Stephanie Sanzo & Regan Grimes Smash Legs

Primeval Labs athletes Regan Grimes & Stephanie Sanzo meet up down in Australia to smash a leg workout together.

As you’re well-aware, Stephanie loves to train legs, so you know that she’s got something extra special in store for Regan.

This workout is high-volume and intense -- just the thing your legs need if you’ve been neglecting them recently!

Here’s the complete workout along with some helpful leg training tips from Regan and Stephanie:

Stephanie Sanzo & Regan Grimes High Volume Leg Workout

Note 1: Sets 1-3 -- Perform 10 reps with a 1 second hold in the bottom position. Following that perform 5 explosive reps.

Note 2: 4th Set -- Triple Drop Set -- On the final set of leg press after you perform your 15 reps, rack the weight and remove a plate from each side. Then perform another 15 quick, explosive reps. After those 15 reps are done, lock the sled in place, strip another plate off each side and perform another set of 15 fast, explosive reps. Strip one more plate from each side and perform and final set of 15 reps. (You’re quads will be on fire after this one!

Note 3: Select a weight that you can perform for 20 reps. Now, perform 20 repetitions and follow those immediately with 20 partial reps raising the weight from the bottom to the midpoint.

After that, immediately drop the weight to 50% of your working weight and perform a 20-second isometric at the point of peak contraction. After that’s over, perform another 20 repetitions using a full range of motion. To finish off this, quad assault perform 20 “resisted reps” where a partner pushes against the leg extension pad while you try to raise your 50% working weight.

After this set is done...you'll probably need to crawl to wherever you’re going as your legs will be trembling!

Leg Training Tips

Dumbbell Walking Lunges

After a quick warm-up, Stephanie and Regan get right down to work with 4 sets of dumbbell walking lunges. Perform 10 reps with each leg before for resting for 90 seconds.

Now, depending on which area of your legs you want to emphasize more will depend on how you do your walking lunges.

If you want to make the dumbbell walking lunge more of a quad-dominant movement, you will want to use a shorter stride length and keep a more vertical torso.

However, if you want to emphasize more glute-ham action, take a longer stride and hinge the upper half of your body over slightly at the bottom of each stride.

Leg Press

Foot placement on the leg press sled can have a big impact on which areas of the leg receive more tension during the exercise. To focus on overall leg development, place your feet in the middle of the sled in a normal width stance (similar to how far apart you would place your feet during a typical back squat).

If you want to focus more on the outer quads, use a more narrow stance, and if you want to focus more on the inner quads and adductors, use a wider stance. Additionally, if you want to make the movement more quad focused, place your feet lower on the sled. Conversely, if you want to make the exercise more hamstring and glute dominant, place your feet higher on the sled.

As you noticed in the workout video, Regan uses a partial range of motion for his first few sets of leg press to really dial in on the vastus lateralis, which helps develop a better outer quad sweep. He picked this tip up from the 2018 Mr. Olympia champion Shawn Rhoden.

Make sure when performing the leg press to keep your hips and glutes tight to the seat and do not allow the sled to come down so far that your low back has to round.

Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts

One of Stephanie’s biggest pointers when performing Romanian Deadlifts is to firmly root your feet into the ground and “anchor” your toes, so that when you “sit” back into your hip hinge, your toes don’t come off of the floor, which would result in falling backwards as you lower the dumbbells.

To get the most from this exercise, ensure that you are  using a slow, controlled eccentric, where you take 2-3 seconds to lower the dumbbells towards the ground before powerfully contracting the hamstrings and glutes to return to the top.

Additionally, at the top of each movement, make sure to squeeze the glutes as hard as you can as this helps drive the hips forward and ensures full hip extension with each rep.

Finally, make sure to keep the dumbbells close to your legs as you raise and lower the weight. Allowing the dumbbells to drift away from your body will place unwanted stress on your lower back and increase your risk of injury.

Lying Leg Curls

Romanian deadlifts address one function of the hamstrings, which is hip extension. However, the hamstrings are also involved in knee flexion, which is where lying leg curls come in.

One of the most important tips for properly performing the lying leg curl that Stephanie recommends is to keep your hips down and glued to the pad. This makes sure the tension is placed on your hamstrings and not your low back or glutes.

Similar to the Romanian Deadlifts, make sure you’re using a slow, controlled eccentric followed by an explosive concentric to bring your heels back up.

Mega Pre -- The Ultimate Leg Day Pre Workout

High-volume, intense leg workouts demand the utmost from your mind and body.

To fuel their hardcore training session, Regan and Stephanie use Primeval Labs Mega Pre.

Mega Pre is a stim-free pump pre workout supplement containing 8 synergistic ingredients (including 6 grams of pure L-Citrulline) that promote greater performance, stamina, focus, and of course muscle pumps.

Mega Pre is available in three mouth-watering flavors and provides everything needed to have a stellar training session.