nevermind there are too many Q’s here
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
yvanehtnioj wrote:
Hey CC
I would like to start SHIPs, but i’ve searched throughout this site and cannot find how to do them with correct form. I think I might have it though. All I have to do is…
- set bench one notch before 90 degrees
- retract shoulder blades
- use no leg drive
- don’t lockout to keep tension on shoulders
- grip and squeeze bar apart
- brace abs
- lower to nose level
Am I missing anything?
Thanks.
Well, there are no “official” rules of course. If one notch below 90 doesn’t feel right, try two… Depends on the bench model, anyway.
There are basically 2 ways of execution: Ruehl-style directly to the nose etc (short ROM, usually locked out because, well, ROM is so short lol), and regular (like McGrath and co do) with a less wide grip, no need for lockout if you don’t want to, comes down to the chin or so, elbows flared out a little less perhaps…
Ruehl style with the super-wide grip and the angle the arms are at can be a bit hard on the shoulders.
As with all exercises, just tinker with setup and technique until it feels right (or until you get fed up with it and move on to another exercise).
(the pulling the bar apart can work indeed, though not everyone does it. While doing that on the bench press would take the pecs mostly out, the shoulders still work hard, and the side/rear delts perhaps even harder when doing this on the OHP… Play around with that technique)
[/quote]
ALright thanks a lot. I’ll do them like McGrath. What do you think about the cybex lateral machine? I’ve been using dumbells so far, but it’s starting to kill my wrists and forearms.
DB laterals hard on your wrists and forearms? Hmm. You do not need to bring the bells up to shoulder height or past that… Lower chest height is fine, with elbows at 90 deg. at the top of the movement and arms rotated so that the bells are lower… More like you’re half-rowing them up?
But yes, a good lateral raise machines beats DB laterals any day of the week 
Make use of it, though most of them have stacks that are too small imo…
Add some face or neck pulls on the lat pulldown machine for the rear delts/mid traps to the mix as well… (scapulae retracted in the contracted position and you reverse that on the negative)
So everything’s progressing pretty well recently I take it CC? Last I remember you were doing your own BBB variant
Also, I forgot to mention that for the below plan I’m looking to stick with free weights for the most part because for a 5 week period I’ll have to workout at my home gym and free weights is all I’ll have available (besides a really crappy high cable set up)
Thanks again
[quote]pumped340 wrote:
Hey CC, I just finished 6 weeks of BBB (ramp1+SG1) and am about to start a new routine because I feel strength (mainly in the pressing movements) could be a little better. Below is what I’m planning, do you have anything you’d add to insure optimal mass gains?
All 5x5’s starting light on week 1 working up
Monday
Rack Chin or lat pull-down using 5 x 5, 4 x 6, or 10 x 3
EZ-Bar Curl
Deadlifts 5 x 5 Ramping to a top set
Calf work 2-4x10-20
Wedesday
Bench press 5 x 5 Ramping up to a top set
Reduced ROM bench movement for 1 x 3- 3 x 4
Shoulder rep work Any suggestions for what would be most appropriate here?
Tricep rep work Any suggestions? I would do CGBP but am thinking 4 presses might be bad
Friday
DB Row using a static weight 5 x 5
Squatting using a static weight or Ramping (likely will ramp) 5 x 5
Pinwheel Curls (added these as I feel I benefited from hitting bi’s (and back) more frequently in BBB
calf work 2x15
Sunday
Incline Bench press using a static weight for 5 x 5 considering making this DB as I really want to work on my upper chest
Shoulder rep work suggestions?
Tricep rep work suggestions?
Possibly additional chest rep lift
After 3-5 weeks a deload is done for all 5 x 5’s, either reducing reps or sets. Rep work can stay the same but may be reduced.
I’d appreciate any input you have for the things in bold, or anything else, for optimal mass gains
Thanks a lot,
Pumped[/quote]
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
DB laterals hard on your wrists and forearms? Hmm. You do not need to bring the bells up to shoulder height or past that… Lower chest height is fine, with elbows at 90 deg. at the top of the movement and arms rotated so that the bells are lower… More like you’re half-rowing them up?
But yes, a good lateral raise machines beats DB laterals any day of the week
Make use of it, though most of them have stacks that are too small imo…
Add some face or neck pulls on the lat pulldown machine for the rear delts/mid traps to the mix as well… (scapulae retracted in the contracted position and you reverse that on the negative)
[/quote]
Wow thanks for the quick reply. I’ll try the cybex machine. It’s too hard to progress on the db’s since they increase by 5s.
Hey CC, I’m starting Cycle 4 of 5/3/1 Monday or Tuesday, this is what I came up with so far. Hope you can throw your 2 cents in:
Day 1
5/3/1 Military press
Flat DB bench press â??> 20-30 RP
Low cable-row (wide neutral grip) → 10-12 rep rampâ?¦ Iâ??m going for lat width here, good exercise selection (I just did rack chins so I want to change it up)?
EZ PJRs → 12-15 rep ramp
Kneeling cable ext. rotation → 3x12-15
Day 2
5/3/1 Deadlifts
BB curls → 20-30 RP
DB Bulgarian split squat → 8 rep ramp
Kneeling Hip Extensions (for the hammies from a Bret Contreras article, they are like GHRs) → 8-12 rep ramp
BB Hip thrusts → 5 rep ramp
Pallof press → 3x10-12
Day 3
5/3/1 Bench press
Incline BB bench → 5 rep ramp
Yates row w/ belt → 6 rep rampâ?¦ potential low back fatigue?
Overhead rope extensions → Extended set (RP-esque), like this: EliteFTS.com: Troponin -Overhead Rope Extensions - YouTube
Side-lying ext. rotations → 3x12-15
Day 4
Hammer curl → 12-20 rep ramp
5/3/1 Front squat
Back extensions w/ DB (focusing on hammies) → 6 rep ramp
Walking DB lunges → 8-10 rep ramp
BB Hip thrusts → 5 rep ramp
Hanging leg raise → 3x10-15
The reason I am doing BB hip thrusts is for glute strength/lower back health. That exercise should take only 5 mins. I know it is a lot more volume on my leg days than last time (I added in hip thrusts and hammies isolation work on both lower days as you can see). However, I’m going to be doing the Anaconda Protocol so I really want to go all-out and see what happens. Thanks!
Man have not spoke to you in a while just stopped by to say grats on your thread reaching 1,000 posts.
Ok CC you asked for it, heres a long post coming:
Basically I trained with a 3 way spilt since early september till last week.
It looks something like this:
Monday: Back, Traps and Biceps
Tuesday:Legs, shoulders and calves
Wednesday: Chest, Triceps and lateral delts
Rinse and repeat for Thurs to Sat
Sunday:Rest
For a little background info, I am at 150lbs, 5’6. I have been getting 2800kcals in per day for the last month, but upped it to 3100 kcals this week. If im still hungry, I will just eat anything around, so half or 1/3 the time i get about 3500kcals in. Its around 250 grams of protein, 380grams of carb and 60-70 grams of fat.
Actually I had painstaking written down a detailed record of my logbook but accidentally deleted it, and was so sick of it, so I wrote a pretty simplified one:
This is a workout from the end of October:
Monday(Back,Traps,Biceps):
T-bar row: bar&45kg:12
bar&50kg:12
bar&55kg:10
bar&60kg:7,7
Chin-ups BW:8,8,7
One-arm db rows 35kg:(7,7)(6,7)(6,8) (grip fails me)
Shrugs 2X25kg :15
2X40kgdbs:8,7,5
Bicep db curl 2X10kgdbs:10,9,7,6
Tuesday(Shoulders Legs):
Conventional Deadlift: bar&2X20kg:5
bar&2X30kg:5
bar&2X40kg:8,3 (my best at that time was bar+2X50kg for 2 reps)
Squat: bar&2X20kg:5
bar&2X30kg:5
bar&2X35kg:8,8 (I did 5,2,3 reps for 2X42.5kg on the same thursday)
Leg extension: 105kg: 10,10,9
Calf raises on smith: 2X25kg:8
2X35kg:8
2X50kg:10
2X55kg:8 (nowadays i focus more on form for these)
Overhead Press standing bar&2X7.5kg :10
bar&2X10kg :8
bar&2X12.5kg:4,4 (got up to 2 reps for bar+2X16.25kg)
Wednesday(Chest,Triceps):
Bench Press bar&2X20kg :10
bar&2X25kg :8
bar&2X27.5kg :6
bar&2X28.75kg:4 (got stuck at bar+2X30kg for 5 reps 2 weeks back)
Incline Press bar&2X12.5kg:10
bar&2X17.5kg:6,7,6
Pec deck machine 68kg:6,5
tricep db extensions 2X9kgdbs :(10,10)
2X10kgdbs:(12,9),(8,7)
tricep cable pushdowns 23.75kg:12
26.25kg:8,6
Lateral raises standing 2X10kgdbs:10,10,9
This is this week’s workout:
Monday(Back and Chest):
Bench Press 2X25kgdbs:10,10,10
2X30kgdbs:4
Incline Press bar&2X15kg :10
bar&2X17.5kg :8
bar&2X20kg :6
bar&2X21.25kg:5
Chest press machine 55kg:12
60kg:11
65kg:8
Pec deck machine 1 set with light weights for pump
Bent-over BB rows bar&2X15kg :12
bar&2X20kg :9,10
bar&2X22.5kg:9
One-arm db rows 35kgdb:(10,10)
40kgdb:(7,8),(7,10)
Rack pullz (1st time trying) bar&2X20kg:5
bar&2X30kg:5
bar&2X40kg:5
bar&2X50kg:5,5
bar&2X55kg:5
Tuesday(Shoulders and arms):
Overhead Press seated with dbs: 2X15kgdbs :8
2X17.5kgdbs:5,7,6
Bicep BB curl 20lb?bar&2X7.5kg :10
20lb?bar&2X8.75kg:9
20lb?bar&2X10kg :5
20lb?bar&2X8.75kg:9,9
Bicep db hammer curl 2X12.5kgdbs:10,12,12
DB cable curl 1 arm 7.5kg :(12,12)
87.5kg:(10,11)
Close grip bench press bar&2X15kg :12 (exercise felt weird to me, 1st time trying)
bar&2X20kg :10
bar&2X22.5kg:7,6,6
tricep rope cable pushdowns: 11.25kg:(12,12)
13.75kg:(10,11)
tricep machine: 32kg:12
39kg:9,7
Lateral raises seated: 2X10kgdbs:8,8,10
Wednesday(Legs):
Squat: bar&2X20kg :5
bar&2X30kg :5
bar&2X35kg :5
bar&2X40kg :5
bar&2X42.5kg:5,5,4,2
Lunges: bar&2X17.5kg:14,12
Leg Extension single leg: 40kg:(10,11)
45kg:(8,8)
40kg:(12,12)
Leg Curl: 70kg: 11,11,11
RDL: bar&2X20kg :10
bar&2X25kg :10
bar&2X30kg :7
bar&2X32.5kg:5,4 (grip fails me)
Calf raises on smith: 2X20kg:10
2X30kg:10
2X40kg:10
2X50kg:7,7,7 (focusing more on stretch and contraction these days)
I only wrote 3 days out of 6 because 6 days would be too much for me to type lol. Anyways, I did the same thing from thurs to sat for the first workout at the end of October. This week, I did chest and biceps on thurs, back on fri, and legs and biceps on saturday(today).
Im pretty much hitting my bis alot cause they seem to be lagging to me. I only know that my chest and my legs are my strongest parts cause they are the only ones with stretch marks on em.
For the coming weeks, I am thinking of doing a 2 way spilt 3 times a week, basically hitting my chest, back ,biceps, traps, lateral delts and legs 3X a week while hitting my anterior delts and tris twice a week. This is mainly due to me feeling pretty badass and invulnerable from the recent intake of carbs.
EDIT: wow this post took 5 hours to load ><
CC,
I’ve seen you mention alt. offset curls as one of your favorites in several threads. I am unfamiliar with this lift, and hoped you could describe it for me.
Also, I noticed your drag curls are different than Gironda’s, in that the concentric is a regular curl. I’m curious as to how you came about your variation.
[quote]leon79 wrote:
CC,
I’ve seen you mention alt. offset curls as one of your favorites in several threads. I am unfamiliar with this lift, and hoped you could describe it for me.
[/quote]
I am actually capable of answering this one, wow. I just read over the Alpha Roundtable - Guns thread, so here is CC’s exact response explaining this awesome lift:
"Biceps: They don’t just bend the arm at the elbow… They also supinate the wrist and one of the heads connects to the shoulder and works with the anterior deltoid (practically the opposite function of the long head of the triceps).
The supinating thing is easy… Start of DB curls of any kind with hands in a neutral position, then supinate as you go up. Dante Trudel wrote some about that, saying (paraphrasing here) that people go the easy and less effective route by gripping the DB exactly in the middle, which basically means that the weight on the pinky side is balanced out by the weight on the thumb side… Thus you’re not really working much when supinating the bell.
The more effective way would be to use an offset grip, i.e. grip the bells so that your thumb and possibly index finger touch the innermost plate on their side of the bell. That makes the supination part a little exercise in itself."
So basically it is just alternating DB curls, in which you start in a neutral grip but at the end of the curl, you hand should be fully supinated (palm facing you). And the offset portion is clearly explained by CC.
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
leon79 wrote:
CC,
I’ve seen you mention alt. offset curls as one of your favorites in several threads. I am unfamiliar with this lift, and hoped you could describe it for me.
I am actually capable of answering this one, wow. I just read over the Alpha Roundtable - Guns thread, so here is CC’s exact response explaining this awesome lift:
Biceps: They don’t just bend the arm at the elbow… They also supinate the wrist and one of the heads connects to the shoulder and works with the anterior deltoid (practically the opposite function of the long head of the triceps).
"The supinating thing is easy… Start of DB curls of any kind with hands in a neutral position, then supinate as you go up. Dante Trudel wrote some about that, saying (paraphrasing here) that people go the easy and less effective route by gripping the DB exactly in the middle, which basically means that the weight on the pinky side is balanced out by the weight on the thumb side… Thus you’re not really working much when supinating the bell.
The more effective way would be to use an offset grip, i.e. grip the bells so that your thumb and possibly index finger touch the innermost plate on their side of the bell. That makes the supination part a little exercise in itself."
So basically it is just alternating DB curls, in which you start in a neutral grip but at the end of the curl, you hand should be fully supinated (palm facing you). And the offset portion is clearly explained by CC.[/quote]
Much appreciated.
PB Andy, thanks for that explanation. I’ve never had a clue what CC meant when he said alt. offset curls lol.
I think i’ve actually been doing those all along, since for some reason it felt easier if my hand was closer to the top part of the dumbbell as opposed to directly in the middle.
Hey CC, I figured the last post was way too long. Anyway, Im just going to cut down on my working sets for squats and increase the frequency to 3X a week into my 2 way spilt 3X per week. I got a feeling this would do the trick
OatsNMilk, there are some major issues in terms of how you go about your sets etc… Going to address them either this evening (German time, lol) or tomorrow.
Gotta go train now…
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
OatsNMilk, there are some major issues in terms of how you go about your sets etc… Going to address them either this evening (German time, lol) or tomorrow.
Gotta go train now… [/quote]
Care to post what you did? 
Amonero, its the mega long post just above of my previous one.
[quote]OatsNMilk wrote:
Amonero, its the mega long post just above of my previous one.[/quote]
Oh,I meant I’d like to see what Cephalic_Carnage did for his workout.
CC,
How do you feel about specialization programs.
Hi, just wondering if i can get some input on my split…
Day 1: Shoulders/Arms
-Seated DB press, .
-Alternating DB curls
-Deadstop extensions
-db laterals, or machine laterals if my shoulders are bothering me
-EZ bar curls
-overhead extensions
Legs/abs
-Squats or legpress
-hamstring curls
-calf raises
-crunches
followed by lots of stretching
Chest and Back.
-flat db bench
-Pullups (rack chins?)
-BB incline press
-DB rows
-Wide Grip High rep pulldowns… i have trouble “feeling” my lats working much of the time and i can really feel them work with these.
Done 3 on, 1 off. One thing is that i don’t have a pressing movement for triceps, is this a problem?
C_C,
I understand you helped a couple of guys go from beginners to 110kgx3 bench over the course of a few months. As someone who has a terrible bench press I am curious about the details of the program.
Thanks!