Lunsford goals to bring a much bigger lower body to the 2024 Olympia.
Last updated on May twenty ninth, 2024
The reigning Mr. Olympia champion Derek Lunsford is working hard within the gym, striving for brand new personal records (PR) each week as he trains for his first title defense on the 2024 Olympia (Oct. 10-13) in Las Vegas, NV.
On May 24, 2024, Lunsford published a video on his YouTube channel sharing his intense lower body workout designed to maximise strength and muscle growth during his bulking phase. “I’m currently the strongest I actually have ever been, and the chest and legs are where I actually have seen essentially the most strength and performance improvement,” said Lunsford.
Derek Lunsford’s Off-Season Leg Workout
Here is a summary of the training session:
Check it out below:
Leg Extensions & Lying Leg Curl
Lunsford opens with leg extensions to bias the quads. He employs isometric holds within the fully shortened position to warm his joints, increase the blood flow to the goal muscles, and deepen his mind-muscle connection. He performs slow, controlled reps with a peak contraction pause to maximise the time under tension (TUT) and muscle growth. (1)
Maintaining the identical form cues from the previous exercise, Lunsford paused at the highest of his range of motion (ROM) during leg curls to maximise hamstring fiber stimulation. He kept his shoulders and hips aligned.
Hack Squat
On the hack squats, Lunsford goals for optimum knee flexion during eccentrics for a deep quad stretch. He fully extends his knees at the highest for a pointy contraction.
Lunsford added a resistance band to the highest of the hack squat machine to tweak its resistance profile. The band eases tension through the eccentrics, which helps him get out of the outlet more easily.
The 31-year-old begins the hack squat with three 45-pound weight plates per side, increasing it to 5 for his second set. With knee sleeves for support, he progresses to seven plates per side on the third set and nine on the fourth.
In the highest set, Lunsford performs 12 reps with 10 plates on all sides, surpassing his previous PR of 10 reps with the identical weight.
Vertical Leg Press
Lundsford used the FST-7 (Fascia Stretch Training 7) protocol for the vertical leg press, a way designed to advertise muscle growth by expanding and restructuring the fascia. (2)
FST-7 comprises seven working sets of eight to 12 reps on the ultimate exercise of a workout to thoroughly fatigue the muscles and maximize blood flow for an extreme muscle pump. This targeted muscle stress stimulates hypertrophy and improves fascial elasticity, which might enhance muscle definition.
Lunsford employed slow eccentrics on the vertical leg press to realize a deep quad, hamstring, and adductor stretch, optimizing muscle growth. He performed seven sets of the exercise with 30-second rest intervals between each.
The Indiana native kept his feet on the machine’s platform throughout the seven sets. This inverted position, a type of blood-flow restriction resistance training (BFRRE), can potentially intensify lactic acid build-up, leading to a major muscle pump and enhancing muscle size and strength gains. (3)
Standing Calf Raises
Lunsford concluded the workout with standing calf raises to bias the gastrocnemius muscle. He employed slow eccentrics and held the height contraction to stimulate muscle growth. As he approached mechanical failure, he switched to a faster rep cadence to maximise training volume.
References
- Wilk M, Zajac A, Tufano JJ. The Influence of Movement Tempo During Resistance Training on Muscular Strength and Hypertrophy Responses: A Review. Sports Med. 2021;51(8):1629-1650. doi:10.1007/s40279-021-01465-2
- Chris and Frederick (2020) Does fascia stretch?: 10: Fascia, function, and medical applications, Taylor & Francis. Available at: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.1201/9780429203350-10/fascia-stretch-chris-frederick (Accessed: 27 May 2024).
- Bjørnsen, T., Wernbom, M., Paulsen, G., Berntsen, S., Brankovic, R., Stålesen, H., Sundnes, J., & Raastad, T. (2021). Frequent blood flow restricted training to not failure and to failure induces similar gains in myonuclei and muscle mass. Scandinavian journal of medication & science in sports, 31(7), 1420–1439. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.13952
