Physique Competitors Do Train Legs! Ryan Terry’s Drop Set Quad Workout

Earlier in the month, the Muscle & Strength team traveled down to Ft. Lauderdale, Fl and caught up with IFBB Physique Pro and USN Athlete, Ryan Terry.

Ryan Terry is fresh off a 4th place finish at this year’s Arnold Classic and has his sights set on the 2016 Olympia contest.

Today, we bring you Ryan’s heavy drop set quad workout. It’s the very same one he’s currently using to stretch out the bottoms of his board shorts.

Most in the fitness community assume physique competitors don’t train legs. As evident by the video, that’s clearly not the case when it comes to Ryan Terry. Ryan implement’s several workout strategies to get the most out of his legs.

Ryan trains legs twice a week, splitting them into a quad dominate day and a hamstring dominate day. He also hits his calves twice a week to promote muscular growth in an area that he’s not genetically gifted in. The mixture of volume and intensity in Ryan’s leg days showcases Ryan’s determination to bring his best package to the Olympia stage.

Exercise 1: Leg Extension

Ryan likes to warm up his knee joints to start things off. To do so, he performs two sets of leg extensions in the 18-20 rep range. By the end of his warmup, Ryan’s legs are already pumped up and he’s ready to go.

The following three sets are performed in a pyramided scheme. What this means is as Ryan increases the weight he uses, he decreases the number of reps performed on every set.

On the final set, Ryan utilizes a drop set. He feels adding them to his workout helps him push through any sort of plateaus. Each set within the drop set, Ryan aims to hit 8 repetitions before dropping the weight again.

Exercise 2: Front Squat

From there, Ryan moves over to the squat rack to perform front squats. Ryan prefers using front squats on his quad day, because he feels like he can target the quads a little bit better than the traditional back squat. Also, it removes the load from his back, allowing him to train without the added tension on the spine/lower back.

Ryan performs three working sets of front squat. He has to rest a little bit longer during his sets, as he is not used to the Florida heat. It’s important to ensure you get enough rest to recover in between sets during your workouts, even if that means taking slightly longer breaks.

After Ryan’s first working sets, he decides to use a weight belt to help support his back. The set before, he felt as though he had to use too much of his own weight to stabilize the load. Using the weight belt assists him in stabilizing his core, allowing him to focus on the targeted muscle while completing his reps.

Related: Squats Hurt Your Back? Here’s 7 Pain-Free Alternatives

On his final set, Ryan uses another drop set. Since the front squat is a compound movement, he only drops the weight once before moving on to his next exercise.

Exercise 3: Vertical Leg Press

After a heavy compound movement, Ryan likes his next lift to be more of an isolation, machine type exercise.

Today, Ryan decides to use the gym’s vertical leg press machine. Instead of focusing on weight for this exercise, Ryan shoots for 18-20 reps. He adds in the volume to really feel the burn while exhausting the muscle.

Exercise 4: Pit Squat

For Ryan’s final exercise, he picks a machine he’s never seen before and is eager to try. He performs four working sets on the pit squat machine and does them in the same pyramided fashion as his first two exercises.

Ryan felt that the motion really targeted his quads, hitting his glutes and hamstrings the deeper into the motion he went.

Wrap up

After completing his final set of pit squats, Ryan falls to the floor in exhaustion. Getting ready to walk out of the doors of USI, Ryan notices he made the gym’s Wall of Fame.

Give Ryan’s quad workout a shot the next time you train legs and let us know how it goes in the comments section below!