Bodybuilder Michal Krizo is utilising the off-season for bulking up. Recently, he went through a lower body workout to add more bulk to his girthy legs.
After a series of dominant performances in the IFBB Elite Pro League, Slovakia’s own Michal Krizo started his Olympia campaign by switching over to the NPC. He earned the IFBB Pro card with a dominant win at the 2022 Amateur Olympia Italy.
Making a return at the 2022 EVLS Prague Pro a few weeks later, Krizo managed to pull off a win in his Pro debut. However, his conditioning at the show became a big point of criticism. Undeterred by the negative feedback, Krizo went back to the drawing board and started preparing for the biggest challenge of his bodybuilding career as the win earned him a direct qualification to the 2022 Mr. Olympia.
The Men’s Open division at the 2022 Olympia boasted the most difficult line-up in recent memory. Krizo held his ground for the most part nevertheless and managed to finish in the top 15 on the grandest stage of bodybuilding.
Having received the necessary experience of competing at the elite level within a year of turning Pro, Krizo now readies himself to tackle the next competitive season. He is set to make a return at the 2023 Arnold Classic UK. The Slovak’s recent leg workout was a part of his effort to prepare his physique for the upcoming competitive season.
The short training session consisted of a few compound movements coupled with isolation movements for targeting major muscle groups in the lower body. The video of this session was posted on Krizo’s personal YouTube channel. So let’s jump right into it and see how Krizo is adding more bulk to his legs.
Michal Krizo goes through a leg workout
Hack Squats
Krizo kicked off the workout with this compound movement. Hack Squats offer similar benefits that traditional barbell squats offer in terms of primary muscle activation and strength gain. Just like the Barbell squats, Hack Squats target the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, hip flexors, calves and core muscles. However, they are generally safer than traditional squats and put far less stress on the lower back.
Krizo got a few good sets of this movement under his belt and took to a quad-focused exercise afterwards.
Leg Extensions
The Slovakian bodybuilder performed this quad isolation exercise next to stimulate the quadriceps further. After pushing through all the sets of leg extensions, Krizo went back to working with a heavy compound exercise.
Leg Press
Quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, adductor and abductor muscles are the primary target muscles of leg press. It is a compound movement that can really help build bigger legs when done with correct form and technique. Krizo did a few reps of leg press in each set unilaterally and switched over to working with both legs for the last few reps. After working his way through some punishing sets, the 2022 EVLS Prague Pro winner took to the second isolation movement of the day.
Lying Leg Curls
Krizo next performed the lying leg curls which is a hamstrings isolation movement. Apart from working the hamstrings, leg curls are an excellent way to warm up the knee joints which are crucial in performing most of the lower body movements. Hence they make for a perfect first exercise as well. Krizo cranked out some solid sets of lying leg curls and took to the final exercise of the day.
Seated Calf Raises
Michal Krizo wrapped up the training session with a few sets of seated calf raises. This variation of calf raises works the soleus muscle that lies underneath the gastrocnemius muscle in the calf region.
Krizo pushed through a few heavy sets of the movement and called it a day in the gym.
Overall, the workout included:
Michal Krizo is one of the young up-and-coming contenders in the Men’s Open division of the IFBB Pro League. If he puts the right amount of work in and improves his physique enough, the Slovak can certainly push aside the older generation of bodybuilders and dominate the sport in the years to come.
You can watch the full workout video here, courtesy of Michal Krizo’s personal YouTube channel: