2/04/15 Day 4-
Back
Its
been a slightly earlier start for me today, up at 8am for the gym.
With an afternoon/evening shift at work I wanted to make sure I gave
myself plenty of time to fit in everything I needed to. The last
thing I want is panic and stress, so I will always make sure I give
myself plenty of time to do everything I need or even prepare the
night before, or even a few nights before. Failure to
prepare, prepare to fail.
Pushing
on towards the end of Easter its still somewhat gloomy hear in
Southern England, after being promised a scorching Easter I have to
say I'm some what let down, but definitely not surprised! I mean
England isn't exactly known for its glorious weather is it?! But its
home, which means no matter what it will always have a place in my
heart.
With
the wind subsiding some what a swift cycle to the gym started my day.
Here is what the Workout looked like for me:
Barbell
Row-
3 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Seated
Cable Row-
3 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Lat
Pulldown-
3 Sets x 8-12 Reps
One-Arm
Dumbbell Row-
3 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Dumbbell
Pull Overs-
3 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Rack
Pulls-
3 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Cardio
–
Interval Training 15mins Total
Walking
into the gym there was a sense of peace and calm, now I don't know
about you, but this is not something that gets me pumped up ready for
a killer session. So we a deep breath, I selected the hardcore
playlist in my phone, pushed the headphones in, exhaled and drew in
all my mental focus to the task at hand: Lift
as much as you can, with correct form, for 8-12 Reps. Mission
accepted.
After
a brisk warm up and a solid active stretch off I moved my way to the
Barbell Racks for my first exercise, Barbell
Row,
this is an exercise I have often opted out for previous and
substituted with the cable rows, so it was a bit of a learning curve
for me. Working with a fairly close grip I put my emphasis on drawing
all the power from my upper back and squeezing my rhomboids as much
as possible at the top. I have seen it many a time where people put
lots of weight on the bar and use their lower back to do all the
work, only utilising the correct muscles at the very end of the
movement, I however, want to work to get as much Time Under Tension
as possible. So a strong base, tight lower back and torso parallel to
the floor allowed me to engage as many muscles as possible during
this exercise. Admittedly I had to take slightly longer rest periods
on this exercise as I really felt it take its toll on me. With all my
Errectus Spinae muscles working in unison with my Traps, Rhomboids
and Lats its no wonder this is such a sort after exercise in the body
building community, and today I found out the hard way!
Starting
to feel like I had been blown up with a foot pump, I made my way to
the Seated Cable
Row.
With this exercise I used a V bar and pulled the cable towards my
navel (belly button), this I find allows me to get the best squeeze
through my muscles and recruits a lot more muscles then just stopping
when my arms come in line with my torso, but don't forget to
experiment, something else might work better for you! Using the most
weight here its fair to say a couple of grunts echoed in the walls of
the gym to help me hit that upper Rep range. #SorryNotSorry
Red
bull doesn't give you wings, Lat
Pulldown does!
This is again one of my favourite exercises in the gym, the thought
of being able to spread my lats like a pterodactyl sends a buzz
through my veins (I know, I'm sad). So with this exercise, again, I
try to make sure I'm not using lots of momentum to pull the load
down, as then I'm moving that target area away from the Lats, which
quite frankly makes the whole point of performing this redundant. It
took me a while to find my perfect weight on this exercise, which
probably fatigued me a bit too much, but none the less I still hit my
Reps and made sure I kept tension through those Lats on both the
concentric phase and eccentric phase.
After
catching my reflection in the mirror I thought...Why can't I look
this pumped all the time!? And after the soul destroying reality that
I will always think that I moved on to take my anger out on some
Dumbbells.
One-Arm
Dumbbell Rows
a fairly simple exercise, yet very effective, I like this exercise
because I can feel the stretch through my whole lats by pushing the
Dumbbell very slightly forwards at the bottom of the motion then
drawing my elbow up towards my hip. If you have never tried this
method I would really give it a go! With this exercise it definitely
brings to light if you have one dominate set of muscles on one side
of your body! Just something else to work on!
After
getting my breath back from those Dumbbell Rows I picked up a
slightly lighter weight for the next exercise, the Dumbbell
Pull Overs,
if you have never tried this before, think of it like a cable pull
down, but laying down (ah how relaxing...No! This is no time for
sleep, we're building muscles here!). I really enjoy this exercise as
I feel it open up the chest and stretch those Lats out, which makes
for a better contraction on the way up. To make it harder for myself
I would only bring the Dumbbell in line with my head and then lower
back down, pushing lots of blood into my back, and making me squeal
like a little girl at the same time...its worth it.
And
last but certainly not least, Rack
Pulls,
this is trying to tighten up that lower back, which will then help me
with all my free standing movements, Deadlifts, Squats etc, etc. So
all in all its a cracking exercise that will separate the men from
the boys, the boys from the mice and the mice from the...oh you get
the point. Here I got some pretty big plates on the bar, and
regretted leaving my straps at home immediately! For myself I made
sure that I was hitting the top of my Rep range on these Pulls as I
feel my lower back is one of my weaker aspects of my body, and
therefore my be punished!
My
Cardio
today was sponsored by the Stair Master, yet Another new machine for
me. With low impact and replicating awfully well how tiring running up
hundreds of stairs can be, its probably hit the top spot of my
favourite cardio machine (I never thought I would be using favourite
and cardio in the same sentence). Again looking at doing 3 minutes
nice and gentle with a spike 1 minute of high intensity it allows me
to keep that Heart rate nice and high and Metabolism soaring!
Hows
Your Thursday!? Comment Below about what you are up to today.
Happy
Lifting :)
Matt
Nice blog Matt
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