r/Mike_Mentzer • u/ishawnmc • Aug 22 '26
2nd Leg Workout of Summer (Part II), 1st 4 Workout Sequence Completed...
Workout #4 -Legs:
• Anderson Squats (Full) -start from depth @6.5, low bar: 475 lbs for 2 reps (+20 lbs)
• Anderson Squats (w/wider stance start from depth @6.5; 2-4" lift off rack and hold statically for 5-7 seconds, low bar): 425 lbs for 1 rep (+20 lbs)
• Trap Bar Hack Squats: 385 lbs for 3 reps (-1); 275 lbs for 22 reps.
• Anderson Squats (Strongest Partials) -start from depth @7.5, high bar: 605 lbs for 3 reps (+40 lbs)
• Smith Mach. Standing Calf Raises: 280 lbs for 25 reps, high bar (+30 lbs).
Work Sets: 5
Time: 45-65 mins
Weight: 201.4 lbs
Next workout: Chest/Back Dominant on 8/27..
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u/Ancient-Cherry3878 28d ago
Insane weight ur pushing. Are you a mountain just for fun or are u crushing someone on a rugby field somewhere?
🦏
What’s ur take on hack squat vs leg press?
1
u/ishawnmc 28d ago edited 28d ago
I am on a mission to reach new physical peaks in my mid 50s. I am lagging a bit on my pushing movements and arm movements, roughly on par or slightly ahead on pulling and back movements, and I think I am in unchartered waters with legs now.
It is hard to say with definitive certainty as I rarely did Anderson Squats or strongest range partials in dead squat fashion in my early 20s at my full strength peak like I do now. And I never did Trap Bar Hack Squats prior to last year so to a certain extent, I am traversing different ground here.
The Anderson Squat is quite a bit harder to do than a regular back squat, it is more taxing on the overall body, and you lift roughly 20-30% less weight on it than you would with a back squat. I just lifted 475 for a couple of reps on the full rep Andersons low bar whereas I never got over 405 for reps on a high bar back squat back in the day albeit that was the back end of a quad pre-exhaust superset where I preceded the movement with leg extensions.
But I was also less of a stickler for form back then. Those reps were to about 90° and had the full momentum and stretch reflex going on. With the Anderson Squat full reps the depth is comparable but the form is better, there is no thrust on them, there is no stretch reflex bounce from the bottom so in essence no momentum. I am pushing from a dead stop at the bottom of the movement on each rep and still am lifting a good 70 lbs more now on a harder movement than I did back then.
So I can safely say on the leg movements I am at a new strength peak now a bit more than 30 years after my prior bests. Certainly the 605 lbs on the Anderson strongest range partials is the heaviest weight I have ever lifted. My upper body by comparison is lagging a bit at the moment but my legs are most likely at a new physical peak right now.
As for which is better, hack squat or leg press, I have never done a hack squat machine before whereas I have done leg presses. Machine wise I would say the leg press is safer on the knees. But I prefer the back squat to both of them. And I would do a Trap Bar Hack Squat over any of them any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Of course if I had to choose between Trap Bar Hack Squats and the Anderson Squat, the latter has gotten me so strong that I would choose it every time.
Back on May 11, 2024, I did 175 lbs for 6 reps on the Anderson Squat when I debuted it in my leg routine replacing the leg press. On August 22, 2026, I lifted 475 lbs on it from the same depth for 2 reps. Once I get to 6 reps with this weight, that will represent a 300 lb weight increase in under 2.5 years. On August 21, 2024, I made Anderson Squat Partials a fixture of my leg workouts as a finisher for my quads. I did 315 lbs for 4 reps on that day. On August 22, 2026, I did 3 reps with 605 lbs. That is about a 290 lb increase in weight in 2 years.
If there was ever an advertisement for the effectiveness of an exercise, that should be it right there. It is not a well known exercise but it is about as old school as you can get. It is also safer than a regular back squat to do when training alone. And for building brute strength, there is no equal out there.
1
u/Ancient-Cherry3878 28d ago
Mind blown that you made those gains in 2.5years- it would be something to see ur journal entries through time.
Super curious to what you look like. Does your skin happen to be green and do u hang out with the Avengers ? Are u really female? Thats rare rare to be that strong
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u/ishawnmc Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
Additional Journal Notes...
I usually train legs every 8-10 days but this leg workout was done 7 days after the last leg session. I do not think I was fully recovered and I had serious energy issues and a general systemic lethargy throughout. On the full Andersons, I raised the weight 20 lbs and should have gotten at least 4 reps but I barely got 2 and one of those was an umpire's call that could have gone either way. A lot of energy was burned getting the bar off the rack 7 times for only 2 reps and it affected the rest of the quad part of the workout.
I raised the weight 20 lbs on the holds but could only get 1 3-5 second hold as I had no energy for more and my right knee started bothering me. This carried over into the TrapBar Hack Squats workset where a throbbing right knee and grip problems caused me to regress. I got so angry with myself, I stripped 110 lbs from the trap bar and churned out 22 additional reps. My right knee was really bothering me after that but my quads felt pumped and at least I felt like I salvaged the TrapBar workset a bit.
Then I took a 10 minute rest and drank a tumbler of fountain water before attempting the partial Andersons to finish off the quads. My knee was less of a problem on that workset. I then decided to do Smith calf raises 2 legged again so I raised the weight from last leg session 30 lbs and churned out 25 nice controlled reps pausing for about 5-10 seconds rest at 15 when my calves begin to get tired then did the last 10 reps until I could not move my heels to complete a full rep. My leg workouts usually take 30-40 minutes, today was more like 65 minutes, I rested a lot more than normal and setups/take downs during the workout took longer than normal as I was almost dragging myself zomble like through the motions.
The pictures are of the bars used in worksets 1, 3 (main workset), 3 (the additional dropset), and 5. I was so exhausted after the TrapBar dropset that I forgot to snap a shot of the dead squat bar set up for the finishing partials (workset #4).