Week 3 Day 2- To Succeed, First You Must Fail

14/4/15 Day 16- Chest & Triceps

Feeling a little bit of stiffness in the hamstrings today, but nothing major, I have a feeling that the soreness is going to creep up on me tonight, and I'll probably be walking like John Wayne tomorrow (hopefully).

Today's session was another big burnout session, using some lovely drop sets and supersets to over train the muscle, fatigue it to the point of none contraction and making you endure some lovely lactic acid build up. So get prepared to fight this is today's session:

Incline Smith Machine Bench Press – 2 Sets x Drop set 20-25 Reps (Second Set is a Double Drop)

Flat Smith Machine Bench Press – 2 Sets x Drop set 20-25 Reps (Second Set is a Double Drop)

Incline Dumbbell Fly – 3 Sets x Drop set 15-20 Reps

Cable Cross Over – 2 Sets x Drop set 15-20 Reps

Cable Tricep Extension – 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps

Superset

Bent Over Cable Tricep Extension – 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps

Dumbbell Tricep Extension – 3 Sets x 20-25 Reps

Superset

Close Grip Bench Press – 3 Sets x 20-25 Reps

Cardio - Interval Training 15mins Total

So as you can see, lots of drop sets, lots of pumping, high reps, high intensity and high focus. Now I'm just going to go out and say this, I don't like the smith machine, I never have and probably never will, I don't find it usually tests me as much as free weights, but again that is my opinion and its not necessarily the correct one. None the less, these first two exercises go those muscles seriously fatigued seriously quickly. Now I'm not the worlds biggest bencher, but I can lift a few plates either side no trouble, but here I was whittled down to 2.5kg plates and 5kg plates, so be prepared to leave your ego lifting at the door, clean your mind and be ready to work. I found the Incline Smith Machine Bench Press tested me more than the Flat Smith Machine Bench Press, but that again is to do with the range of movement, and the number of muscle fibres being recruited.

The fantastic thing with this workout, from a physiology stand point we are fatiguing the muscles with big compound movements, only to then target them with an isolation movement (Incline Dumbbell Fly) , just pure genius. If we wear all the muscles out around the focus muscle, it means the muscle we are trying to pin point (our Pecs in this instance) has to work twice, maybe three times as hard to pick up the slack from the other muscles. Painfully, but beautiful.

So after exhausting my Pecs to the melting point, I moved over to the Cable Cross Over, here my focus was firstly to get the reps out, but also to stretching the Pec as much as possible before crossing the arms over, that added stretch just allows you to engage the whole belly of the pec, once again actively making it harder for myself, as this was the last exercise on the pecs I wanted to make sure I was hitting the upper rep range, to burn out that muscle as much as possible before moving onto the Triceps.

Now the fun part! SuperSets. The nice thing about super setting Cable Tricep Extension & Bent Over Cable Tricep Extension is that you can really hit pretty much the whole of the Tricep in two exercises. I did however have to drop my weights a few times throughout the exercise, but remember, “to learn to succeed, you must first learn to fail”-Michael Jordan. That is probably the biggest and best tip I could ever give to someone who is looking to improve their fitness, either cardio based, or weight training based, don't be afraid to fail, it is what makes us human, but we learn from our mistakes, and grow as a person from this.

Going into the last SuperSet I could feel how swollen my arms had become, but they weren't going to stop there, I wanted these big boys to be on the verge or bursting! So for the last two exercises (Dumbbell Tricep Extension Close Grip Bench Press) I aimed to hit that upper rep range, give a good rest period between each set, and make sure I could squeeze out ever last rep. I made sure I failed on the last set, just because then I know my muscles couldn't possibly give anymore if they tried, and that is when you know that a muscle group has truly been worked.

So if you take anything away from today's blog, let it be, that failure is not a bad thing, it is something we must all learn to give into before we can progress further, both physically and psychologically.

Have a blooming wonderful Tuesday, and check back tomorrow where we are training one of my favourites! Shoulders & Abs.

Happy Lifting,

Matt