As the 2022 Olympia weekend on Dec. 16-18, 2022, in Las Vegas, NV, approaches, two-time former Classic Physique Olympia champion Breon Ansley anticipates bringing the best package of his career to the stage for his final appearance in the division. Following the Olympia, the 43-year-old Ansley plans to move into the 212 division.
To present his best physique to date — meaning more muscle mass and tighter conditioning — Ansley’s strategy for workouts during his prep has been to attack them with high energy from the jump. Diving into his training aggressively rather than passively enables Ansley to squeeze more potential out of each workout. Check out Ansley’s leg session from Gold’s Gym in Venice, CA, in the video below, published on his YouTube channel on Nov. 28, 2022:
[Related: Four-Time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler Crushes an 11-Exercise Shoulder and Triceps Workout at 49 Years Old]
Ansley’s leg session in the video above occurred four weeks and one day out from the 2022 Olympia. He opened the workout with a warm-up consisting of single-leg extensions.
Set the tone right off the bat and don’t look back.
Although he didn’t specify the number of sets he performed on the leg extension machine, Ansley appeared to take each set to failure with a progressive overload methodology. He continued his unilateral training on the leg press. Ansley spotted his working leg with his resting leg to achieve maximum flexion and a clean lockout to keep the load heavy. Based on his foot placement towards the middle-lower section of the platform, Ansley biased his quads with each rep.
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Ansley’s third movement was weighted Bulgarian split squats. He posted one leg on a weight bench and held one 35-pound dumbbell in his hand adjacent to his working leg. The pacing of Ansley’s reps was highly measured. If you turn the video to two-time-speed, it still appears his movement is slow and controlled.
Each rep involves Ansley reaching maximum knee flexion with a forward tilt of his torso to train his glute in the fully lengthened position. If he kept his torso upright, he would bias the quads more than the glutes.
Stiff-leg Romanian dumbbell deadlifts were up next with a five-three tempo per rep — five-second eccentric and three-second concentric. The dumbells moved at a slight angle along Ansley’s legs rather than directly in front. This relieves pressure off Ansley’s lower back and falls more naturally in line with his structure. His flexibility was on display as each rep saw the dumbbell handles nearly touch the tops of his feet.
To remove his grip as a limiting factor, Ansley used lifting straps to increase the load with each set progressively. His final set was with a pair of 85-pound dumbbells.
Moving on to hamstrings, lying leg curls followed the deadlifts. He braced tightly to the pad to prevent his hips from rising, which would relieve tension from his hamstrings. He closed the workout with seated calf raises.
Ansley mentioned that he recognizes how much more developed his legs appear this season than last season. We’ll see if that added mass can convert a record-tying third Classic Physique Olympia title for him before the holidays.
Featured image: @breonma_ on Instagram
