Week 1 Day 5 - Guns and Gains Galore

3/04/15 Day 5 – Biceps, Calves & Abs

So as my first week comes to a close with session 5 I can definitely say this is going to a real test. I feel like I am slightly more tired than usual in day to day life, now this could be due to lots of various components, like lack of sleep, or too much cardio out of the gym, too little calories in my diet to help maintain that level or energy, etc. So its going to take some time to tweak all those small components that is going to keep me at the optimal level of growth and progression.

It's a real gloomy day in South England today, the rain I feel creates a sense of blasé and sluggishness. Which is really hard to shrug off, but with a lovely rest weekend ahead, filled with family, friends and all things wonderful I ploughed forward with my training today.

Today's session was targeting the slightly smaller muscle groups, this means that the weights were slightly lighter than the rest of the week. Because the weights are lighter I really wanted to draw my attention to that muscle activation during my sets, this is something I will be hammering throughout these 12 weeks.

Here is the session for the final day in Week 1:

Barbell Curls – 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Alternating Dumbbell Curls – 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Ez Bar Curls – 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Seated Calf Raise – 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Standing Calf Raise – 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Bent Knee Hip Raises – 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Jack Knife – 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Cardio – Interval Training 15mins Total

Starting with the Barbell Curls I wanted to bring the focus to the inside head of the Bicep so I was hitting each muscle individually. To do so I took my grip just outside shoulder width, relaxing the wrists, pulled the bar up to shoulder height and arching the bar back down to the starting position. The emphasis here I put on the lowering phases, arching the bar out creates a longer leaver system at the elbow, putting more stress through the muscle, a small change in a movement that can sometimes make a big difference! Try it out some time and tell me what you think.

For the next exercise, Alternating Dumbbell Curls I decided to sit down. Sitting down with your back supported means that you can't influence the movement as much with your body. Now although that means you can't lift quite as heavy, it does mean that all of the work is coming from the Biceps, rather than recruiting muscles in the shoulders, or lower back. Would you rather 100% of the Weight with 25% activation & isolation Or 50% of the Weight with 100% activation & isolation?

Finishing off the Biceps I hit the Ez Bar Curls for some heavy ass Reps! To really finish the muscles off I made it almost impossible to hit my upper Rep range, but tried to get every Rep out none the less. Even if my last 2/3 Reps to get to 12 are only ½ Reps I'm flooding the muscle with so much blood its doing wonders for my growth!

Moving on the Calves. Every Rep through these two exercise where slow and controlled, I made sure I was getting my contractions through both the Soleus & Gastrocnemius individually. Now these exercise really start to burn quick, so I will advise some serious stretching off in between sets just to loosen those bad boys up. Some times with too much weight you can lose the feeling of the contractions, so really take your time with the movement, feel every cm of the rise, squeezing as much as possible, pausing at the bottom for a seconds and then repeating for every Rep. Yes this does hurt, but, Yes it will get you results. So I guess it just depends how hard you want it!

Now I'm not the biggest fan of Ab work in the world and its something I used to skip out on, a lot! So if you feel the same, maybe try switching it up and starting your workout with it? If you want to make it easier and dread it less allow your body to tackle it with all of its energy, rather than waiting till the very end of the session to try and pick yourself up with the dips and drabs of energy you have left after all your other work.

For my Bent Knee Hip Raises I had to take my headphones off, listen to the beat of the gym, the sound of plates clunking about and bring my focus into these last few excises. With such a low rep range its Crucial to make sure I get those Abs working!, to help myself out I made sure that my feet did not rest on the floor between sets, constantly keeping tension through the abdominal and embracing the searing burn inside. Sometimes you have to dig inside to find out what you are really made of.

Finishing off with probably one my historically dreaded exercises the Jack Knife wasn't my favourite way to end a session. But you know what!? It actually felt really easy! I couldn't believe it, maybe its due to the lose in body weight since starting, or maybe to weighted Ab work helped more than I thought, but I genuinely surprised myself at how much easier it had become! Guess I'm going to have to find a way to make it harder on myself now!

As I sit here sipping my BCAA's and chowing down on some Cod & Brown Rice, I can't help but think, that in such a short space of time I have actually started to see some real progression. But I know things aren't going to be getting any easier, and that is what I want, I want to fail, because its only when we fail that we learn the most.

Have a wonderful Friday beautiful people of the world!

Happy Lifting!

Matt