The SST “888” Prosperity Workout!

Do you have any Chinese friends?  or know the Chinese culture at all?  If you do, then you would recognize the number 8 to be a lucky number in the Chinese culture.  For many years the Chinese have believed the number 8 to be lucky and that it is also known for “prosperity”, “sudden fortune”, and “making money”. Now who wouldn’t want any of these characteristics?

 

Many of you may have read and followed SST’s popular 666 Devil workout (no, I am not a devil worshipper for all you catholic’s out there … but some may think that after following this program!) I have devised a Leg workout that will not only bring you prosperity but also some good fortune with some newfound LEGS!



Now enough about the history of the number 8, lets understand why we, as strength coaches, like this number and how it can be useful in devising a leg program.  Many of you will understand that 8 reps of any exercise will bring about muscle hypertrophy but you may not be aware that 8 reps are on the edge of what I call “Functional Hypertrophy”. Functional hypertrophy is muscle mass that is pertinent to your sport and not just for show! 

 

As mentioned previously, 8 is a lucky number but the Chinese also consider the number 888 to be auspicious because it has more than one 8 in a row.  How are we going to create a program with so many 8’s?  We are going to take three leg exercises and perform a tri set with each set having 8 reps.  These three exercises will be performed for 8 sets; if anyone has done a leg workout for 8 sets of 8 reps they would know that this is not “sudden fortune” but more like torture! Compound this by doing three exercises in a row and you will create some luck with some impressive size on your legs.  To top this all off; the last rep of each set I instruct my athletes (some 50 years old) to hold the weight at different angles for… you guessed it! … 8 seconds!  It has been shown that isometric holds are great for developing strength 15 degrees up or down from the specific joint angle and to help you push through any sticking points that are hindering your progress.

 

Ok enough is enough … or is it eight is enough? … well, whatever let’s get to this leg prosperity workout:

 

Exercise Order	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Tempo	Rest
A1	Full Squats	8	8	401 ( last rep 8 sec hold at 90 degrees)	15sec
A2	2 leg ham curls	8	8	301 ( last rep 8 sec hold at 30 degrees or bottom range)	15sec
A3	Lunges	8	8 each leg	20X	180

 

As you can see, I have chosen a gut wrenching exercise like the squat as my first exercise and finished with a one-legged exercise, such as the lunge or any form of split squats.  I do this to decompress the spine from the squat portion of the workout.

 

I also like this workout for our clients here at SST due to the lactate production resulting from the longer working time of the tri sets and the larger muscle groups being used.  Why is this useful? Increased lactate results in increased growth hormone. By stimulating this powerful hormone, you are increasing your muscle mass and decreasing body fat!  Who wouldn’t like that?

 

Beware! 8 is a lucky number but many people may look at this and think … only three exercises for 8 reps … piece of cake!  Let me tell you, this is not the case! Performing 24 sets of legs for a total of 192 reps will bring on some serious soreness but will also bring you the prosperity of new found leg size!

Please give this work out a try and provide me some before and after pics of your legs!

The author, Larry Jusdanis is the owner of Sports Specific Training Inc. (SST) and is a certified strength and conditioning coach. Larry has worked with thousands of athletes in a wide variety of sports and still uses this program for fat loss with his athletes. If you would like more information please visit www.sstcanada.com.