Really great workout today! Volume Tier III this week for all the Muscle Round sessions. I had such a tremendous pump in my chest, I must’ve been up several cup sizes! Found an appropriate weight this time for scrape the rack press. My delts and triceps were pretty much already trashed from the first two movements alone but the other work I did truly finished them off! Planning for a sweet little pull session tomorrow after I get my car back from the dealership handling an air bag recall.
4 Likes
Pull day. This one moved super quick. Found my working weights really quickly and got to work. Haven’t done straight arm Pulldowns in a while. Boy, what a great move. Row stop deads were awesome as usual, but they really smoke my lats! Also had the best bicep pump that I’ve acquired in ages from those incline preacher curls. Holy smokes, just what the doctor ordered!
7 Likes
Really good, fast Session today. The belt squat is so easy and fast to set up that I’m really saving a lot of time any day that I use it and get an incredible quad connection and pump! The upper body 5s into the hole Work was money as usual. I think I reached a good blend of stimulus/fatigue-that’s my hope anyway as I go to do the inverse of this session tomorrow!
5 Likes
Really had a terrific session today. I was exhausted as all hell by the end, sweating my ass off in the hot garage but the workout was perfect. Matched reps with last cycle’s incline press but with better form and much deeper ROM. Just really felt strong today. I don’t know if there’s a better feeling movement for my lats in the world than Rack Chins. They feel amazing and I’m consistently getting stronger on them. Behind the neck press is feeling good too. This has become one of my favorite shoulder exercises. Now I get a couple of days to rest before finishing the week with Push,Pull,Leg Muscle Rounds! Dinner was two big pork chops, a cup and a half of white cheddar Mac and cheese and 3 cups of cauliflower. Plan on some sorbet and a protein shake as a treat later.
6 Likes
Pushed things really hard today, as always! First time doing slight decline barbell presses for muscle rounds and they really felt great. The cable laterals have been feeling so good, continuous tension throughout the range of motion. That’s something I’m going to be trying to implement with the dumbbells for delts as well, especially on pump sets. The straight bar on Pushdowns actually felt incredible! Just let my elbows travel back almost like a drag curl for my triceps, I could definitely feel a lot of long head working on these! Pull Muscle Rounds coming up tomorrow!
I’ve been watching a lot of Jonathan Warren on YouTube and he’s definitely made me more aware of my posture while I train and improving my knowledge on biomechanics. Also working to fix my anterior pelvic tilt, which I’ve had basically since childhood. Making good progress on that front, just have to keep working at it. Hoping that it will help me bring up my hamstrings too, as those are still the biggest weak point on my physique.
5 Likes
Pull day today. Everything was on point today. Just so eager to get in there and get after it. Felt good to incorporate some Back movements I haven’t done in a while. I’m also finding that “keeping a stack” has really helped reduce lower back involvement on every exercise, so my lower back is feeling way fresher than usual after a Back day. This feels like a game changer.
5 Likes
Could you expand on this a little.
3 Likes
Basically aligning your pelvis, ribs and head before you start lifting and clearing out air to get fully in position before beginning the first rep of a set. I especially need to emphasize this since for years, my pelvis has been slightly tilted forward and my lower back hyperextended.
3 Likes
Ankle cuffs came in so I was able to try out some cable leg curls and leg extensions! Went pretty well, but I think I’ll be doing the leg extensions one leg at a time going forward due to the difficulty of setup. The belt squats killed me as always and reverse lunges, being bilateral means I had no real rest in between so these were HARD! This training blast is going so well so far, haven’t felt the need for the intensive cruise yet. Recovery has been awesome.
4 Likes
Upper pump! Really got pumped to the max today, just as God intended. Played around with 1.5 reps on most of my sets. Really enjoyed that technique. I love things that keep the training interesting!
5 Likes
Lower load. Pretty short and sweet, even at Volume Tier III. I did pull back a bit of volume on calves since they’re already a strong point. Just one hard set. The posture work really has helped reduce the load on my lower back! This was my first week using the cables as apart of my A rotation for Lower Load and it worked out great! I’ve really worked out a lot of the kinks in the setup for leg extension/leg curl so it’s moving a lot faster and feeling a lot more smooth. Going to finish this week out insanely strong, the final week(6) of this progressive training blast!
6 Likes
Really epic, progression filled workout today! I did make one little change from the previous A rotations, and that was using Fat Gripz on the pressing movements. Decline Bench was moving super well today, really everything was. I feel like I’ve been recovering extremely well between sessions, even with the high frequency.
7 Likes
How do you like those kick-stand squats? What range of motion are you calling a “rep”?
I was messing around with them last month, and it seemed like I just sort of twisted deeper into a longer move each week, instead of getting “stronger” in the usual way.
1 Like
I love kickstand squats! I know single leg work really helps prevent imbalances and such, so I try to keep some in there.
I go down until my butt just about touches heel of my back foot. It’s such an interesting move because both legs are still getting significant work with every rep. I made the mistake of first using them as unilateral muscle rounds, but that didn’t work so well since both legs are getting used so much that it was hard to match reps on the second side.
I like using them like I did here, as a pump set where I train one side to failure, and then put the other leg in front and just go to failure, not really counting reps. Just focusing on keeping a neutral spine and continuous tension on the quads.
1 Like
Really hard and heavy lift today. Amazing how much keeping your scapula down and forward helps keep so much more tension on the delts. Banded dumbbell press and one arm chest Supported cable Row really felt incredible for chest and back respectively. I’ve eliminated my bench arch and have been doing all presses more Jay Cutler style. Also, keeping my stack and pelvis in line with my ribs, not allowing my lower back to go into extension really put SO much more tension on my hamstrings on leg curls. That was really a true difference maker.
5 Likes
Last workout of this training blast today. These last two sessions have moved pretty quick at 50 and 45 minutes respectively. Tried to stick with movements that flow well against what I did yesterday to try to avoid overlap and target the muscles from some different angles. My lats and upper back are just absolutely fried and are about to be very thankful for the extra rest days coming up. Really just got to f stuff up and take care of business in the gym this weekend. Always an awesome feeling. Also got to work with a client today who I hadn’t seen since April and when he saw me he said “ Holy sh*t you look huge!” Good sign that the training has been going well! Ready to handle business during this intensive cruise and get back to business as usual!
5 Likes
Day 1 of Intensive Cruise. Everything really felt great. Lower back felt fabulous, like it was on vacation! Meanwhile all of the muscles I was specifically targeting were sent directly to hell’s inferno. My connection with my delts and lats definitely continues to improve as I continue to further grasp scapular control. I love lifting heavy while still having a great connection with the muscle I’m targeting!
The results of another excellent training blast in the books:
6 Likes
Day 2 of the intensive cruise! Tried out some new movements today! Pin Press felt incredible and absolutely trashed my pecs! Definitely going to be revisiting this one! I also really loved this new exercise, Chest Supported Band Lateral Raises! I got this one from Paul Carter. I saved it on IG forever ago and am just getting around to it, but this exercise was definitely a winner. Also brutalized my back with 3 very tough movements. Somersault squats torched my legs as usual.
5 Likes
got to be hard to somersault with a bar on your back
1 Like
Haha no doubt about that! I don’t know if you have seen or tried these before, but they really give a ridiculous Quad Pump! They’re basically like a better version of leg extensions in my opinion:
6 Likes