1/04/15 Day 3-
Shoulders & Abs
So it would seem the Legs are on the mend! And the Chest is a bit
sore, so overall I'm pretty happy with the work I have put in so far.
My Triceps have always given me a bit of grief, I have had tennis
elbow a few too many times, mainly due to my rugby days and not
stretching (GUILTY!) So I when ever I know I am training my Triceps
or the day after I will always spend a good bit of time warming them
up, getting some blood to them with some real light weight exercise,
after that I work through some dynamic stretching (if its the
beginning of the session) or some more static based stretching (if
its at the end of a session). This way I can kind of elevate some of
that tension through the elbow joint.
Right! On to today's session. This for me seems slightly lighter than
the past couple of days, so if you are feeling sore still then this
should allow you to take your foot off the peddle, as we are now
training a small group of muscles.
Today's sessions looks like this:
Cuban
Press - 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Side
Lateral Raise - 3 Sets x 8-12
Reps
Front
Barbell Raise- 3 Sets x 8-12
Reps
Bent
Over Rear Delt Fly- 4 Sets x
8-12 Reps
Decline
Weighted Sit Ups- 4 Sets x 8-12
Reps
Roll
Outs- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Cardio
– Interval Training 15mins Total
I
started today's session with yet another new exercise for me, the
Cuban Press, now I
was slightly hesitant about doing this exercise due to lots of
shoulder grinding, due to pore rotator cuffs, once again a lash back
of the impact through my rugby. So before this exercise I went
through some rotator cuff mobility exercises which I Strongly
recommend to anyone trying out this exercise. Then I jumped into some
really light weight Reps to oil up those joints! And swiftly moving
into the sets I really tried to focus on the rotation up to the top
of the movement as quite frankly this will be why you can't push
anywhere near the weight you would be able to in a standard Military
press of even a Arnold press. So leave your ego at the door and focus
on making your weaknesses your strengths. After my initial few sets I
could feel the exercise starting to get easier, so I'm sure its
something that will come with time.
Then
moving across to the heavier side of the Dumbbell rack I went onto
the Side Lateral Raise,
probably one of my favourite movements in the gym. Hear I really made
sure I went as heavy as possible for those 8 Reps and pushed out as
many after that as I could, I was making sure every sets I was
failing around the 10/11 Rep mark, this means my muscles were working
to their maximum capacity and therefore being forced to grow. Lateral
delts are a big focus for me in sessions, as I am so tall I really
need to make sure I have a strong V taper when it comes to getting on
stage, which start of with having some wide boulder shoulders! So
this means, BIG lateral delts.
Front
Barbell Raises came next, now
this can sometimes put a bit of stress through the lower back if you
are not careful when going heavy, so I find using a little bit of
momentum actually helps me through this low but heavy Rep range. I
took my hands just outside shoulder width apart forcing my anterior
delts to work (front delts). I keep the wrist quite soft so as to not
put lots of pressure through the wrists & elbows. I really had to
grunt out the last couple of Reps on my last set, I have been very
much volume training based for a while so this style of heavy
training is really taking its toll on me. This is where you really
have to dig deep and pull it out of yourself, focus, engage both
mentally and physically and lift some “Heavy ass weights!”.
To
finish off the delts today I went into the Bent Over Rear
Delt Fly. Now I will confess
something, I did this exercise sitting on the end of a bench rather
than actually being bent over (bad I know), my hamstrings are still
pretty tight and I didn't want to force the pressure through my back.
So if you do have a bad back and still want to lift slightly heavier
always opt for something that supports you rather than a free
standing exercise. So working a smaller delt head, I found that I
can't lift quite as heavy on this exercise. So I really made sure I
focussed all my thoughts into engaging that rear delt head to
contract as much as possible. Remember we are trying to build up our
mind muscles connection and open those psychological pathways to our
muscles, just because you have head phones on a music blaring doesn't
mean you can stop focusing on the task at hand, make sure ever rep is
a good as the last, even when it comes to muscle failure.
Moving
onto the Core section of the workout I performed some Decline
Weighted Sit Ups, and in true
Y3T fashion I made
sure I was working to muscle failure in the 8-12 Rep range, so this
means, grab some heavy weights contract those Rectus Abdominus,
keeping your arms straight and push that weight up. Okay, yes, this
was crazy hard on the abs, and yes I am still feeling it from the
last Ab session so it might be a case of gritting those teeth and
pushing through the pain, but just think about that washboard
stomach! (that is the only thing fuelling my fire!). Then finishing
the Rollouts I did
this was an Ab Wheel, if your gym doesn't have it you can use a
barbell (yeah, you're not getting away with it that easily), this is
an exercise I love to hate! I just about hit my Reps on every set,
but I was only on my knees! But if its hard its doing something, so
I'm not really bothered I can't do it from standing, because everyone
has weak points, and that I why we train, to be stronger.
For
my cardio today I changed it up slightly and went for some skipping.
Doing 1 minute of casual skipping followed by another 1 minute of
strong, fast paced skipping. If ever I got caught on myself or had to
stop I made sure I got back to it as quickly as possible. If you find
skipping for 15 mins to hard, just use your arms during the rest
period and actually do the hard skipping during the hardcore minute,
you will get there!
After another slow cycle home in gale-force winds (but at least it
was sunny! I know, sun, in the UK, What is this madness!), I got my
protein shake in ASAP, as your body will take on board more protein
in the first 30 minute of post exercise. So if you can take a shake
to the gym with you, better, I use it to make sure I cycle home as
quick as I can, keeping up that heart rate and keeping that
metabolism up. Come on Abs I know you are in there somewhere!
Hope you all have a fantastic Wednesday, where ever you are in the
world.
Happy Lifting!
Matt
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