Hunter Labrada Breaks Down Techniques for Each Movement in his Leg Training
Hunter Labrada, a potential contender for the 2023 Mr. Olympia, shares his latest leg day workout and provides a detailed breakdown of the techniques used in each movement.
Written By Tahir Malik
The 2023 Arnold Classic was held, and Samson Dauda was declared the winner of the second-most prestigious professional bodybuilding contest. His victory earned him qualification for the 2023 Mr. Olympia contest scheduled to be held in Orlando, FL from Nov. 2-5, 2023.
The new Olympia qualification system requires non-Olympia champions or previous year’s podium finishers to win a pro show to qualify. Therefore, many of the top-tier bodybuilders in the sport will have to participate and win a pro show before November. One of these bodybuilders is Hunter Labrada, who finished fourth in the 2021 Olympia. He took to his YouTube channel on March 3, 2023, to share the first leg day of his new training split, which focuses on adding mass.
In the video below, Hunter Labrada shares his hypertrophic leg day routine and also reveals his go-to pre-workout drink
The 2023 Arnold Classic was held, and Samson Dauda was declared the winner of the second-most prestigious professional bodybuilding contest. His victory earned him qualification for the 2023 Mr. Olympia contest scheduled to be held in Orlando, FL from Nov. 2-5, 2023.
Labrada’s measured pre-workout contains the following:
- 80 grams of intra-carbs
- 10 grams of EAAs
- One scoop of Labrada Pro Series Pump
- Five grams of Creatine
The combination of these ingredients provides the energy and endurance needed to sustain a high-intensity workout, particularly for a heavy leg day routine. The intra-carbs help maintain energy levels during exercise, while the EAAs support muscle protein synthesis. The pre-workout also includes Labrada Pro Series Pump, a supplement designed to enhance muscle pumps and blood flow to the muscles, and creatine, which helps increase muscle strength and power.
Once to the gym, the first order of business is rolling out the muscles on a foam roller that does not appear to be the most comfortable for Labrada, though beneficial nonetheless. This is a common technique used by athletes to increase blood flow to the muscles, which can help reduce soreness and improve flexibility. While most gym-goers might use an app on their phone to log the weights, reps, and sets of their training sessions, Labrada still prefers using a pencil and logbook.
Labrada stresses the importance of logging one’s training, so the trends from week to week and month to month are recognizable. Knowing if strength gains or any other measurable metric is on an upward trajectory, or plateauing is valuable for making requisite adjustments to hit the long-term goals. By tracking progress over time, athletes can identify areas of weakness and adjust their training accordingly to continue to make gains.
Hunter Labrada’s 2023 Quarter One Leg Workout
Hunter Labrada’s leg workout focuses on building mass as he builds himself back up from his Olympia cut. At the time of the video’s publication, he only does one working set per compound movement. His workout includes seated hamstring curls, leg extensions, leg press, unilateral hip press, adductors, and standing calf raises. Labrada still feels sore several days after a single working set of each compound movement, which tells him that adding more volume would be premature.
When setting up the seated leg curl, Labrada ensures that the pivot point of the machine is in line with the knee, and the pad under the heels is not too high up the calf. He performs the leg curls by driving the knees up into the pad and pressing the heels straight down.
Moving on to leg extensions, Labrada keeps the active range of motion until external rotation would relieve tension on the quads. He keeps his hips packed tight to the pad and maintains internal rotation of the legs to apply pressure to an imaginary yoga block between them. If the hips externally rotate at the bottom of the movement, the tension is lost from the quads as the athlete is beyond their active range of motion.
Labrada doesn’t add weight to any movement until he can perform 13 clean reps without any hiccups in form.