German bodybuilder Mike Sommerfeld turned pro in the IFBB Pro League in 2019. His pro debut was a 13th-place finish at the 2019 IFBB Romania Muscle Fest Pro show in the 212 division.
Sommerfeld transitioned to Classic Physique in 2020, clinching the silver medal at the 2020 IFBB British Grand Prix. He emerged victorious at the 2021 IFBB Xtreme Bodybuilding & Fitness Pro show to secure his maiden Olympia qualification, ultimately ranking seventh on bodybuilding’s grandest stage.
Sommerfeld returned to the Olympia twice more in subsequent years, finishing fifth in 2022 and eighth in 2023. On Feb. 6, 2024, a three-time Classic Physique Olympia competitor published a video on his YouTube channel wherein he shared his quad-dominant workout and warm-up routine. Check it out below:
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Warm-Up
Before Sommerfeld started his quad-biased workout, he warmed his hamstrings with three sets of 20 repetitions on the lying leg curls to get the synovial fluid into the knees. Synovial fluid is a thick, viscous liquid that has three main functions: (1)
- Lubricates joints and allows bone ends to move without friction.
- Acts as a shock absorber.
- Supplies nutrients to the cartilage at the ends of bones and carries away waste.
Sommerfeld then performed a front foot elevated quad stretch to loosen the glutes, hips, ankles, knees, adductors, and hip flexors. He recommended rocking the knees and ankles in their fully stretched positions.
Sommerfeld dropped into a deep squat while holding onto a flat bench and rocked back and forth and side to side to enhance hip flexibility and reduce stiffness in the joints, tendons, and ligaments. He followed with thoracic rotations while in a deep squat to improve spinal mobility.
For the final segment of his warm-up routine, Sommerfeld performed 20 hack squats with a pause at the bottom of each rep.
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Mike Sommerfeld Leg Day Workout
Here is a snapshot of Sommerfeld’s training session:
- Hack Squats
- Leg Press
- Unilateral Leg Extensions
- Adductor Machine
- Seated Hamstring Curl
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Hack Squats
Sommerfeld employed slow eccentrics and paused at the bottom of each rep for deep quad and glute stretches. A randomized controlled trial published in Neuroendocrinology Letters found that slow eccentrics with increased time under tension were effective for increasing acute hormonal responses post-exercise, which could play a significant role in stimulating hypertrophy. (2)
Sommerfeld advised pushing the knees over the toes on the eccentrics to achieve full knee flexion, maximizing quad activation. He performed three sets to failure.
Leg Press
Sommerfeld favors the Cybex leg press machine as its line of pull enables greater knee flexion, helping load the quads more than machines with more linear movement patterns.
Sommerfeld used a wider-than-hip-width stance to engage his adductors. He recommended pulling the knees behind the midline on eccentrics for optimal target muscle stimulation.
Sommerfeld highlighted the importance of pausing at the bottom to eliminate momentum, ensuring the quads and glutes moved the weight.
The goal is to use as little weight as possible and generate the greatest possible stimulus.
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Unilateral Leg Extensions & Adductor Machine
Unilateral training can be effective for fixing strength and muscle imbalances. Sommerfeld prefers single-leg extensions over the bilateral variation as they allow a better quad contraction in the fully shortened position.
“I believe adductors are among the most important muscles in the lower body…and that’s what I’m missing,” said Sommerfeld. Developed adductors add thickness to the upper legs, improving the aesthetic balance of several competitive poses.
Sommerfeld’s rest time between sets varies, but he rests as long as is necessary to optimize the following set’s performance.
[Related: The Anatomy of Your Leg Muscles, Explained (and How To Train Them)]
Seated Hamstring Curl
Sommerfeld concluded his workout with seated hamstring curls — five sets of 20 reps (100 reps in total) to get as much blood in the target muscles as possible.
A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that the greater the muscle swelling immediately after resistance training, the greater the muscle hypertrophy after the workout. (3)
Sommerfeld slipped to eighth place at the 2023 Olympia, a three-place drop from the year prior. He punched his ticket to the 2024 Classic Physique Olympia, scheduled for Oct. 10-13 in Las Vegas, NV, by winning the 2023 Battle of Bogota Pro.
References
- Seidman, A. J., & Limaiem, F. (2023). Synovial Fluid Analysis. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing.
- Wilk, M., Stastny, P., Golas, A., Nawrocka, M., Jelen, K., Zajac, A., & Tufano, J. J. (2018). Physiological responses to different neuromuscular movement task during eccentric bench press. Neuro endocrinology letters, 39(1), 26–32.
- Hirono, T., Ikezoe, T., Taniguchi, M., Tanaka, H., Saeki, J., Yagi, M., Umehara, J., & Ichihashi, N. (2022). Relationship Between Muscle Swelling and Hypertrophy Induced by Resistance Training. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 36(2), 359–364. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000003478
Featured image: @mikethebadass on Instagram
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