06:00 Legs Day PT: Hip Abduction & Super Squat for a 40s Beginner

Daily · Published 3/19/2024 ·

05:40 — way too early, my brain still half-asleep… I drag myself up and head to the gym. I’ve got a PT session starting at 06:00. I’m a total beginner at this, and on my own I never really push my form or work a muscle until it’s actually tired, so I signed up for personal training. Today was legs, and we used two machines. First up, the hip abduction machine I do all the time.

This one works the glutes. You push from the inside out, really trying to feel it in your knees and glute muscles, and you have to be careful not to use the soles of your feet. The moment it gets even a little hard, your form starts to fall apart and twist, so my trainer says it’s actually better to just stop right there when it gets tough.

My shoes are Nike Metcons. The sole is on the firmer side, and I went looking for a shoe that helps with weight training, so that’s what I’m wearing. If it’s too stiff it could cause problems down the line if I ever do cardio, so I settled on a reasonable middle ground.

We bumped up the weight. I’d been doing around 20 reps per set, but it was feeling a bit too easy. So I’m working up into the 75–82 range. I’d planned on 4 sets, but my trainer said let’s do one more, so I ended up doing 5. Doing a whole bunch of different machines is fine, but he said it’s actually better to stick with one body part until you’ve worked it properly. So apparently it’s totally okay to do just two machines a day…

Next up was squats. Bodyweight squats are great and they work your core too, but for someone like me — no real strength, obese-level body fat, and pushing into my mid-40s — leaning on a machine for help isn’t a bad call either. It’s a machine from a brand called Panatta, and it’s called the Super Squat. Machine names vary from gym to gym anyway, so I don’t think that part really matters. It braces against your shoulders to stop your body from swaying side to side, and it also takes care of the tendency to drift backward. It’s a machine that lets you squat even if your core is weak.

I loaded a 5kg plate on each side and did 4 sets from a neutral stance.

Then I used the incline of the footplate to hit the back side for another 4 sets. It’d been a while since I worked legs, so I got a bit lightheaded. Legs are big muscles and the intensity is high, so I always end up yawning over and over after training them ^^;; I think being up at the crack of dawn doesn’t help either.

If you look at the joint right in front of you, your gaze stays steady and you don’t get that crease at the back of your neck. My trainer says that with any machine, if you’re not sure about your form, just fix your eyes on a spot where no crease forms at the back of your neck — that’ll be just right.

It feels great, but getting up at dawn is brutal. I need to push my bedtime a little earlier and lock in at least 7 hours, but I slept terribly last night. I really need to get this routine dialed in.

I’m a 40-something who eats one meal a day and still doesn’t lose weight. So now I’m losing it with one workout a day. A little clinical trial on myself. ^^

Thanks for reading.

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