I think I’m having weightlifting withdrawal. Just getting back from tonight’s run (beautiful night), I realized that I’m looking forward to doing some “low-rep” work tomorrow; tomorrow I’m doing my pushups and pullups. Bodyweight. Running is screwing me up lol.
At least I made some serious progress on running tonight. And my calves don’t hurt QUITE as much.
JB how low did you bring the bar down (like to your stomach or to your chest, etc)? I tried the RGB’s tonight and honestly didn’t really like them that much. They really irritated my wrists and I felt my delts working more than I would have liked.
Perhaps I just need to work on my form on them though…I’ll be looking forward to your input and CC’s as well.
Also I wonder if my smith machine has more resistance or something, because I don’t understand how you use more weight on IHs and CGBs than me yet my triceps are much larger…oh well at least I own on PJRs! lol
Today’s Arms
Smith Reverse-grip Bench:
295x10, 6, 4 RP
In-Human CGBP:
275x6, fail *I didn’t take into account I did a heavy pressing movement before these, I had planned on 275 for work sets this week after last weeks hitting 245 for 12.
Waited like 2 minutes or so and then did this:
245x9, 5, 4.5 RP Next week will be better on these for sure lol
DB Concentration Curl:
70x13, 7, 4.5 RP - Left Arm
70x13, 7, 5 RP - Right Arm, purposely matched the reps of left arm…could do more but don’t want to further my imbalance.
Hammer Curl (weight/reps per arm):
65x13, 8, 6 RP
As I mentioned above I really didn’t like the RGBs that much, but again it could be some form issue or something…not sure if I want to attempt them again next week or just do scott extensions.
Watch how Jason does them… especially note his grip on the bar(very loose and only a couple fingers tightly holding the bar-pinky and ring finger are off) and how wide the hands are. Pin the shoulders back, chest up and push up/away with the triceps and you will find yourself in a nice “bombing stroke” as Dante likes to call it. Very powerful movement with no hitching point that you can grind out reps safely with heavy weight.
And guys looking for another triceps move look at his related video of extensions done on the floor.
Thanks for the video Scott M I think I’m going to try them again next week and hold the bar a bit looser. I was squeezing it tight like I would on a normal bench press and that’s probably why my wrists hurt.
Did some high reps lifting today…because of a couple factors (cutting calories, running a lot, still not used to short rest intervals) the weight I was using was below my expectations…but it was good to do some real lifting.
Worst session I’ve had in recent history. I can’t remember the last time energy levels were so low. I was pumped to be lifting but man, my body just didn’t bring it today.
Saturday - Shoulders
Standing military press
bar x 15
95lbs x 10
135lbs x 8 (wtf felt heavy)
155 x 5 (wtf)
185 x 4 (WTF, I got 7 last week)
185 x 3 (terrible)
Felt ridiculously heavy. Rest of the workout took this into account.
Seated DB press
50’s x 10
65’s x 10
80’s x 14, 12 (should have been doing 95’s)
DB lateral raises
25’s x 10
30’s x 10
35’s x 10
45’s x 12ish, 35’s x 10, 25’s x 10 (ish)
cable lateral raise thing.
2 sets, blah.
Face pulls (super strict, hold at the top)
10plates x 10
12plates x 10
stack x 10
Then I walked around the gym and did random machines. It was a very strange day.
Had a really nice dinner tho.
I am so tired jesus.
I ate an inordinate amount of food today. I think at one point I inhaled two freakin’ pounds of yogurt in one sitting.
…Excuse me while I go do some sprinting.
[quote]bugeishaAD wrote:
Worst session I’ve had in recent history. I can’t remember the last time energy levels were so low. I was pumped to be lifting but man, my body just didn’t bring it today.
Saturday - Shoulders
Standing military press
bar x 15
95lbs x 10
135lbs x 8 (wtf felt heavy)
155 x 5 (wtf)
185 x 4 (WTF, I got 7 last week)
185 x 3 (terrible)
Felt ridiculously heavy. Rest of the workout took this into account.
Seated DB press
50’s x 10
65’s x 10
80’s x 14, 12 (should have been doing 95’s)
DB lateral raises
25’s x 10
30’s x 10
35’s x 10
45’s x 12ish, 35’s x 10, 25’s x 10 (ish)
cable lateral raise thing.
2 sets, blah.
Face pulls (super strict, hold at the top)
10plates x 10
12plates x 10
stack x 10
Then I walked around the gym and did random machines. It was a very strange day.
Had a really nice dinner tho.
I am so tired jesus.[/quote]
If that happens the next few sessions as well, take some time a) off or b) non-failure training and maybe reduced volume (but still lifting the weights you did previously)
No use lifting less and less and ending up sick to boot.
[quote]WS4JB wrote:
Josh, I did the RGB the other day and I think you’ll like it, mostly i think i liked it because i got to use 315
CC, I think i might have an issue doing the shoulder work before the triceps work, my In Human suffered big time, like 50 pounds less for my work set.
I really loved the Steep incline Shoulder press in the Smith though, definitely wanna keep that around, can’t wait to be pretting 315 for reps in that one.
RUHL ! ! ! !
It must be my strong German heritage that did most of the work on that one.
Well, heres the workout.
Steep Incline Shoulder press (wide grip)
from chin to just short of lockout
135 x 12
185 x 12
205 x 12
225 x 10
250 x 7
DB side lateral
30 x 12
30 x 14
30 x 19 rp
IHCGBP ( F***ING SUCKED AT THESE)
185x10
225x10
245x8
275x 1 (hit this for 10 the other day)
255x8
PJR pullover
95 x 12
95 x 9
95 x 7
Upright row (cable)
3 x 12-15 @ 110
Comments: Im not quite sure what to do here, would it be completely idiotic to change my split to
day 1:Chest and Shoulders (grows easy 4 me)
Day 2:leg and biceps
Day 3:off
Day 4:Triceps (weakest point by far)
Day 5:Back and Biceps
Day 6:off
Day 7:off
–JB
[/quote]
One entire session for triceps only? Hmm.
And since tris are a weak-point, why train biceps twice but not them?
We could just have you do one of my old 4-way splits which I’ve mentioned before somewhere (Try having some workouts on the weekend instead of in the week where you’re likely lacking sleep and are stressed out, worked for me)
Day 1 - Chest+Back (Could do some additional arm work here)
Day 2 - Off
Day 3 - Wheels
Day 4 - Delts
Day 5 - Guns
Day 6 - off
Day 7 - off
When I trained that way as an intermediate, My strength increased by leaps and bounds from session to session… I trained nothing twice at that time, just focused on really piling on the weight every time a bodypart came around.
Before you train arms twice on that split (adding in 1-2 exercises on chest+back day), try the once-weekly version and really put on more weight from session to session, not just increasing reps or whatever (within reason).
Normally one would have an off-day between either wheels and delts or delts and arms… But this setup worked better for me:
I don’t like having 3-spaced apart days where my shoulders are hit (chest, delts and tris days), it works better for me when I train delts right before tris, somehow.
Also: I can’t train tris and bis and then only have one off-day and go straight into chest and back. 2 off days proved to be ideal.
So basically, you’re delts aren’t on the same day as tris (which was an issue for you) and there you have it 
My exercises back then were (didn’t know about DC exercises yet):
Chest+Back (mixed those occasionally, but I nowadays I wouldn’t do that anymore)
Low Incline Bench Press
Chest focused machine Dips or Flat Machine Presses
-BTN Pulldowns (no further down than ear level… I usually just did half reps in the top part of rom)
-Seated Cable Rows, wide-hammer-grip attachment
-Smith Rack Pulls
Wheels:
-Smith Squats (almost ATG) or Smith Front Squats (ATG. no rack available at gym at that time, but the smith worked nicely…)
-Leg Extensions (not past 90)
-Hamstring Leg Presses
-Lying Machine Leg Curls
-Standing Calf Raise Machine
Delts+Traps
-Seated DB presses (no rack for militaries, no bench under the smith for high inclines. This totally sucked, as progression on db presses is so much more difficult imo.)
-Scott Laterals (Larry scott type, didn’t know that back then, but leaned forward more etcetc)
-Face Pulls (again, never liked bent-over laterals much)
-Upright rows
-Smith Shrugs (awkward imo, but we had no rack) or DB Shrugs (even more awkward 
Guns
-BB Curls, shouldn’t give you pain unless you don’t have your chest out, delts back and use a comfortable grip-width.
-Alt. DB Curls, offset grip without me even realizing.
-Alt. Hammers
-CGP’s, freeweight version (we had no rack and no bench under the smith)
I flared my elbows out somewhat and used (still use on IH’s) a suicide grip. Watch Frank McGrath do them on youtube, I did them the exact same way (though I wasn’t as strong as him, of course): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-_N8clX0Os (after rope pushdowns)
-Lying EZ Extensions (on bench), bringing bar down behind my head, pausing on the bench, then up (to above eye-level). Not quite locking out.
-Machine dips, which proved to be too much (form was horrible and delts acted up), replaced it with Straight bar push/pressdowns instead.
Ramped up weight over 4 sets (starting with the bar for 8 on all bb exercises… always did 8-6 reps on warm-ups, too), top set was 6-8 reps (even for quads back then… No wonder they didn’t grow as much as they should have, lol. Went a little lighter on EZ Extensions, 7 reps was the lowest) If I could get 8 or more, then I added a little more weight and did another set of 5-6 after some rest.
Worked very well, except for quads (needed a high rep, grinding set, but didn’t yet know about that)
Anyway… I always managed to add weight… for Incline bench and CGP, that was usually 10 pounds, then noticed that I could do more and added another 5 lol. Could probably have added 20 instead and kept sets to 4, but it worked anyway. I rarely worked with the same weight twice, except for Hammer and Alt. DB curls, as well as laterals and such. Even EZ extensions went up in weight every time, same for BB curls.
If I “stalled” (read: progress didn’t go as fast as I liked, no real stalling…), I just did a different exercise and dropped the slow-gaining one. (instinctively, I didn’t know about plateau busting etc, and I’m glad about that. This way I kept on progressing easily while others who read shit in the internet went from program to useless program..)
Come to think of it, the only reason I stopped training that way was because I found out about DC training.
Sorry for the long post… I guess these days I would incorporate some of the rare/DC exercises and all that (and would have a smith with a bench underneath available)… But in essence, that general setup and set-rep scheme should work for you too (except for quads, ha!)… If you want, try it out that way and see if strength etc comes easier there.
I think part of the success was going for 6-8 reps instead of 10 right from the start (a little more strength focus, good for a natty without aid of anabolics for faster/additional strength gain) and then doing another, heavier set if I could get 8 … Sort of like the 2 different rep-range sets used on some DC backthickness exercises, for example. Though I wonder if just sticking with 4 sets and upping the weight more from session to session would have produced better results, even…
Would definitely add the DC stretches if I were to use that split again.
Actually a pretty standard bb routine lol (surprise).
Oh well… Now you made me all go all sentimental and remember the good old days
How I hated that piece of crap gym… Playing madonna while I was trying to destroy the weights… If it weren’t for that, I’d be MR. Olympia now for sure… Dammich…
#Edit: In all my rambling I forgot to adress a simple issue:
Take more time between your exercises !
On the DC 2-way, you also train tris after delts. After chest and delts, in fact.
As long as you progress on all three, that is no problem. Helps a lot to just take your time, though.
Huffing and puffing around the gym = circuit training, remember ? ;D
Sheiko 29 Week 3 Friday
Squat
185x5
205x4
245x3
245x3
275x3
275x3
275x3
275x3
275x3
275x3
Bench
135x5
155x4
185x3
185x3
215x3
215x3
215x3
215x3
215x3
215x3
215x3
Incline DB Bench (trying to get good stretch at bottom)
60x10
60x10
60x10
60x10
60x10
Romanian Deadlift
185x5
185x5
185x5
185x5
225x5
Lat Raises
20x8
20x8
20x8
Saturday Upper Back
HS Underhand Lat Pulldown
135x8
225x8
275x6
275x6
225x8
225x8
Kroc Rows
100x20 both arms
Incline Bench Curls
40x5
40x5
40x5
EZ Bar Curls
80x8
80x8
Notes: Easy session, just dicking around with the curls really.
CC, it would be great if you could critique my program. I realize it’s all over the place, but there’s a couple of limiting factors:
Day 1
Shoulders 1
-5x5 Military Press
-4x8-10 Standing Lateral Raises
-4x8-10 Upright Rows
-4x8-10 Reverse Flys
-4x8-10 Power Shrugs
-4x15 Seated Calf Raises
Day 2
Chest/Biceps
-Bench Program (can’t remember what it’s called)
-4x6-8 DB Incline Bench-press
-4x6-8 DB Floor Flys
-2x10-12 Pec Deck Flys
-4x8-10 Reverse Preacher Curls
-4x8-10 Cheat Hammer Curls
Day 3
Rest
Day 4
Back/Hamstrings
-5x3 Rackpulls
-4x8-10 Leg Curls
-4x8-10 Bent Over Rows
-4x8-10 Lat Pulldowns
-4x8-10 Cable Rows
Day 5
Shoulders 2/Triceps
-4x8-10 DB Shoulder Press
-4x8-10 Dips
-4x8-10 Face Pulls
-4x8-10 PJR Pullovers
-4x8-10 Standing EZ bar French presses
-4x15 Standing Calf Raises
Day 6
Rest
Day7
Rest
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I need it… 
[quote]Vegg wrote:
CC, it would be great if you could critique my program. I realize it’s all over the place, but there’s a couple of limiting factors:
you could do that, but doing them once a week and really concentrating on upping the poundage significantly every time you train them might help more at this point… But there is another way, see at the end of the post[quote]
Day 1
Shoulders 1
-5x5 Military Press
-4x8-10 Standing Lateral Raises
-4x8-10 Upright Rows
-4x8-10 Reverse Flys
-4x8-10 Power Shrugs
-4x15 Seated Calf Raises
Day 2
Chest/Biceps
-Bench Program (can’t remember what it’s called)
-4x6-8 DB Incline Bench-press
-4x6-8 DB Floor Flys
-2x10-12 Pec Deck Flys
-4x8-10 Reverse Preacher Curls
-4x8-10 Cheat Hammer Curls
[/quote] I’d not waste my time with 2 flye movements. One at most, do another Bicep exercise instead.
What is that Bench Program? I’d start with Incline presses, but if that program thing is a priority, well, keep it as it is, I suppose.
Bicep routine, that’s basically forearms/brachialis you’re doing there… Particular reason for that?
I’d do:
BB Curls/EZ Curls
Alt Offset DB Curls/ Incline Offset DB curls/ Preachers, whatever
Pinwheel, Reverse- or Alt. Hammer Curls
Also: major problem, doing bis before back with only one rest day… May not be that smart (even if you want to bring them up… This’ll likely just disturb their recovery/adaption). You could do them the very day after back and it would probably be better… But let’s see.
[quote]
Day 3
Rest
Day 4
Back/Hamstrings
-5x3 Rackpulls
-4x8-10 Leg Curls
-4x8-10 Bent Over Rows
-4x8-10 Lat Pulldowns
-4x8-10 Cable Rows
Day 5
Shoulders 2/Triceps
-4x8-10 DB Shoulder Press
-4x8-10 Dips
-4x8-10 Face Pulls
-4x8-10 PJR Pullovers
-4x8-10 Standing EZ bar French presses
-4x15 Standing Calf Raises
[/quote] Standing Overhead Extensions after PJR Pullovers? You into pain or something? Tri routine isn’t that great in general. [quote]
Day 6
Rest
Day7
Rest
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I need it… [/quote]
Okay… Well, I’d prefer you on that split I mentioned in a post above, but that doesn’t work too well due to your training days.
If you want to train delts and arms twice, maybe just make it easy and do a 2-way ?
If you want to use a 4-way, I’ll think of something… About your knee thing, give me some more info there…
Off to eat now.
Well, tendonosis is a degenerative condition that develops over time. Micro-tears in the tendon that don’t heal fast enough or something. It could take months longer to heal.
After thinking about it, here’s what I might do with my program:
Monday- Chest
Tuesday- Back/Hams
Thursday- Shoulders
Friday- Arms
What would you suggest for triceps?
Thanks.
[quote]Vegg wrote:
Well, tendonosis is a degenerative condition that develops over time. Micro-tears in the tendon that don’t heal fast enough or something. It could take months longer to heal.
After thinking about it, here’s what I might do with my program:
Monday- Chest
Tuesday- Back/Hams
Thursday- Shoulders
Friday- Arms
What would you suggest for triceps?
Thanks.[/quote]
That looks much better indeed.
Shame about your knees… What happened?
I’d say for lagging tris pound the heavy-ass tri-pressing variations (Smith RGB first and foremost, In-Human CGP or even regular CGP with elbows flared…) as well as PJR’s, Scott’s or Lying on the bench EZ Extensions as mentioned before.
Something like:
-SRGB’S / IH’s / CGP’s
-PJR’S/ Scott Extensions /EZ Extensions as mentioned above
-Straight Bar Push/Pressdowns
OR, but this isn’t easy and your second press will suffer unless you take your time between exercises (doesn’t matter as long as you can progress):
-SRGB’s
-IH’s
-PJR’s/Scott’s
Or do it twice a week with 2 different sessions:
-SRGB’s
-Scotts
-IH’s
-PJR’s
The last one may be a bit much, and not even necessary.
The second one is def. kinda overkill I guess.
The first suggestion is totally standard, but works very very well if you really just get those damn poundages up.
Regardless of whether you train a muscle once or twice a week, it must still get stronger for reps, and significantly so… No way around that.
Alright, here’s what I’m thinking for arms day:
-Smith Reverse Grip Bench
-PJR Pullovers
-Cable Press downs (dunno about these, I never really feel them in my tris for some reason)
-Preacher Curls
-Incline DB Curls
-Cheat Hammer Curls
As for the reason I have tendonosis, well… When I first started working out properly about ten months ago, I tended to bounce my squats out of the bottom. That kind of aggravated my knees, and one day I went to rugby practice and my knees basically exploded.
Then last summer I started heavy squatting before they were fully healed. My squat went from about 185lbs all the way to 315 in less than a month, but my knees started hurting again. I looked it up and found out it was tendonosis, and haven’t squatted since.
Yeah… So basically I have tendonosis because I was an idiot.
[quote]Vegg wrote:
Alright, here’s what I’m thinking for arms day:
-Smith Reverse Grip Bench
-PJR Pullovers
-Cable Press downs (dunno about these, I never really feel them in my tris for some reason)
-Preacher Curls
-Incline DB Curls
-Cheat Hammer Curls
[/quote] Cheat Hammer Curls? You’ve already injured your knees dude, want to injure your brachioradialis as well?
Not that I’m against loose form as such, but I’d like to see a vid of those… Cheating is something that you have to learn how to do properly, and at your arm-size, that isn’t really something you should need yet.
(no offense meant)
How do you do the cable pressdowns? If necessary, post a vid.
For some strange reason I like training bis before tris if using an all-arms day, but that’s just me.
I’d add BB curls or an Offset Curl variation as first exercise instead of either preachers or regular inclines…
[quote]
As for the reason I have tendonosis, well… When I first started working out properly about ten months ago, I tended to bounce my squats out of the bottom. That kind of aggravated my knees, and one day I went to rugby practice and my knees basically exploded.
Then last summer I started heavy squatting before they were fully healed. My squat went from about 185lbs all the way to 315 in less than a month, but my knees started hurting again. I looked it up and found out it was tendonosis, and haven’t squatted since.
Yeah… So basically I have tendonosis because I was an idiot.[/quote]
Shame about that… Oh well, life teaches harsh lessons…
#Edit: You didn’t squat narrow-stance, knees-out-in-front, did you?
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Vegg wrote:
Alright, here’s what I’m thinking for arms day:
-Smith Reverse Grip Bench
-PJR Pullovers
-Cable Press downs (dunno about these, I never really feel them in my tris for some reason)
-Preacher Curls
-Incline DB Curls
-Cheat Hammer Curls
Cheat Hammer Curls? You’ve already injured your knees dude, want to injure your brachioradialis as well?
Not that I’m against loose form as such, but I’d like to see a vid of those… Cheating is something that you have to learn how to do properly, and at your arm-size, that isn’t really something you should need yet.
(no offense meant)
How do you do the cable pressdowns? If necessary, post a vid.
For some strange reason I like training bis before tris if using an all-arms day, but that’s just me.
I’d add BB curls or an Offset Curl variation as first exercise instead of either preachers or regular inclines…
As for the reason I have tendonosis, well… When I first started working out properly about ten months ago, I tended to bounce my squats out of the bottom. That kind of aggravated my knees, and one day I went to rugby practice and my knees basically exploded.
Then last summer I started heavy squatting before they were fully healed. My squat went from about 185lbs all the way to 315 in less than a month, but my knees started hurting again. I looked it up and found out it was tendonosis, and haven’t squatted since.
Yeah… So basically I have tendonosis because I was an idiot.
Shame about that… Oh well, life teaches harsh lessons…
#Edit: You didn’t squat narrow-stance, knees-out-in-front, did you?[/quote]
Well, the cheat hammer curls don’t exactly involve that much cheating really. I do them like this:
They feel great, and I’m able to work up to about 70-80lb DBs without a problem. If I start feeling any pain, I’ll drop them.
So BB curls first? I might do this then:
-Standing BB curls
-Preacher Curls
-Hammer Curls
For the pressdowns, I’ll see if I can tighten up my form. I’ll also switch from ropes to a straight bar.
Also, strangely enough, the squats were done with a wide powerlifting style stance.
Thanks for the help.
Week II
Workout I: Chest, Triceps, Calves
30° Incline BB press
95x12
140x10
170x8
190x8,8,8
45° Incline DB press
70²x10
85²x6
DB bench press
85²x6
DB flyes
45²x10,10
Reverse-grip Triceps pressdown
52x15
62x11
Triceps Pressdown
62x9,8
PRJ pull-over
45x10
65x10
DC Style Donkey calf raises
135x12
Body weight single leg calf raises
BWx10,10…per leg