Mon., 12/31/12, Chest and Tri's

Well.... I had a merry Christmas; I hope everyone out there did as well. The only down side was: Getting The Flu! I puked til I passed out- not a super fun experience, but alas, I survived.
So today was the first workout back after relaxing and celebrating Christmas with my family on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; throwing up on Friday; and recovering on Saturday and Sunday.
I didn't go too crazy today- not wanting to mess myself up. Here's what it looked like:
incline dumbell press: 20's-10; 30's-10; 40's-10; 55's-12; 70's-10; 85's-10; 100's-10
flat dumbell press: 50's-12; 75's-12; 100's-6
dips:                                           10; 10
   superset with machine fly: 150-8,  8 then right back to dips for 1 more set of 6 + 2 rest-pauses
rope pushdown: 70-20; 100-11; 120-7
seated 1-arm dumbell extension: 35-10,6
lying triceps extension: 70-8; 90-8
I finished it all up with 1 more set of machine flyes just to pump more blood into the chest... it was a great pump!

On a progress note: I think the increased frequency must be cranking up my metabollism, because I measured my waist Christmas morning and it was 31 1/4" and this morning it was 31". It usually hangs around 32" in the off season- look out!

Dec. 24, 2012, Full-Body Workout

This morning I arose at 4:20am to train myself at 5:45 and several others immediately following- getting it all in early before the Christmas festivities all start.
I will not train again until Saturday, so I wanted to hit all the big muscle groups to avoid extreme soreness next week. The game plan was to hit each muscle group with just 1 or 2 exercises, doing sets of 10 until I could not get 10, increasing the weight each set. Here's how it went:

OBVIOUSLY SQUATS: 45-20; 95-15; 135-12; 225-10; 315-10; 405-8
seated leg curl: 110-10; 125-10; 140-11

incline dumbell press:        30's-10; 50's-10; 75's-10; 100's-14
super set with barbell rows: 95-10; 135-10; 185-10;  235-8

machine fly: 170-12,?,?
super set with straight arm rope pulldown: 130-?,?,?

20 minutes on the treadmill.....
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Sat., 12/22/12, Delts

Today is shoulder day, but my neck is a little creeky and my shoulders are stiff and sore. So I did not want to put a bunch of weight on them. Instead I did some giant sets. At the end I put some real intensity into it, but I didn't have to use much weight. Here's what it looked like:

laterals; bent over laterals; seated dumbell presses; dumbell front raises; hammer strength press; machine rear laterals; and machine laterals: I went through this 4-6 times (I'm honestly not sure) with 8-12 reps each exercise and increasing the weight each set......they were pumped!

Fri., 12/21/12, Back/ Bi's

Basic stuff today. I didn't do any barbell rows- that's unusual for me. Here it is:
bosu crunch: 30/ bench crunch: 30
under hand grip pulldown: 90-15; 120-12; 150-12; 180-12; 210-9; 240-6
seated double D grip row: 150-12; 180-9; 210-9
1-arm plate-loaded nautilus row: 90-10; 135-8,8
dumbell preacher curl: 20's-12; 30's-12; 40's-7
spider curl: 30-8, 4+2/ 20-10
barbell curl: 90-8,8,8

Thur., 12/20/12, Chest/Calves/Tri's

I got a killer pump today! Not too much volume is needed right now with my slightly increased volume (in other words: I can't destroy it too bad, because it's gonna get worked again in 4-5 days.) Here's what today's workout looked like:

calf press: 90-30; 180-25; 270-20; 360-15; 450-12; 520-8
smith machine calf raise: 180-15; 270-11,11 + 2 drop sets
bosu crunch: 30, 60
swiss ball leg raise (I made this up: lie across a swiss ball, hold onto a machine with your hands, and raise your legs to 90 degrees.): 15,15
incline dumbell press: 20's-20; 35's-15; 50's-12; 65's-10; 75's-10; 85's-10; 100's-8
machine fly: 150-12; 170-8 + 4 + 3
dip (for chest): 10, 10, 10
rope pushdown: 100-15; 130-8; 110-7
1-arm dumbell lying tri-extension: 40-8,5 (no rest)
1-arm reverse pushdown: 60-11,7,6 (no rest)
free-motion cable chest press (just to finish it all off and tie the chest and tris together): 60-12,15

Wed., Dec. 19, 2012, Leg Day

Today I officially broke the routine: I trained my legs on Wednesday. If you've followed me, you know that for a long time I've been training legs on thursday. I recently changed the split: now it's day#1 chest/ tri's; day#2 back/bi's; day#3 shoulders; day#4 legs. This increases my frequency a bit because I'm usually training 5 days a week- so 1 day gets hit twice and it changes every week.

So today's workout: NUTS!
I started with hamstrings- lying leg curls: 30-20; 60-15; 90-12; 120-11
followed by seated leg curl: 110-12; 125-10; 140-9
Then it got fun-
squat: 45-20; 135-10; 225-6; 315-30
reverse lunges: 95-10
leg extension: 135-14

.....I want a pizza!

Mon., 12/17/12, Back and Biceps

Incredible pump this morning. I didn't do too much volume, just enough to get it done thoroughly. Here's how it went:
three abs and lower back circuits to start: bosu crunch, hyper-extension, roman chair, and swiss ball crunch
then warm up with pulldowns: 80-15; 110-10; 140-12
wide pull-up: 12, 12, 12, 9
under-grip row: 135-8; 185-8; 225-8; 275-5
nautilus plate-loaded pulldown: 180-12; 270-8,8
seated dumbell curl (keeping the palms up): 20's-12; 30's-10; 40's-11 (I think)
bent-over concentration curl: 40-10; 50-6; 60-6
reverse curl: 40-15; 50-12; 60-8 + 1 set of cable curls: 150-?+3 drop-sets

Fri., 12/14/12, Chest/Tri's

This is the whole workout from beginning to end:
bosu crunch: 30,30,30
knee-ups: 30,30,30
incline smith machine press: 50-15; 100-12,8,6; 150-10; 200-7+ 2drop-sets
flat dumbell press: 50's-12; 65's-12; 80's-10
cable-cross-over: 60-12; 80-12,?
cross-bench-pullover: 50-12; 60-12; 70-12
lying triceps extension: 50-15; 70-12; 90-12; 110-8
seated rope cable extension: 80-12; 100-10,8
seated 1-arm dumbell extension: 35-10,10,10

Thursday-Legday 12/13/12

Another leg workout in the books. I've said it many times and I'll say it again: Leg day is the hardest workout; it requires more energy, taxes the nervous system more, just plain wears you out! I'm still alternating starting with quads one week and hams the next. So this week I started with quads. I agrivated my lower back a little last week with V-grip rows. It wasn't too bad, I just have to be careful; I herniated a disk 3 years ago, so I HAVE to be careful: I didn't want to put 405 on my back today. So, I did all sets of 10 including more sets on the way up than usual. Check it out:

squat: 45-20; 95-10; 135-10; 185-10; 225-10; 275-10; 315-10; 365-10 (and if I had gone down again, I would not have come up: failure.)
leg press: 450-10; 630-10; 810-11
seated leg curl: 110-12; 140-12 (barely!)
lying leg curl: 135-5+ 4drop-sets (absolutely killer!)
alternating lunge: 95-10 (these were only to stimulate the glutes a little more, no failure, I was pretty much toast at this point)

Immediately after the workout: I had 45g whey protein; did 20 minutes cardio; ate a big sweet potato and an orange; and 1 hour 15 minutes after that had a very large portion of this chicken and pasta dish that my wife makes, it has a bit of fat, a ton of carbs and a lot of protein... that's how you grow!

Wed., 12/12/12, Shoulders/Calves

I started with calves, focussing on the weak point. Total focus and concentration went into every set, flexing and squeezing the calf muscles, visualizing new growth. I did 7 sets of calf presses and 4 sets of 1-calf presses, and they were tight and pumped. For delts I did the normal rotator cuff exercises, and then changed it up. First was the Hammer Strength press: 50-15; 90-12; 140-12; 180-12; 230-10; 270-5 +fail+2drop-sets. Second was machine lateral raise: 80-15; 100-12; 120-12, 7. Third was machine rear lateral: 120-15; 140-12; 160-?,?. Then I hit a light circuit of arnold press, front raise, behind the neck press, and dumbell front raise; just to further the pump. And I finished it off with seated dumbell shrug: 25's-15; 50's-15; 75's-15; 100's-12. And boom, that's it! Got a great pump and really stimulated the muscle fibers. I then drank 50g whey protein and ate a sweet potato, an orange and 1/2 cup oatmeal. That's how you grow.

Mon., Dec. 10, 2012, Chest

I got a great workout in this morning. Just chest today; I did a little ab work to warm up before the real work. The focus was on squeezing the muscle and keeping it as isolated as possible; sets were close together ( 1 minute or less); intensity was high. Here's what it looked like:

incline dumbell press: 20's-20; 35's-10; 50's-10; 65's-10; 80's-10; 90's-10; 100's-10 +fail
incline hammer strength press: 180-10, 10 to failure
machine fly: 150-10; 160-10; 170-10; 180-7
dip: 12,12,10

Fri., 12/07/12, Shoulders

Good workout today. I had plenty of time and I used it:
3 sets machine crunch
2 sets bosu crunch
1 set leg raise
3 sets rope crunch

6 sets smith machine calf raise
4 sets calf presses

rotator cuff work (I do this before every shoulder and chest workout: lateral dumbell rotations, light laterals, fronts, pulldowns and cable internal rotations)
5 sets lateral raise with rest pause and drop sets on the end
3 sets machine laterals
4 sets seated cable rear laterals
5 sets hammer strength press (facing the pad)
3 sets rear shrugs + 1 set dumbell shrugs

20 minutes stepmill

12/06/12, Thursday-Legday

KILLER!
lying leg curl: 30-10; 45-10; 60-10; 75-10; 90-10; 105-10; 120-6+2+2
standing 1-leg curl: 75-10,5
squat: 45-20; 135-10; 225-10; 315-10; 405-9
leg press: 360-12; 540-12; 720-10+3
walking lunges: 135- ?
leg extension: 135-12+2+2
AND THEY WERE DEAD!!!!

WED., 12/05/12, ARMS

I decided to change it up a bit today. I started with cambered bar curls, which I rarely do- I much prefer a straight bar- but I thought it would be good to confuse the muscle a little. I wanted to hit it from a wide range of angels. Here's what the workout looked like:

cambered bar curl:                        50-10; 60-10; 70-10; 80-10; 90-10; 100-6; 110-5
superset with lying tri-extension: 50-10; 60-10; 70-10; 80-10; 90-10; 100-10; 110-10

1-arm spider curl:                       35-8; 25-8
superset w/ seated tri-extension: 100-13,10

high cable curl:                       60-12, ?
superset w/ rope pushdown: 100-10; 120-8+2

kneeling cable tri-extension: 100-15,?
superset w/ cable curl:           100-15,10

hammer curl:                         40's-6 + 30's-5 + 20's-5 + 10's-6(drop-set)
superset w/ 1-arm kick back: 25-8,6

Tue., Dec. 4,2012, Back

I wanted to start the workout a little different than normal today. So, I started with T-bar rows. I was stiff and cold when I started so I took my time and warmed up thoroughly. I did 2 sets of 12 with 45lb, then 70 for 12, 90-12, 135-10, 180-8, and finished with 270 for three good reps, 2 rest pause reps and 1 drop set. Now I was warm (ha ha.) Next was wide grip pull-ups: 3 sets of 10, the last set I had to pause to get the last 3. After that, old style rows with the end of the bar sticking out of the wall and a double-D handle around the neck (I used 25's for a better range of motion): 75-12; 125-12;    175-8; 225-6; 200-8. I finished with straight arm pulldowns with a rope: 100-12; 120-12; 140-10,8. And I was PUMPED!

Mon., Dec. 3, 2012, Chest

I got a good pump this morning. It was a typical chest workout for me; basic stuff: incline dumbell presses, flat presses, dips and pullovers; a bunch of feeler sets for my first exercise and 3 sets of 10-12 reps on everything. I kept the sets about a minute apart and just really focussed on the chest.