I’ve had some questions on here and in the gym lately about my training, and thought I’d give a little more insight to it. Again, it’s a full body program 3x per week. The exercises and order of muscle groups rotate throughout the week. We know what gets hit first will get the most benefit, so over the course of the week every muscle group gets a turn to start. Here’s my “B” or Wednesday workout:
LEGS
- Dumbbell RDL’s - 4 sets x 12-15 - I don’t go too heavy here otherwise my lower back starts giving me issues. I have a slight misalignment of my pelvis that I go to the chiropractor for, so I just focus on a great stretch, and tensing my glutes and hams tight as possible when I come up. The stretched muscle will contract the most, so I concentrate on the stretch and hard contraction.
- Leg Press - 4 sets x 12-15 - I was going heavy on these for a while but after about 4 weeks of that my knees really started giving me problems. So I go for long TUT here, usually 14-16 plates, not locking out and keeping the tension in the quads. I have a brief pause at the bottom half before pushing up again to ensure I’m not getting any momentum into it and am initiating tension from the quad.
DELTS
- Lat Raise Machine (round pads against the forearms) - 4 sets x 8-12 reps - slow tempo, raising the elbows to a little above parallel, brief pause, then lower back down just below parallel, come back UP again with a pause, and that’s one rep.
- DB Front Raises - 3 sets x 15 reps - Especially like to focus on the negative and having them come down slowly, feeling like I’m trying to raise them up, just not enough to actually do it. This keeps great tension in the delts.
BACK
- Close Grip Lat Pulldowns - 4 sets x 5-8 reps - Nothing fancy, just focus on not getting any momentum into it and a great squeeze.
- Straight arm pulldowns with double handle - 3 sets x 12-15 reps - I use longer handles for this so I can bring my hands slightly behind my hips at the bottom to really shorten and squeeze the lats.
CHEST
- DB Flat Bench or Plate Loaded Machine Bench (alternating) - 4 sets x 5-8 reps - slow concentric phase, stop just before lockout with a brief pause, come back down slowly with elbows just below parallel to keep the tension in the chest.
- Pec Dec or Cable Flyes (alternating) - 3 sets x 12-15 reps - I use a weight that allows me to keep the tension fully in the pec without transferring to shoulder, elbows or biceps, and squeeze as hard as possible. Doesn’t really take much weight to do it right!
TRICEPS
- Close Grip Bench - 4 sets x 6-8 reps - I used to have trouble feeling this in my tricep, but after recently reading an older article by CT, started doing a partial rep after reach full rep to keep the bar more in the tension zone for triceps before carrying over to chest at the top. This REALLY pumps the tri’s.
- Decline DB Extensions - 3 sets x 10-12 reps - Focusing on an explosive concentric with real slow eccentric to maximize the stretch going against gravity. After a few sets of these my triceps are pretty toasted.
BICEPS
- EZ Bar Curls (narrow grip) - 4 sets x 8 reps - Slow 3,3 tempo with a big squeeze at the top and slight elbow raise to really maximize the shortening of the bicep.
- Straight Bar Curls (wide grip) - 3 sets x 12-15 reps - More explosive on the lift but a slow eccentric, using the wide grip and squeezing as hard as possible. Doing the narrow grip for EZ bar, then wide grip for straight bar, allows me to hit both the short and long head pretty hard. I have some exercises for the brachialis on Monday and Friday.
Monday’s and Friday’s workout include some calves and abs at the end as well.
If I move quickly and don’t talk much I can get it done in about 2 hours, if it takes longer than 2:15 it was a good indicator to me that I have to keep an eye on the clock during my rest periods.