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British IFBB pro bodybuilder James Hollingshead underwent a very stressful year physically. He even contemplated retirement and but did not go through with it.
After finishing 16th at the 2022 Mr. Olympia, he returned to training in the gym. Considering a strenuos last year, he has decided to go easy on his body. He said, according to FitnessVolt:
"Obviously, we always want to do better, and I will be better. But right now, I’m going into a phase where I got out of a very busy year, a very hard year in terms of stress on the body. So I’ve got to be quite kind to myself. So we’re going to be back in training today."
James Hollingshead's three key exercises
He shared three key exercises for leg development and added in a little bonus exercise at the end. However, it's important to note that everyone's body is different, and one form of exercise might not suit everybody. Let's get started:
1) Lying Leg Curl
James Hollingshead thinks that hamstrings are an overlooked muscle group in workout routines. He believes that leg curls are a great way to warm up the knees without adding too much stress to them.
So the 32-year-old advices to pick a movement that works the hamstrings first in any lower body training session. However, there's no compulsion to do one specific leg curl variation, as one can do them while seating, lying or standing as long as one starts with the hamstring exercises.
He said:
"A lot of people come to the gym, they jump into the leg extensions; they do the leg press. They’re pretty fatigued by the time they’ve done the quads. Legs are tired. They do some hamstrings at the end, but it’s kind of half-a**ed."
2) Prime Leg Extension
Prime leg extensions focus on the quadriceps, and James Hollingshead swears by them as the second-most important exercise for the legs. If one is using the prime plate-loaded leg extensions, it has three different loading pins naturally with different functions.
A constant resistance is maintained throughout the whole range of motion by loading the weight on the middle pin. Resistance is increased initially by the top pin and decreases when the contraction is shortened. Meanwhile, the bottom pin causes the movement to be lighter at first and develops resistance as the concentric phase comes to an end.
Hollingshead talked about the two pins to take advantage of:
"So really the two pins you want to take advantage of are (the middle and the top loading pins). In your earlier sets, you want to be loading in the middle pin, and as you progress, it would be wise to start loading the distribution between the two."
3) Safety Bar Squat
On a normal day James Hollingshead employs different variations of squats, like heel-elevated squats, to put more emphasis on a specific muscle group. However on a day when he performs only the three key movements, the main goal changes.
On such a day, the focus is to equally load all the muscles in the lower body without giving importance to a particular one. So, he prefers safety bar squats.
4) Donkey Calf Raise (Hollingshead's bonus key movement)
James Hollingshead works his calves on the machine with donkey calf raises. Although the bodybuilder hasn't had a striking performance in Mr. Olympia so far he has maintained a positive attitude.
He has his eyes now set on the 2023 Mr. Olympia. And well, one can never know when things would turn around.
