Yeah and monkeys might fly out of my ass. Anybody who's ever trained Leg Day hard knows that it's anything but blissful, let alone like heaven. I guess it depends on what you do but when it's done right, it puts you into another state of mind and have a euphoric feeling before feeling like you had your legs chopped off the next day and you're crawling in agony.
For me, I just do enough to know that I won't be as sore (if at all) the next day and have gas left in the tank. That was on the menu for me today. Started out with some Joint Loosening, had a drink to get some energy going, watched a documentary episode about Serial Killers and did some Leg Work that had me sweating like a waterfall in the amazon. Got in my Deck Of Cards Leg Workout doing a total of 500 Step Ups & 250 Hindu Squats in roughly over 30 min.
It has been a while since I've done this workout and I didn't go as fast as I normally would, so I focused on technique and let the speed come naturally. Went by really well and feel great. Getting the best of both worlds in old school squats and the Harvard Step Test is something that just hits differently. Some will do one or the other but I'm thinking "why not both"? You get the benefits of both cardio and strength training, working the legs unilaterally and with both legs, you're channeling a different perspective of Growth Hormone & Testosterone Boosting and you're benefiting heart health.
It's a hell of a conditioner as well and can be beneficial to your training in Wrestling, MMA, Football or just overall fitness. You can do it everyday or every other day (depending on your condition), it can be part of your workout as a "warm up" or "cool down" to get that extra calorie burning or it can be a workout all by itself. Working with a deck of cards has been a big part of some athletes' regimen such as Ric Flair, Karl Gotch, Ray Lewis, Antonio Inoki and others. This specific workout tackles the legs with a vengeance without having so much lactic acid built up; the reason why is because the step ups provide a barrier between making the legs feel heavy and having a "breather" to help you keep going. The squats make the legs burn like crazy and jack up the heart rate so when you get to the step ups, you can keep going because it helps the legs "calm down" while still building that strength and cardio working one leg at a time. This is why I say you get the best of both worlds.
I have said before that squats weren't a big thing to me as much as they use to and the reason is because doing hundreds of reps consecutively with squats became tedious to me and I lost interest doing 500 over and over the same way. Now that doesn't mean you can't do 500 or more differently and come out the same number of reps. If I were to do 500 again, it would be with a deck of cards or a countdown workout cause that way, I don't have to do the same routine twice and still come out to the same destination. Hell, the last time I did 500 Squats in a workout was when I did my double decker deck of cards workout when I did 1000 Step Ups & 500 Squats in just over an hour. Shit, I rather do that than do 500 by counting 1, 2, 3 and so on and not do anything else, it works for me.
When it comes to Step Ups, for me, they're the best for leg training because you can go for a long period of time and not get as winded as you would with Squats. That in no way shape or form does this mean Step Ups are superior to Squats, quite frankly I don't give a rat's ass what's superior, I just know my preference. Besides, why the fuck would you debate what's superior like some Marvel or Star Wars Fanboy, it becomes petty and downright stupid. Some people put certain things up on a pedestal and act like nothing else works better or this exercise is like the Mount Rushmore of fitness and everything else is beneath you. Anyway, use what's useful to you and keeps you coming back training over and over with excitement, interest and something that challenges you with a smile on your face. You may not always look forward to it and some days can be tough as hell, but you know what leads to all of that.
For me, there's no Mount Rushmore or some Mount Olympus type of training format that are the gods of all exercises, I just want to train and help others find success in what can work for them because if I try to act like this or that is superior and nothing will work unless I says it works, what does that make me? It makes me an asshole with an fragile ego that is so insecure that I would need some serious therapy to tackle the issue. Train to what gives you an advantage whether in life, sports or whatever and be successful to where you can do it within reason and it brings you a good challenge while being comfortable to expand on it. Stay amazingly awesome.
