Week 12 Day 2 - Poetry In Motion

16/06/15 Day 78 – Chest & Back

Keeping on the theme of Uni-Lateral training today I hit up a pretty epic chest and back session, but the twist was that I would be performing every exercise in a super set, working a chest exercise on each side quickly followed by a back exercise performed on each side. This session was all about intensity and being able to push every set to failure then moving on to the other exercise and pushing that to failure, big pumps and big pain. Lets do it!

Single Arm Leverage Chest Press – 10 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,10,15,20,25,30

SuperSet

Single Arm Chest Supported Dumbbell Row – 8 Sets, 1 x 25,20,15,10,10,15,20,25

Single Arm Lat Pulldown – 5 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10

SuperSet

Single Arm Cable Flyes – 5 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10

Cardio- Interval Training 15mins Total

When working two large muscle groups in an alternating fashion like today I always make sure that I stretch out between sets, as there is just such ridiculously high levels of blood being forced around the muscles you will stiffen very quickly.

Starting with a singular set on the Single Arm Leverage Chest Press gave me a short chance to absolutely smash my chest before I had to move onto my back exercise. Making sure I really squeezed my peck as I pushed out my first reps to really enhance the level of blood in my chest, getting a really solid pump before I even got onto back. With my first two sets of 30 reps, as I work each set on each side of the body I moved to the Single Arm Chest Supported Dumbbell Row, here I think the hardest thing to do was just get well balanced, altering my foot placement so as I could produce a great pull without introducing twisting of the spine, which unfortunately I see a lot in the gym. When working back and fourth with these exercises I found that I was able to jump into the alternating exercise pretty quickly, due to not using the same muscle groups at all in the opposing movement actually means that your muscles are relaxing and giving you time to recover, admittedly its still hard, I felt very tired as they are big movements using and draining big muscle groups. I think I ate too early in the day as I didn't feel like I have bounds of energy as I usually do for my sessions. Getting down to the lower end of the repetition ranges on both exercises I felt like I was hitting some big weights, I was really really happy with how well I doing. After passing the 10 repetition mark I actually took it upon myself to up my weights on the way back up my repetition pyramid to the 30 reps. Some how I managed to up my weights every set on the way back up, getting to the 20 rep mark I started having to incorporate the rest pause principle to finish my sets as my muscles were really flagging by this point, the fact was that I managed to get every rep out so I was still stupidly happy with my performance!

With those two huge exercises done it was time to move onto the 2^nd super set of the session where I would be performing the Single Arm Lat Pulldown to start. Due to having stupidly long arms I actually had to sit on the floor to be at the correct level for this exercise, which meant I had to hold my bodyweight down and be incredibly controlled with Single Arm Cable Flyes I again found it quite difficult to balance myself to perform the movement, I felt as though the core did have a big contributing factor in this movement and think perhaps a single arm peck deck movement my have been slightly better suited. Making sure the elbow and the wrist tracked in the same line was probably one of the biggest focal points for me as this takes the stress out the shoulder and places it back on the peck, where it should be! As the reps got heavier with each exercise I really had to tighten up my core and really get slow and controlled with the movement, anyone can throw weights around and lift heavy, being effect and efficient is a whole different ball game, so leave your ego at the door and prepare to grow!

my movements. Taking an exercise I have only ever done with two hands and moving it to just one hand made a HUGE difference to me, firstly my weights rocketed down, much to my surprise. I also found it very hard to force my arm out more like a wide grip lat pulldown and not let my elbow gravitate toward my own body, when this happens it means the movement isn't as effective and makes it hard to spread the lats on the rising phase of the movement. With the

Working both Chest and Back in one workout was new for me, but needless to say I really really liked it! I didn't feel like my fatigue carried across to the opposing exercise which meant I was really able to continuously push hard throughout the whole workout. If you have never tried it, then get your kit together and get yo' ass to the gym now and DO IT!

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 11 Day 4 - How To Get A V-Taper

11/09/15 Day 74 – Back & Biceps

Just from looking at today's session on paper I knew that this was going to be a hard session, with a huge amount of sets and reps being performed there was no way I was walking out the gym without a serious pump. Exactly like the previous day working chest, today was going to be structured with 3 exercises in each Giant Set, working up and down repetition pyramid to induce to serious fatigue and push my muscle to their absolute maximum!

So without further adieu here is today's session:

Giant Set 1

Wide Grip Lat Pulldown – 4 Sets, 1 x 25,20,15,10

Barbell Deadlift – 4 Sets, 1 x 25,20,15,10

Chest Supported Dumbbell Row – 4 Sets, 1 x 25,20,15,10

Giant Set 2

Chest Supported Dumbbell Row – 4 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25

Barbell Deadlift – 4 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25

Wide Grip Lat Pulldown – 4 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25

Giant Set 3

Barbell Curl – 4 Sets, 1 x 25,20,15,10

Standing Bicep Cable Curls – 4 Sets, 1 x 25,20,15,10

High Pully Curls – 4 Sets, 1 x 25,20,15,10

Giant Set 4

High Pulley Curls – 4 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25

Standing Bicep Cable Curls – 4 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25

Barbell Curl – 4 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25

Starting with my first Giant set I really wanted to make sure I pushed myself as hard as I physically could, so taking myself out of my comfort zone (I seem to be out of it more than in it these days), I bumped up my weights higher than usual so my starting sets. With the Wide Grip Lat Pulldown I was only focusing on drawing my elbows down for the contraction, followed by flaring my lats out on the way up to get a massive pump in my back. As I made my way to the Barbell Deadlift I could already feel how well my back was engaging, feeling every muscle popping with every rep. As I have a rather weak lower back I cant always deadlift heavy, so I wanted to make sure I could keep my lower back as tight as possible, when deadlifting I always try to make sure to keep my hips below my chest. By opening out the chest and pulling my shoulder blades back I can always make sure my back is aligned and thus focus on the muscle contraction more. Last but not least in this gruelling Giant set was the Chest Supported Dumbbell Row, using two dumbbell for this exercise was a blast from the past, as I used to perform this a lot in my early teens for back development. As I worked my way down the repetition range I could feel the fatigue settling in fast, trying to fight it as much as I could as the weights got heavier and heavier, I slowly began using the rest pause principle for the final two exercises. As a whole body movement the deadlifts do tend to drain energy quite fast, so I did have to anticipate that in with my weight calculations, so as I didn't over exert myself too much too soon.

Working back up the pyramid on Giant Set 2, the exercise order once again was altered, this allowed me to go heavier and focus attention on the Chest Supported Dumbbell Row more now and less on the Wide Grip Lat Pulldown. Having a finishing exercise like the pulldown really did highlight how insane drained my lats had become though this first half of the work out, as a relatively isolated movement I could feel the massive burning sensation under the armpits. Unfortunately there wasn't much I could do to counter act this, apart from stretch out between sets, so when I was working all I would focus on was getting the best contraction out of the movement as possible, with one more week left of this programme I wanted it all to be about effectiveness!

With the lat burnt out and at bursting point I made my way on to the Biceps. As a synergistic muscle group the biceps had already had a bit of work through the Wide Grip Lat Pulldown & Chest Supported Dumbbell Row, but this wasn't going to stop me working them even harder! Starting the third Giant set with the Barbell Curl followed by the Standing Bicep Cable Curls and finishing with the High Pully Curls, this was a recipe for pain and I was the head chef. Hitting the barbell for my Curls I took a wide grip so as to hit the internal head of the bicep and work on that peak, then moving on to the Standing Bicep Cable Curls with a close grip to hit the outside head of the bicep which meant I could develop the entire bicep with two exercises which was awesome and then just to finish off I could burn out on the High Pully Curls with a medium grip and just smash out the reps.

With the heaviest set done and dusted it was time to reverse the exercise order and hit the biceps up in a completely different way, causing more muscle confusion and getting more effect results out of the session. Starting with the High Pully Curls I found I could go really heavy on these, but then when moving on the Standing Bicep Cable Curls I had hardly anything left in the tank and even less when I finished off on the standard Barbell Curls.

All in all I really loved this session, working in this giant set fashion has brought to light so areas for improvement for myself which I am very happy about, as I strongly believe that you are only as good as your weakest link. This is even more prominent in body building, where ever muscle is scrutinised.

I hope you gals and guys are working hard and smashing the gym today!

Happy Lifting,

Matt