Love Island contestants spend their days talking in gardens and playing challenges. But between the chats they lift. Most of the programming looks dubious. Then there is Carl Witness Lee Schmidt.
The Denver native is NASM-certified. Fans call him the people’s prince. I call him competent. He posts strength sessions on Instagram constantly. I needed to test his recent leg day routine. It featured three moves: barbell squats, a heel-elevated hybrid, and Spanish squats. Three moves only sounded safe. I was wrong.
The Workouts
Barbell Back Squats
Carl performs front squats in the clip. My wrists hate those. I substituted back squats instead. It is my standard go-to. After a warmup with empty weight I loaded the bar. I chose a lighter weight than usual since I had just returned from a vacation week of no training.
I tried elevating my heels on a wedge. A trainer at my gym suggested it. Carl also raised his heels later in his video. The trick changes the biomechanics instantly.
It helps you squat lower. It isolates the quads harder. I hit a deeper range of motion than usual. My muscles engaged differently. It felt significantly heavier. Four sets of ten reps left me fatigued. The weight was lower but the intensity was higher.
Elevating your heels allows for deeper depth and quad isolation.
Heel-Elevated Squat To Alternating Lunge
I hold a kettlebell at the chest. Feet are close together. Heels are up on a plate. I squat down until my heels touch. This specific variation humbled me. It happened right after the heavy barbell sets.
Mentally tough. Physically awkward. It feels wrong at first. After a few reps you find balance. The heel elevation targets quads over glutes. The lunge adds instability. It becomes a full-body struggle.
Six reps per set was my max. Heavy weight. I nearly failed on rep four every time. I was sweating profusely. Winded. It felt like cardio disguised as strength training. Why do we ignore unilateral stability in gym programming?
Spanish Squats
Resistance bands wrapped around a pole. It looked easy. A simple bodyweight squat with added tension. The first few reps felt mild. I moved back farther from the pole. More distance meant more resistance.
Suddenly standing up became difficult. The quad tension spiked. I did three normal sets plus a bonus set with heels elevated. My legs shook violently by the end. A small mechanical tweak created a massive intensity shift.
The Aftermath
Carl knows how to design fatigue. My quads shook during the session. They burned three days later. I write this with soreness in every quad fiber. It has not gone away.
The total time was roughly 30 minutes. Three moves. Heavy loads. The rest periods required extension. I normally rest two minutes. I needed three. My body was fried. The intensity outweighed the volume.
New Gear, New Rules
Heel elevation is now mandatory for me. It hits the quads cleaner. I will add the squat-lunge hybrid and Spanish squats to rotation. They are effective. They break the monotony of standard squats and lunges.
The only flaw is the lack of calf work. Carl likely did not film the full session. I added weighted single-leg raises at the end. It balances the program.
Carl is indeed the king of squats. I want the arm day video next. Let us see what happens then.
