Week 2 Day 2 - Like Father, Like Son

7/04/15 Day 9 – Chest & Triceps

Okay! So as expected, my legs are starting to hurt, the ache is beginning to spread through my quads, hamstrings and even into my glutes (I blame the split stance squats!)

Today I had the honour of training along side one of the people that inspire me, and that is my father. We trained the exact same, for the same reps, sets and made sure every aspect of discipline I show was reflected in his performance. I have to say, he did incredibly well, adjusted form where necessary, took on board everything I spoke about and most importantly, he did not give up, he did not back down, he smashed it into next week! Very proud indeed!

So lets have a look at today's workout!:

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press - 4 Sets x 14-18 Reps

Flat Dumbbell Bench Press - 4 Sets x 14-18 Reps

Incline Dumbbell Fly - 4 Sets x 14-18 Reps

Incline Ez Bar Skull Crushers - 3 Sets x 14-18 Reps

Weighted Dips - 3 Sets x 14-18 Reps

Tricep Pushdown - 3 Sets x 14-18 Reps

Cardio - Interval Training 15mins Total

After a quick tour of the facilities (for my fathers sake) we got stuck in to our warm up, both on treadmills, for around 5 minutes, as I didn't cycle today I wanted to make sure my muscles were nicely warmed up. After this we jumped into a few light sets, highlighting the contracts I was aiming for and how to achieve this. When working with someone who isn't 100% sure about how to contract specific muscles during exercises, its paramount to give them cues, images to think about and use more hands on techniques to aid even further e.g. with your index fingers on your partners chest during a bench press, tell them, “I want you to squeeze your Pectorals so you are constantly pushing my fingers away from your chest throughout this whole exercise” and then tell them when they are not. Training someone isn't just about beasting them, its about them walking away sore, with a new found knowledge.

The Incline Dumbbell Press felt especially hard today, with a lowered weight from the week previous I think the higher rep focus must have taken its toll on my muscles. I really like working hard to squeeze my Pectorals while lowering the dumbbells in this exercise, I feel as though I am getting twice the work out the exercise!

With our Flat Dumbbell Press I wanted to make sure we chose a weight above the one previously used, as there is normally a temptation to lower the weight, with your muscles being pre fatigued you need to make it even harder, make those bad boys grow! So with that in mind we picked up some heavier dumbbells and got repping, forcing the squeeze at both the top and bottom of the contraction, even my dad mentioned about how swollen his muscles felt, even though this was the second exercise. SUCCESS!!!!!

Up next was the Dumbbell Fly. At this point both Dad and I had a crazy pump on, I felt like a children bouncy castle I was so swollen. So to make sure we sustained this on this exercise we lowered our rest time, therefore putting more stress through the muscles, raising that heart rate and realising all that sweet, sweet HGH into our blood streams. We spoke about the principles of “The Pump” and why its of such high benefit in the muscle building community. As this was the last Chest isolating exercise I wanted to make sure I was hitting the upper rep range here, as I am only training chest once a week I need to be smashing ever single rep to gain the most benefit, and so do you!

With a new exercise for my Triceps, the Incline Ez Bar Skull Crushers, I took the lead in the exercise, firstly working through a super light set to get a feel for the motion, but also to figure out some simple teaching points. With a few plates on the bar Dad and I worked back to back through these sets, really starting strong with the Tricep portion of the workout. I am a big fan of Tricep training, with it making up the majority of the arm, if you want some serious, jaw dropping guns, you need to devote a good amount of time to working on that horse shoe.

Allowing my Dad to skip out on these Weighted Dips, I grabbed my extra plate and headed for the dip bars. By this point even my Triceps had blown up, so I wasn't sure about hitting my reps across all my sets, but any how I got on with it, and was pleasantly surprised with getting every rep of my first set out. I was however, no surprised when I went to try again in my second set and only getting 9 reps out, so I decided to ditch the weight and try for some more reps, when that got too but I completed the set with some honorific yet brilliant negative reps. Quick Tip: If you are looking to get a solid pump?-work through negative reps and isometric contractions as much as possible, it forces more blood into the muscles than any other exercises.

With a slight tear in my eye, I left the dip bars behind (thank Arnold) and proceeded to finish the workout with an old school classic, Tricep Pushdown. Here, we went heavy through every set and when fatigue set in we aided each other in some forced reps to hit those upper rep ranges. This take no prisoner approach is a real test of your mind and body, so expect to be in a lot of pain. But I promise it will be worth it when you are looking super sexy!

With the standard 15 minutes on the stair master flying by It was time to say goodbye to the gym for today and drive home. Here I completed the weeks meal prep, lots of chicken, spinach, broccoli and brown rice. Gains, YUM!

Hope you are all having a splendid day where ever you may be!

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Would love to here from you all!

Happy Lifting,

Matt