Week 10 Day 5 - Insaiyn Workout!

05/06/15 Day 67 – Shoulders

After a very achy morning reflecting on the past 10 weeks I came to the conclusion that in the past 10 weeks I have learnt more about my mind and body then ever before, with the styles of training I have worked through: Y3T/FST-7/GVT/HIT/DTP Extreme I have been able to gather incredible amounts of knowledge about how my body responds to different styles of training and what suits me best. But enough of that for now, lets get into today's session!

Machine Shoulder Press – 12 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5,5,10,15,20,25,30

Reverse Fly – 6 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5

Neutral Grip Reverse Fly – 6 Sets, 1 x 5,10,15,20,25,30

Standing Dumbbell Lateral Raises – 6 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5

Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raises – 6 Sets, 1 x 5,10,15,20,25,30

Barbell Shrugs – 6 Sets, 1 x 25,15,5,5,15,25

Cardio – Interval Training 15mins Total

With my warm up done and dusted I was already feeling incredibly focused for today's session. I knew I was in for a beasting as that seems to be the reoccurring theme for this week's training. I had to make sure my rotator cuffs well sufficiently oiled before I began with any weights, as I didn't need anything holding me back from performing at my best.

As the smith machine wasn't available I started my Machine Shoulder Press on the (isolated shoulder press machine) if anything I was incredibly happy with the decision, I felt as though it allowed me to perform heavier weights without risk of injury. Starting a session with 12 sets is one way of getting a serious pump, by set 9 just lifting my arms up was a luxury, so finishing the sets off was a bit of a battle. With my drop sets done it was time to move on to the next exercise.

After torching the anterior and lateral heads of the deltoids I moved on to the Reverse Fly, with this grip I was able to focus my attention on the posterior head of the delts. Working the posterior (back) head is just as important as the other heads if not more, without full development of the 3 heads the shoulders look uneven and disproportionate.

After ascending up the pyramid with the previous exercise I changed to the Neutral Grip Reverse Flys and began my way back down the pyramid in a drop set fashion. Trying to make sure I matched the weights from the last exercise put a massive demand on already fatigued muscles. Once again I found myself having to rest pause the final couple of sets to ensure I made it to the end of my set, the posterior heads were seriously on fire by this point and thankfully I had only the lateral heads and traps to work.

Now it was time to torch my lateral heads to round off the shoulders. I started the first pyramid set with the Standing Dumbbell Lateral Raises, performing the exercise standing up meant I was able to incorporate a bit of momentum to aid the concentric (lifting) phase of the movement, meaning I could go a little heavier than usual as I built up my weight across the six sets. Making sure I was lifting from the elbows up gives me a better contraction in the shoulders, now this may work for me and not you, so be sure to get a feel for how your body responds to certain exercise yourself! With the heaviest set done I knew I was halfway, now it was time for me to make my way back down the pyramid with the Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raises and I made sure I worked until I could work no more! To stay strict I cut out as much rest time as possible, running back and forth between the bench and the weight rack I wanted to push as much blood and nutrients into my shoulders as physically possible.

With my shoulders completely cooked it was time to move into the traps to round off what had been an awesome session. So with a few plates on the bar I began my Barbell Shrugs, drawing the shoulders up to the ears whilst keeping the back tight so as to create a stable base to work from. After getting some solid weights on the bar I began striping the plates of with each set, and finishing off just as strong as I started!

On reflection I loved the session today and felt as though it had tested me more than any shoulder session I have ever done! If you want to test your limits and go above and beyond all self expectations contact me at: mgonlinept@gmail.com today for your bespoke programmes!

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 7 Day 4 - Carnage

14/05/15 Day 46 – Shoulders

Coming to the end of Week 7 marks yet another muscle group I am currently loving to train, which is Shoulders. Still working on the style of DTP (Drastic Transformation Protocol) I have to say that I really really had to push hard throughout today's session. With this style of training my muscles are constantly screaming at me and due to its high volume nature you will probably find (if you try it) you will feel very drained, or at least this is what I have found. Here is what this brutal session looked like:

Seated Military Press – 6 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5

SuperSet

Cable Lateral Raises – 6 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5

Seated Military Reverse Press – 6 Sets, 1 x 5,10,15,20,25,30

(For each rep performed 1 sec rest is awarded, 5 reps = 5 sec rest)

Bent-Over Lateral Raise – 6 Sets, 1 x 5,10,15,20,25,30

(For each rep performed 1 sec rest is awarded, 5 reps = 5 sec rest)

Barbell Shrugs – 6 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5

SuperSet

Wide Grip Upright Rows – 6 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10,5

Barbell Behind The Back Shrugs – 3 Sets, 1 x 30, 20, 10

(For each rep performed 1 sec rest is awarded, 5 reps = 5 sec rest)

Close Grip Upright Rows – 3 Sets, 1 x 30, 20, 10

(For each rep performed 1 sec rest is awarded, 5 reps = 5 sec rest)

Cardio – Interval Training 15mins Total

With the emphasis of today's session purely focused on Deltoids I knew that I was going to have a pretty tough time, even when I opened my training book last night and saw the session I thought, “this isn't going to be a walk in the park”. So with a brisk walk on the treadmill, a few rotator cuff exercises and some reps under the belt I was ready to start the session.

Beginning the session with a Super set of Seated Military Press & Cable Lateral Raises was a recipe for fatigue. With the Military press I took the smith machine bar behind the head, I just feel more comfortable doing it this way and feel it actually puts less pressure through my shoulders, but everyone is different so try it out for yourself. With the ascending weight I found that I was not able to lift anywhere near as much as I normally would, which also went for the cable raises too, I found myself stuck on a pretty low weight for a few rounds. Because the volume is rather high with this style of training your muscles tend to fatigue quite quick, so then you add the increased weight to the equation and you are depleting store of both long term and short term based muscle fibres, so you break down the muscle at an astonishing rate.

With the DTP portion on the Seated Military Reverse Press I found that I was really having the strip the bar down very quickly, I had never really performed this exercise before which obviously made it that much harder. Targeting mainly the front head of the delts means that they will also fatigue a lot quicker, so as you can imagine it was pretty damn hard to say the least. With the next DTP exercise (Bent-Over Lateral Raise) the focus was on contracting the posterior delts, so the range of movement was slightly reduces but once again the joys of hitting such a small muscle group means that you will fatigue very quickly. So if you have to much like I did, take rest/pause breaks during the set, that doesn't mean give up it just means take a few seconds between reps to replenish some energy and then turn on that inner beast a power through the remaining reps.

With a nice break from the DTP I moved onto the 2^nd lot of Super sets, which this time was the Barbell Shrugs and the Wide Grip Upright Rows. With these two exercises the main groups being targeted were in the upper back, with both exercises being in the same muscle group there was obviously a cross over, so I knew that I would not be going as heavy as normal with the upright rows as the traps had already been fatigued, none the less I pushed myself really hard through these two exercises.

Then came the last portion of DTP, which perfectly finished off the session, this was in the form of Barbell Behind The Back Shrugs & Close Grip Upright Rows. These exercises were not in a superset but instead were worked in a DTP fashion only through the reps: 10,20,30 subsequently the rest periods were shorter so the frequency of work was actually increased. The behind the back shrugs target the upper traps and rhomboids more where as the close grip upright rows will be hitting more of the shoulder girdle, so this coupling works well as the fatigue from one exercise doesn't really carry across to the other.

All in all today's session was incredibly challenging both mentally and physically, I loved every minute and have found that I simply thrive to find testing workouts like these now. I adore working out and couldn't be happier with where I am right now, so thanks to all of you guys that have helped me out so far, simply by sharing these blogs, commenting and just being so damn accepting of what I am doing!

So thanks.

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 6 Day 2 - Failure Is Just Another Lesson

05/05/15 Day 37 – Shoulders & Triceps

Following on with the HIT style of training, made famous by Dorian Yates, we worked on some slightly smaller muscle groups today as we had such an intense Leg session yesterday. Following a small muscle group after a bigger one simply allows the muscle to repair better, rather than putting stress through the big muscles group every day we are splitting it, one day big group one day small group.

With the pre-workout pumping through my veins and my training partners standing by we got started on our warm ups. After we felt amply ready we got ourselves mentally prepared and ready for the workout. Here it is:

Seated Military Press – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Side Lateral Raises – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Bent-Over Reverse Delt Raise – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Reverse Peck Deck Fly – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Shrugs – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Tricep Pushdown – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Ez Bar Skull Crushers – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

One Arm Tricep Extension – 2 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Cardio – Interval Training 15mins Total

Beginning the session with the biggest compound movements allowed us to really fatigue the larger muscles quickly, meaning more effort has to utilised through them to complete the sets throughout the entire session. With the Seated Military Press I enjoy taking the barbell behind the head as I feel the engagement of the deltoids more, this is not to say this is the only way to do it, between sets my father was working with me and he found it better to take the bar in front of the body, so do what ever is more comfortable for yourself. Now with this style of High Intensity Training (HIT) your partner needs to be standing by to help you through your sets as your aim is to work to failure within your 8-12 rep ranges, so go heavy, go hard and make some noise because this is going to be tough!

With the shoulders amply pumped up it was time to move on to our first isolation exercise, today it was the Side Lateral Raises. With this exercise my aim was to work to complete failure before any help was given, to make it that little bit harder after the failure had set in, my partner would only give me a slight momentum boost at the bottom of the movement, as this is the hardest part of the exercise as you are completely stationary. Trying to work through failure was so difficult here, I really had to dig deep to draw out every bit of strength I had left, but with the positive encouragement of my partner I was able to put the pain aside and focus on the task at hand.

With the second isolation exercise Bent-Over Reverse Delt Raise the focus was to draw up from the elbow in order to engage the posterior delts. Normally the posterior delts are one of the hard muscles to engage, with not many exercises focusing on isolation them they do tend of be under developed on lots of people, so to get that full shoulder look try to add a few rear delt exercises in each session and you will be amazed at the difference.

After we beat up the read delts a bit it was time to move along to the 2^nd isolation exercise in the form of the Reverse Peck Deck Fly. I really began to struggle with this exercise, after fatiguing such a small muscle group its very hard to sustain such high weight exercises to failure, which means its very easy to fall in to a a comfortable weight zone and not demand more of yourself, this is where having a training partner also helps as they can tell you to stop being a wimp and pump up the weights!

To finish off the shoulder portion of the session we advanced onto the Barbell Shrugs. Now for my fathers sake we did this exercise on a smith machine, one as it is easier to spot/aid someone on a smith machine rather than a free weight, but was also a bit nicer on his back, with some pretty horrendous back injuries it is always imperative that we find an alternative when heavy amounts of lower back recruitment is needed. Drawing the shoulder up to the head to encourage a squeeze through the whole traps we also wanted the lowering of the bar to be under strict control as well, allowing us to get muscular strain through both portions of the movement.

With the shoulders all done and dusted we were feeling pretty good, with my other half (Amie) coming in to join for the Tricep portion of the workout we had an incredibly high level of comradeship and positive encouragement about us, giving us a pep up we moved onto the Tricep Pushdown. Keeping the elbows in tight to isolate the triceps it was proving difficult to get many reps out on the weight I had set for myself, this was probably due to the fatigue throughout the session, but with my partners there they aided me through my two sets with my forced reps past failure to really get that pump going.

After we had complete our cable work it was time to move on to the brutal exercise and a favourite of mine the Ez Bar Skull Crushers. Here I had incredibly over estimated how much strength I had left and needed help from around the 5^th rep of each set, so instead of letting my spotter do all the work I decided to use some negative reps to finish off my sets. The idea behind negative sets is that the spotter will lift the weight to the top portion of the exercise and then you will slowly lower the weight down, hitting the muscles in a different way, when you have reached the bottom they will raise it up once again and you continue to do this until every rep is completed. Brutal.

To round off the whole session we moved onto our separate benches and worked our way through our One Arm Tricep Extension. With the muscles pretty much unwilling to do anything we were having to aid ourselves to push the weight to the top portion of the movement and then performing negatives. This was very testing on the mind as I just wanted to keep giving up, but I knew deep down that giving up wasn't an option.

This was again an absolutely awesome session and really want to encourage people to try out this fantastic method of training. For me these first 6 weeks have been a massive learning curve, teaching me more about myself then I thought I could ever know on every scale possible, I am thankful for every day I can spend in the gym and I know this is something that will change me forever. I am ready.

Happy Lifting,

Matt

Week 3 Day 3 - Trap City

15/04/15 Day 17- Shoulders & Abs

The chest DOMS are starting to set in now, getting a nice ache in the legs too. Its funny how I used to fear the feeling of being sore, yet now its all I want to feel, shows the true power of self development.

Talking of development, I have just got back from the gym, the shoulders are swollen, my focus is airtight and I'm ready for the day. Lots of work to do for my online clients, so today was all about smashing this session and getting home, so the intensity was up, the heart rate was up, and I pushed my body to complete failure. Mission successful captain.

I suggest you check out last weeks Shoulder session, to get an idea of how each week is completely different, but incredibly well adapted to build your muscles, week in, week out.

So here is the session:

Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 3 Sets x 20-25 Reps

Giant Set

Side Lateral Raises – 3 Sets x 20-25 Reps

Giant Set

Front Dumbbell Raises – 3 Sets x 20-25 Reps

Seated Bent-Over Rear Delt Raise – 4 Sets x 20-25 Reps

SuperSet

Side Laterals to Front Raise – 4 Sets x 20-25 Reps

Dumbbell Shrugs– 3 Sets x 20-25 Reps

Dumbbell Weighted Sit Ups– 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps

Cardio - Interval Training 15mins Total

Just looking at that session tires me out all over again.

So starting at the deep end, I jumped into a Giant Set to start, after a solid warm up and active stretch session, obviously. For those of you not familiar with a Giant Set, it quite simply is a Super Set, but contains more than 2 exercises back to back. So when you put Dumbbell Shoulder Press, Side Lateral Raises, Front Dumbbell Raises back to back, you will, guaranteed to have an insane pump. Because you aren't letting these muscles rest, and starting each set by pre fatiguing the whole deltoid, its going to be a bit of a struggle, expect to be lifting a lot lighter today than previous sessions, as you are dealing with some seriously high reps. 75 Reps in 1 set, no wonder I'm starting to hurt already.

Moving from a Giant Set to a Super Set on the 2^nd round of exercises, it isn't much of a compensation, but I took it. On this set I wanted to work really hard on my Seated Bent-Over Rear Delt Raise, as for myself, I feel as though my rear deltoids let my shoulder down, so I pushed out every rep here, even if it meant stopping for a few seconds, or even squeezing out ½ reps, you want to flood your targeted muscle with blood as much as possible. Due to me working on those rear delt raises, my Side Laterals to Front Raise took a bit of a punishing, trying to pull those dumbbells back from the front raise was killer! Be, like me, prepared to drop/alter your weights a few times though these exercises, as we are working already battered muscles as well as isolating a small muscle group.

Now comes to my favourite exercise of the day: Dumbbell Shrugs. Today I tried something different with these, and you should too! Firstly with the starting position, I tilted forward ever so slightly, so the dumbbells were in front of my body, the reasoning behind this is, that the traps don't just contract by lifting the shoulders up, but also from pull the shoulder blades together. So I changed the movement from straight up and down, to up and back, the difference was unreal. Secondly, I held the contraction at the top of the squeeze for about 2 seconds, the idea behind this is once again trying to flood those smaller muscle groups with as much blood as possible to allow them to grow, and this guys and girls is how you get traps like Tom Hardy in Warrior.

To round off the session I smashed out some heavy Dumbbell Weighted Sit Ups, here I didn't come all the way up, to make sure I was keeping a nice level of tension through those abdominal, try it, nothing will tighten that stomach like this!

Hope you are all enjoying the weather where ever you are.

Have a wonderful Wednesday,

Happy Lifting.

Matt