6 weeks prior to the Mr. Olympia contest, we flew out to Chicago, IL to catch up with Beast athlete, Brandon Hendrickson.
While there we got an inside look into how he trains. And in this particular video, we captured how hard Brandon pushes himself during his leg workouts.
All that hard work paid off, as he is the (new) 2018 Men’s Physique Olympia Champion.
Watch the video to see what it took from a training aspect to become the best in the world.
Brandon Hendrickson’s Brutal Leg Workout
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| 1a. Standing Hamstring Curl | 4 | 12 Each |
| 1b. Walking Lunges | 4 | 10 Each |
| 2a. Lying Leg Curl | 4 | 20 |
| 2b. Machine Adduction | 4 | 15 |
| 3. High Feet Leg Press | 1 | 6 Plate Drop Set |
| 4. Leg Extension | 3 | 14 |
| 5. Barbell Back Squat | 5 | 10-15 |
| 6. Narrow Stance Leg Press | 3 | 20 |
| 7. Wide Stance Leg Press | 1 | Drop Set |
Brandon’s coach, Mandus Buckle, starts off his leg workouts by challenging him to pre-exhaust his hamstrings through several hamstring isolation exercises. This helps to tax the quads to an even greater extent during later quad-dominant compound movements.
When performing walking lunges, they do so out and to the side to ensure a little more hamstring and glute activation.
Brandon likes to train legs, despite the fact that many think Men’s Physique competitors never do, because he feels when you have big legs it makes your physique look more complete on stage.
Mandus mentions that to be considered top 5 in the world, you have to do everything. You have to have great genetics, you have to do cardio, and you have to hit the weights intensely. Because at this level, the only thing that separates them is the amount of work they put in.
When performing high feet leg press, they start off with 6 plates on the machine and perform 1 giant drop set until they’ve reached 1 plate on each side.
On Leg Extensions, Brandon performs the first 7 with a 7 second hold at the top of the movement. Afterwards, he finishes the rest of the 7 reps with normal rep tempo.
On the last set of barbell back squat, they perform a single drop set totaling 30 reps.
For their last exercise, they perform a continuous drop set on wide stance leg press. They load the press with three 45lb plates and a 25lb plate on each side. As Brandon performs the continuous set, Mandus strips the weight one plate at a time.
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