now we've gotten that out of the way, the whole booty bounce full breakdown explanation. Uh, I think I did an all right job.
Speaker A
stifflegged deadlift. And then due to the fact that a lying hamstring curl is going to bias the the biceps for short head a little bit more. I would do it on that day. The hamstrings are in a slightly
Speaker A
How we would structure that: we would do two sets on a quad-focused lower day. And since we're doing two sets and going to hit it again in 48 hours with a high-frequency program, um, I would leave one rep in reserve on the first set, maybe take the second one to failure. But to be honest, I think it would be better to just leave a rep in reserve again, which I struggle with personally.
Speaker A
so when you shorten it again at the second joints the overlap of what's called actin and meosin, right? your your fibers your muscle fibers kind of contract like this between actin and what happens is they become overshortened that's active
Speaker A
So after that, if I wanted to make it a quad-focused leg day, I would do leg extensions next. Personally, I've been liking prioritizing hinges. So, um, I've actually been doing my hinges after that movement, simply because I like to get all my, you know, uh, axial loading movements out of the way first, because it's just a pain using my lower back on everything and then putting the weights on and off and blah blah blah blah.
Speaker A
over the ones that also cross the hip due to the fact that those would get smashed earlier on in the lift on a hamstring focused leg day.
Speaker A
So for me, it's more of a practicality thing that I like to hit hinges after that. If you wanted to make it more quad-focused, again, you would hit your leg extensions after this, but for me, I like to do a stiff-legged deadlift.
Speaker A
I mean, they're very basic. You want to load the lengthen position if you can, if you have access to a leg extension that has a descending resistance profile, which this is going to smash your rec fem, which we want. The reason
Speaker A
Now, what we're training with that is the proximal part of the hamstring, which is responsible for extending the hip. Um, it is not an RDL, okay? Again, there's that thing called antagonist inhibition. If we have to extend at the knee while extending at the hip, because your knee is bending on the way down, then it's going to be glued. You are not going to get any hamstring activation, even though you might feel it eccentrically right as you're lowering the weight.
Speaker A
more time developing the wholeness of my quad and glute and adductor and everything else. Same thing, one set uh maybe failure, maybe one, depends how I'm feeling. Since it's a quad focus leg day, you're probably just going to be
Speaker A
Rip a set of a stiff-legged deadlift, just one set, because it is, uh, a longer-length thing as well, and it also destroys your adductors.
Speaker A
say with these. You just do adduction. The only thing I would say is to just be careful that you're not absolutely hammering away at your adductors because they are used indirectly in a multitude of other exercises. And another thing I
Speaker A
I've had a lot of questions as to how I set up stiff-legged deadlifts. Um, I've made a TikTok tutorial on it, or... All right, so this question a lot recently. Oh my god. I've been getting this question a lot recently. Um, I explained it on my Instagram story a little bit ago, but the reason why... [clears throat] holy voice crack. The reason why, um, you want to round your spine, uh, or at least your upper back, when you do a stiff-legged deadlift is because it's reducing the moment that's occurring in your lower back. When you do an SLDL, right, if you round your back, it allows you to keep your pelvis tucked, push forward a lot more.
Speaker A
this a lot on adduction, you know, they say they feel their hamstring even, etc., etc. You're basically using your hamstring to pull the weight in, which I believe brings the net moment arm closer in to where your adders attach, making
Speaker A
So you're not going to be great, because you don't need
Speaker A
a low rep scheme, keeping fatigue as low as possible, and then, you know, doing the same thing again. Personally, I wouldn't do more than one. However, um the squat pattern we do now, there's no hip extension occurring. So, the only
Speaker A
real indirect work that the adductors get outside of direct adductor machine is the stiff-legged deadlift. Um beforehand, when I would try to do hack squats before my knees imploded on me, I would really be careful about only doing
Speaker A
one set of adductor because you're training deep hip extension, which again, that's going to hammer your adductors. You could do two. I would feel it out. I'll say we'll say one to two maybe for adductors maybe two if depending how you are
Speaker A
recovering and progressing but if you are doing two on your quad focused leg day I would definitely not do more than one on the hamstring focused leg day especially since that involves two sets of a hinge and that's a lot of indirect
Speaker A
work. Last up is calves. Um 2x4 to six one ri you can do a straight leg. Uh well, you should do a straight leg. With the calves, I usually like to use a pin loaded leg press simply because it's
Speaker A
just easy. And then I like to do it unilaterally. So, one leg at a time. You can do this on a playloaded leg press, but I just find that to be a bit scary since I can do quite a bit of weight. Um
Speaker A
this is the full stack with a 45 on it, and it might look like I am half repping the weight, but the calves are a muscle that benefit an incredible amount from training at very, very long lengths. So
Speaker A
I am straightening my leg fully and then also prioritizing the length and position only coming up to about parallel. Now the reason for this is not some random stretch regurgitation crap.
Speaker A
The reason has to do with the internal leverages of the calves which is also why a seated calf raise is typically a poor choice and it leads to something called active insufficiency which I went over previously in this video with the
Speaker A
hamstrings. But the reason we do this unilaterally um is because it's the end of our lift. So we want to overcome a bit of those within session fatigue mechanisms that would reduce our motor unit recruitment by increasing our motor
Speaker A
unit recruitment with single leg exercises. That is the main benefit of doing unilateral stuff. Calf programming gets a bit weird. Um I found that on a high frequency split it is a bit hard to recover from doing two every single leg
Speaker A
day. So to alternate between doing one set one day single leg calf and then maybe two sets on the next leg day. Um maybe have slight variances in how you place your feet because I know that hits slightly different parts of the calf. Um
Speaker A
so you get some of those uh specific fibers experiencing stimulus with um not as much overlap. So it's just a better stimulus to fatigue ratio overall. In summary, you know, this is the way that I've been training uh or structuring my
Speaker A
quad focus lower days as of recent. Now, the reason for this uh you know, great variance in exercise selection and trying to be more careful about programming and whatnot is because I was honestly being so lazy before um I know
Speaker A
I released that upper lower podcast, but there are quite a bit of patch notes that I need to go over. It is always going to be better in my opinion to chase higher levels of recruitment in specific fibers with a little bit of
Speaker A
overlap uh within the same muscle rather than you know smashing what you can barely recover from with two sets and then you know trying to hit that again in 48 hours and then also you know you're going instead you're only hitting
Speaker A
that muscle really uh with the same kind of stimulus two times a week instead of three times a week right because if I were to do something like just leg extensions on one leg day and then do booty bounces and leg extensions then
Speaker A
the vastity muscles of my quads would be experiencing more atrophy and would not be getting as many fiber specific adaptations of you know there's higher recruitment levels which we know that hypertrophy is fiber specific so why are we using confirmation bias to excuse
Speaker A
lazy programming and be like oh no it's fine like hypertrophy is is fiber specific but like atrophy isn't like that doesn't make any sense. You have to say that atrophy is not fiber specific for you to try and make an argument that
Speaker A
doing two sets of the same exercise is going to give you the same results as doing one and one for different regions of the same muscle group. So I know this is my quad focused lower day, but uh
Speaker A
I've kind of just balanced things out to my individual needs over time. If you want to do a quad focused lower day, um you could easily just do uh your leg leg extensions earlier on in the workout.
Speaker A
This is what it would look like um for me on a typical lower day and we can just go like, you know, that can go like here. Yeah, something like that. So, yeah, let me know what you guys think.
Speaker A
Thank you for watching. Hopefully this helps you guys structure your guys. [clears throat] Hopefully this helps you guys structure some of your leg days.
Speaker A
Um, things have been progressing real good for me recently, so hopefully I can squeeze out some more muscle here and there.
Speaker A
Peace.
Topics:leg daysissy squatquad trainingstiff-legged deadliftmoment armhypertrophycalf raiseworkout programmingbiomechanicsClark Kent
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