Lower A

Time: about 50 minutes.

#Notes that matter

Squats and RDLs stop at 1 RIR, not 0. This is the one place the program deviates from taking the last set to failure, and it is deliberate. Form degrades before the stimulus improves on loaded spinal movements, and the injury risk is not compensated by anything. A hack squat or a machine can go to true failure safely — a loaded barbell on your back cannot.

Leg extension leaning back. Rectus femoris crosses the hip. Sitting upright leaves it partly shortened; reclining the seat extends the hip and lengthens it properly. This is the exercise that fixes what the squat cannot reach.

Seated leg curl, not lying. The hamstrings cross the hip too. Seated means hip flexed means hamstring lengthened — and long-length training produces measurably more growth. If your gym has only a lying curl, use it, but the seated version is the better tool.

Standing calf raise trains gastrocnemius, which crosses the knee and needs a straight leg. Four sets because calves tolerate and need more frequency and volume than most muscles, and because they are the most commonly under-trained muscle in every program ever written.

Pause at the bottom of the calf raise. One full second, full stretch. Bouncing uses tendon elasticity, which is the opposite of loading the muscle.

#On the squat specifically

Go as deep as you can with a neutral spine. Depth loads the quads at longer lengths; cutting depth to add weight trades the stimulus for a number in your log.

If depth is limited by ankle or hip mobility, use a hack squat or heeled shoes and work the mobility separately. Do not grind a quarter squat for months.