I am really excited for this weekend because Donny’s office is having their company holiday party. They actually were kind enough to postpone it until after Donny was feeling better from surgery! They are having it at Guard and Grace in Denver, which is a modern steak house. The “Guard” in Guard and Grace is for Troy Guard, the owner of the Tag franchise through Denver (Tag, Tag Raw Bar, Tag Burger Bar, etc).
I have heard great things about this place and can’t wait to go! It was in our box of restaurants but we need to take it out now that we are going. I told Donny the other day that we need to pull all the names that are left and reevaluate. For instance, after the Cart Driver (which we chose out of the box) we decided to also go to Uncle, which was on the list but not drawn out of the box. Now we need to take Uncle out of the box! Both were fantastic in case you were worried. I honestly cannot stop thinking about that Spicy Chicken Ramen Bowl….. mmmmmm.
Let’s talk legsssss……..who loves lifting legs?! I do, I do! I feel so powerful when I train them because I can lift heavier than with upper body exercises.
This Workout Wednesday is quad-focused and just gets right down to business with 100 squats! You will start with 10 barbell squats then move your legs to be hip-width apart or so and do 10 regular squats. This will be done back to back. Then rest 30-45 seconds and go for round 2 of 10+10. You’ll complete that 5 times meaning 100 squats. Ayo!
Is this enough motivation for you to squat more?!?!?
Seems accurate, right?!
You won’t be able to lift quite as heavy as if you were only doing 10 reps, but I did better than I thought. After the first round I added some more weight to challenge myself. It definitely challenged me by the end, but I liked it!
After that it is your typical superset format, with two exercises completed back to back with minimal rest in between.
I did have trouble finding a tutorial of the dumbbell quad lift. I honestly didn’t even know what to call it…. You basically rest a dumbbell just above your knee (while still holding on to it) and you drive your knee up with the dumbbell as the resistance. The only picture I could find was on Cosmopolitan.com and it shows two 5lb dumbbells laying horizontal above your knee. I used a 25lb dumbbell and have the dumbbell pointing up (the “bell” part lays flat just above my knee). These are done fairly quickly…really drive the knee upwards against the resistance.
Other than that I chose fairly common exercises that really get your quads burning. I could definitely feel those dang squats a few days later!
I did two leg workouts last week (which I rarely do but did hamstrings/glutes one day, then quads) but I needed to really focus on recovery to do so (meaning foam rolling and stretching). To help with Donny’s therapy we bought a Trigger Point GRID STK Foam Roller. It has the same idea as a regular foam roller but you hold this with your hands. I think I mentioned this in one of my Anything & Everything Friday posts and we actually got it! I find it very helpful when it comes to the ol’ quad muscles!
Below are links to the exercises in case you are unfamiliar. Let me know if you need more information about the dumbbell quad lift.
Bulgarian Split Squat (this is shown with a barbell, I held plates)
Reverse Lunges (I held dumbbells)
Dumbbell Quad Lift (scroll down to #14)
