I wanted to post my chest workout and get some feedback on this. My routine is geared towards bulking up, not cutting. I am doing a 4 day on, 1 off cycle and typically do triceps with my chest routine (not posted.)
Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
11:00 AM - 12:15 noon
Dumbell Flys
70 - 8
75 - 8
80 - 8
65 - 10 drop set
I bet it’d make you sore, 20 sets for your chest, but it seems odd the order you put it in as austin mentioned, also why the extra set given to the smith incline?
All I’ll really say is if you are getting stronger and your chest is getting bigger along with you triceps, then it’s prolly not a bad routine for you.
That is a ton of volume for a natural trainee. If you get results, GREAT. If not I would think about cutting back a bit.
Im thinking pre-exhaust to. Alot of guys with longer arms have a hard time feeling compound chest exercises in the chest and have to settle for strain in the shoulders and triceps.
Pre-exhaust is a great way to get around this. Mike Mentzer was big on it.
When I think pre-exhaust, I think of doing an iso (chest fly) then Immediately doing a compound (bench press). Besides I don’t think that’s why he ordered it in that order anyways, flies are freakin popular at my gym that’s for sure.
[quote]PF_88 wrote:
When I think pre-exhaust, I think of doing an iso (chest fly) then Immediately doing a compound (bench press). Besides I don’t think that’s why he ordered it in that order anyways, flies are freakin popular at my gym that’s for sure.[/quote]
true, but i do remember reading way back dorian yates would do straight sets of laterals first in his shoulder routine, thus allowing himself to go lighter (relatively speaking, of course) in pressing movements, and get the same fatigue effect that he would from a heavy weight. he considered it a form of pre-exhaust.
i think you’re right in your assessment of ‘why’, however. it took me a while to get out of that thinking, as well.
*as for advice, i suppose sticking to the pressing moves and dropping most, if not all of the fly movemonts would be a good idea?
I actually do my iso stuff 1st, as my arms (especially my shoulders) were just naturally stronger than my chest, and made it difficult to beef up the area.
i never understood chest pre-exhaustion. post-exhaustion makes much more sense to me.
get up as much weight as you can period on your compound if your triceps give out before your chest go hit the pec-fly. i would never want to weaken my accesories BEFORE i lifted. makes no sense to me.
you’re not weakening the accessories, you’re weakening the target muscle, which would normally be stronger than the accessories, and as such, would not receive adequate stimulation.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
you’re not weakening the accessories, you’re weakening the target muscle, which would normally be stronger than the accessories, and as such, would not receive adequate stimulation.
S
[/quote]
Thanks guys for the feedback and my apologies for the slow response.
Honestly, I do design my routines somewhat haphazardly but I am attempting to make a better effort to be more aware of the order, cycle, etc… but I am looking for help on this.
As you noted, I was trying to mimic some of what mike mentzer’s pre-exhaust routine was, published on T-Nation. I don’t always run this routine as I typically do more weight and less iso. I like to throw this routine in when I feel I have hit a plateau.
My chest does respond to this. I am not sure if it is because of the pre-exhaustion or because I am doing dumbbell presses rather than barbell bench presses.
One poster mentioned doing more volume. What does that mean? More weight? Also, does anyone feel that I am doing too much for the chest?
One poster mentioned doing more volume. What does that mean? More weight? Also, does anyone feel that I am doing too much for the chest?
Thanks for the feedback.
Big
[/quote]
Volume is the amount of work your doing in the workout. It goes by exercises, sets, and reps. When the poster said that your are doing too much volume, in fact he was telling you that you’re are doing too much for chest. So next time someone talks to you about volume, you’ll know it’s a measure of how much work you’re doing for that muscle.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
you’re not weakening the accessories, you’re weakening the target muscle, which would normally be stronger than the accessories, and as such, would not receive adequate stimulation.
S
[/quote]
thats true, wtf was i saying.
regardless, it still makes more sense to me to isolate the target muscle after a compound.
No, not incorrectly. I can do dumbbell fly’s at that weight correctly. Of course, I was using a steroid pre-cursor but that is for another time.
From what I gather from all the responses, it seems this routine has the following problems:
Too much volume for the chest
Debate about whether to pre-fatigue or not
Possibility that I am not doing dumbbell fly’s correctly (although I think I am)
So taking this all in, I should:
Decrease the number of sets I am doing. I think the reps seems Ok since no one commented
Consider removing one or more of the ISO routines
Consider post-fatigue strategy
What is the correct way to do dumbbell fly’s? I lay on a bench; start above my chest with my palms facing each other; slowly “fly” down the weight until my elbows are slightly below the bench;
my arms are bent at about a 45 degree angle or less (thus giving me a good, wide fly); bring the weight back up without banging the weights together-tighten chest at the top. Problems with the mechanics?