Whether you’re a physique-sport competitor looking for a new lower-body workout finisher, a performance athlete looking to improve your lower-body power-endurance, or a fitness enthusiast looking for a new metabolic workout challenge to spice up your training – Look no further than the Performance U 20-20-10-10 Leg Complex!
To do the 20-20-10-10 Leg Complex, perform the following exercises back-to-back:
x20 reps of Speed Squats (w/ hands at or behind head)
x20 seconds of a Squat Iso-Hold (just above parallel w/ arms out in-front of your body)
x10 Gorilla Burpees (See this post for more on why we do Burpee in this manner)
x10 Squat Jumps (Land lightly, and stay above parallel to maximize speed)
Here’s a video of your truly performing (my second round of) the 20-20-10-10 Leg Complex to finish a lower-body workout.
Personal Training Notes:
– In the Performance U training approach this leg complex would be used at the end of a Lower-body or Total-body strength training workout, once or twice per week, for 2-3 sets with 2-3min rest between sets.
– If we want to make this protocol a bit easier, we’ll simply reduce the reps to 18,18,9,9 or 16,16,8,8. Or, we may do a pyramid with the first set done for 20,20,10,10 reps; the second set done for 18,18,9,9 reps; and the third set done for 16,16,8,8 reps.
In these cases, to create progressive overload, each week we’d add reps until the individual can hammer out 3 rounds, each of 20,20,10,10 reps with no more than 2min rest between each set.
– If we want to further the challenge of this leg complex we’ll simply add a 5-10lb weight vest or have the individual hold a 6-10lb medicine ball. (Note: With the medicine ball, the gorilla burpees involve the hands staying on top of the ball each time you go down to the floor as pictured below.)
– You can squeeze more juice out of this complex, you can simply reverse the order of the exercises, making it the 10-10-20-20 protocol:
x10 Squat Jumps
x10 Gorilla Burpees
x20 seconds of a Squat Iso-Hold
x20 reps of Speed Squats
– For those advanced fitness enthusiasts and athletes who are into timed fitness challenges, we might tell them to perform 3-rounds of this leg complex in as little time as they can (while demonstrating good control of each rep throughout).
