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