31/03/15 Day 2-
Chest & Triceps
First
of all, damn my legs are sore! Started feeling the D.O.Ms pretty much
a few hours after I got home, and I'm not even at the 24hr mark yet!
Theoretically the pain should peek at a maximum of 72 hours after the
exercise. But remember you don't always have to be sore to grow.
To
aid my recovery I slept in my compression tights (much to my other
half's liking), this aids with the venous return (the return of blood
to the heart) of my legs. This means that all the negative toxins are
being forced out of my legs and towards my heart and lungs for
exhalation and excretion, another reason why drinking a lot of water
helps, it will act a transportation system for toxins and help you to
rid them of your body. So just remember that compressing the targeted
muscles after a workout will reduce recovery time, making you fresher
for the next session.
Today
was probably most people favourite set of muscle groups today Chest
& Triceps an area a lot of
gym monkeys love to train over and over again, until you have some
sleeve busting arms and pectorals that only a sports bra could hold.
Before my workout I had my pre-workout, today I included some
Glutamine and Creatine just to help with my maximal weighted work,
being so tall my level system is quite a bit lengthier than most
peoples, so I have never been someone to bench 200kg (440lbs). But
enough with the bull s**t excuses.
I
got the gym after a light cycle from my house, getting a bot of blood
to those legs after yesterday is always a good idea. I worked through
some light stretching and made sure all my joints we well oiled and
ready for war!
Today's
session was as follows:
Incline Dumbbell
Bench Press- 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Dumbbell Flat Bench
Press- 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Incline Dumbbell
Flyes- 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Weighted Dips-
3 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Tricep Pushdown-
3 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Bent-over Cable
Tricep Extension- 3 Sets x 8-12
Reps
Close Grip Barbell
Bench- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Cardio-
Interval Training 15mins Total
So before each new
exercise I made sure I went through the motions with a very light
weight, not only for mental preparation of the exercise, but also to
further warm up the muscles and lubricate the surrounding joints
before I went heavy with the movements. I'm no stranger to injuries
and have previously found any forms of Incline Dumbbell Bench
Press a real problem. So before
I go into any exercise now I will always, always, always make sure my
body is 100% ready to take on the task at hand, because quite frankly
have a debilitating injury isn't really fun at all!
So
with a sense of care I smashed out the first couple of sets on
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
only failing to hit the top of my rep range on the final set, which
I'm pretty happy with! Moving onto Dumbbell Flat Bench
Press, I had to put my ego
aside slightly as after lifting so heavy on the first exercise, so I
went a few kg's under my usual and thank Arnold (he is god here) I
did! Working hard I just about managed to hit at least my minimum
reps on every set, while doing this exercise I really wanted to put
my emphasis on squeezing the chest at the top of the movement, almost
using a double contraction to pre fatigue the chest before the final
exercise. Incline Dumbbell Fly,
I have not always been a massive fan of this exercise, just because I
always found it put quite a bot of stress through my shoulders. But!
Today it clicked for me, I was experimenting slightly during my warm
up sets with alignment of wrists, elbows and shoulder, focusing on
trying to find the contraction & squeeze through the muscle on
both concentric and eccentric phases and BOOM! It all clicked into
place. I found it the easiest I ever have and no longer fear doing
them. So it goes to show, even when you think you know what's, what,
you actually don't have a clue! The advice I would give people is
that you want to try and build up your mind muscle connection as much
as possible, creating that psychological pathway to turn the selected
muscle on independently has helped me hugely. Even if you just try
contracting the muscle in between sets, create a mental trigger, an
image, word, sound, what ever it may be, everyone is different and
therefore different things will work for different people!
Moving
on to Weighted Dips I
wanted to incorporate a little bit of chest into this exercise, to do
so I flared my elbows out ever so slightly and made sure on my upward
phase I focused on pushing the elbows toward each other (think about
do a cable pec fly) to try and recruit some of those chest fibres to
help my shift a little bit more weight. Then as I regained my breath
from the dips (this is tiring work!) I made my way to probably my
favourite exercise, the Tricep Pushdown,
here I made sure I was squeezing the traps and rhomboids (shoulder
blades) together to give myself a stable base to work from, really
isolating the triceps I burnt through my 3 sets with gritted teeth,
today I made sure I was hitting the heaviest I could possibly go
within my rep ranges. From here I set up for my Bent-over
Cable Tricep Extensions working
with a medium height cable pulley I placed my elbows on a flat bench
to isolate the Triceps and stop myself from using and momentum to
make it easier, (Remember! This isn't supposed to be easy, this is
meant to hurt, you are breaking your body every session to make it
stronger, never let this out of your head it will drive you.) using
the isolation took a lot more out of me than I thought it would!
Getting a solid stretch through the whole Tricep before every rep
meant I was utilising all the muscles all the time...making it harder
once again. Finishing my weighted work where I started, the bench.
Close Grip Barbell Bench
was probably the hardest exercise yet, which was fitting, as it was
the last. Clenching my teeth and grunting my way through the reps I
found out very quickly that my Triceps had taken a bit of a battering
and barely got over my minimum rep range with quite frankly not a lot
of weight on the bar! Which should make for some interesting viewing
when we get round to the Y3T High
Volume week! Arnold help me!
After
a nice 15 minute bout of Treadmill sprints I had finally finished
today's workout, a nice gentle cycle home proved slightly more
strenuous as it seemed like gale-force winds pounded against me and
almost grounded me where I was. But after marginally longer than
expected I found myself at home woofing down the rest of last nights
dinner! YUM!!! Now for a shower, lots of water and a bit of
stretching.
Tomorrow
we tackle Shoulders & Abs,
cannot wait for this!
Happy
Lifting!
Matt
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