What Tom Platz's Leg Workout Was Like

Tom Platz's Leg Workout

The following workout was taken from interviews found in bodybuilding magazines and was hardly the only leg workout used by Tom Platz.

However, because we found the same workout in more than one interview, it's possible to get an idea that this routine at least serves as a basis for Tom Platz's philosophy regarding his leg training.

Tom Platz's leg workout looked something like this:

Free squat: 8-12 sets of 5-20 repsHack squats: 5 sets of 10-15 repsLeg extension: 5-8 sets of 10-15 repsLeg curls: 6-10 sets of 10-15 repsStanding Calf Raise: 3-4 sets of 10-15 repsSeated Calf Raise: 3-4 sets of 10-15 reps

If you're good at mental math, you may have noticed the absurd number of sets for some exercises. That's right. Tom Platz's leg workout could have as many as 43 sets total.

If you think this might be a lot, you're right—it's absurdly a lot for most "normal" people. However, there's a surprising amount of flexibility when you look at Platz's training philosophy.

Variable number of repetitions

A striking feature of Tom Platz's leg day routine is the lack of rigidity in his set and rep schemes. You'll notice that his squat prescription ranges from as few as five reps to as many as 20.

Not only does this help prevent boredom (if you choose to tackle all 12 sets), but a wide variety of rep ranges will train slightly different goals.

For example, if you train with 5 repetitions, you may gain more strength over time. While training with more repetitions (15-20) may generate more metabolic stress and improve your fitness.

Use of machines

While most golden-age bodybuilders opted for compound exercises with free weights, Tom Platz wasn't afraid of machines.

This approach pairs well with high-volume training. Machines eliminate much of the need to stabilize the weight, and on leg day, this work is typically done by your spine.

Additionally, machines can generate targeted work on the muscle you want and still allow you to train at a high intensity without fear of dropping the weight on you if you fail in the middle of the set.

Tom Platz was definitely thinking way ahead of his time.

Smart order of exercises

Tom Platz was also very clever when it came to sequencing the exercises.

Notice that he started his workout with the most technically difficult and demanding exercise—the squat—while he still had plenty of energy.

Approaches like these ensure you can put in maximum effort, maintain good form, and work hard on the most important exercise of your workout.

Note again that as the workout progresses, only machines remain, which work muscles in a single joint. They require less energy than a squat (for example), and it's smarter to save them for the end of the workout.

How to Implement Tom Platz's Workout

A few healthy (and obvious) caveats first: Tom Platz had the genetics, decades of experience, and work ethic to train with over 40 sets of leg training. Therefore, even if someone could copy his workout exactly, the end result wouldn't be the same.

Next, we'll look at how to implement Tom Platz's workout, considering that it will be implemented by someone who has been weight training regularly for some time, with the necessary modifications that take this into account.

Right off the bat, the biggest change you can make to Platz's leg day (if you don't have the decades of weight room experience he had) is to cut out some of the volume.

Platz's exercise selection isn't actually that extravagant. Two compound exercises followed by isolation training using a machine.

An example of a workout with less volume would look like this:

Free squat: 4 sets of 5-20 repetitionsHack squat: 4 sets of 10-15 repsLeg extension: 3 sets of 10-15 repetitionsLeg curl: 4 sets of 10-15 repsStanding Calf Raise: 3 sets of 10-15 repsSeated Calf Raise: 3 sets of 10-15 reps

Note that this is still a high-volume leg day, clocking in at almost 20 sets of work, but it's nowhere near the 40+ heavy sets.