Nice push press. Tossing some good weight up
Great stuff Jake. Now you’ve matched my push press best… Gonna have to step it up! I agree that it’s kinder on the shoulders too - just feels awesome to me.
Thanks guys! Felt good to toss some reasonable weight from my shoulders for pretty much the first time ever, I feel like they will help my bench press some, at the very least in the sense that if I can push press it, I can definitely bench it. Lol. 34lbs less then my “best” bench… here’s to hoping my bench is indeed going up.
Not sure if push presses work much with 5/3/1 - would doing an explosive movement not skew the targets a bit?
What do you mean by skew the targets? Wendlers answer to “can I use push press instead of military” was a resounding yes though (in the book I believe), programmed just the same as the military. I have my 1 week left for military 5/3/1 but it’s not a big deal either way since I quite like push pressing after military and it works well. If I were to push press 5/3/1 I would either do dumbbell military or no more pressing movements though.
[quote]SamMcLoughin wrote:
Not sure if push presses work much with 5/3/1 - would doing an explosive movement not skew the targets a bit?[/quote]
You just plug in your push press max.
^ Yeah that’s what I thought PB. As I say though, I’ll probably stick with my current set-up as push press worked really well as a second movement as you can ramp the weights using military then carry on ramping with push press (CT wrote about that working well for him, before he became less fond of the military press). Allows me to push up the level of intensity in the session whilst both being inherently explosive and allowing military to gradually trickle up, too.
Back Day
Pull-ups
Wide Grip - BW x 8 - +10/22 x 8 - +20/44 x 6.5 - BW x 14-15.
Facepulls (w/rope)
10/22 x 15 - 12.5/28 x 15 PR - 15/33 x 13 PR
Lat Pulldown
Wide-grip - 90/198 x 10 - 100/220 x 3 < too heavy, fool
One-arm Barbell Row (1p = 10kg plate)
4p x 8 - 5p x 8
Meadows Rows (1p = 10kg plate)
3p x 10 - 4p x 8 PR
HS Low Row
3pps x 10
Stretchers
55/121 x 12 - 65/143 x 5
DB Pullovers (to forehead)
40/88 x 8
DB Shrug w/6 sec. hold
28/62s x 8 - 34/75s x 7 - 34/75s x 5 - LR - brief hold - 34/75s x 7
DB shrugs felt better going light and really working on that TUT. Back wise, wasn’t really feeling it today, I’m liking the facepulls, meadows rows and pullovers as usual but pretty much everything else was meh.
Would appreciate suggestions on back movements where holding the contraction or double contraction or whatever can be used effectively as I feel this could benefit me greatly. I can image HS low row and HS row would work well. Any advice would be appreciated on this.
I like doing them on Meadows reverse seated pulldowns. Seated rows. Pulldowns. Those are the movements I have tried them on so far and love them
@ryan: the reverse pulldowns only work if the lat PD you use has enough ROM, will try them again next time I’m in another gym. I can see them working on seated cable rows though.
Arms
Cross-body Hammers (strict/tri flex at bottom)
20/44s x 10 - 22/49s x 10 - 24/53s x 7 PR
EZ-Bar Spider Curls
Bar + 20/44 x 8 - +22.5/50 x 8 - +25/55 x 5 PR
Oly Bar Curls w/3 sec. ecc.
40/88 x 8 - 42.5/94 x 8 - 45/99 x 5~ < might replace with standard EZ curls, eccentric is good but the cheating concentric is harsh on shoulders.
Fixed-bar Reverse Curl / (drop straight to) Perfect Curl
30/66 x 19 PR / x 4
DB Concentration Curl
LR - 6/13s x 13 + 5 more on left side <dat pump
Rope Pushdowns (rope pulled apart/tris flexed)
25/55 x 12 - 30/66 x 12 - 30/66 x 12 - 30/55 x 7 (+2 hands together)
Bench Dips
+40/88 x 8 - +50/132 x 8 - +70/154 x 8 PR - +80/176 x 4 PR < u mirin’ brah?
EZ PJRs
Bar +30/66 x 10 - +35/77 x 9 - +40/88 x 2 < got cocky after the bench dips, briefly forgot my arms are lvl 0…
Meadows Kickback
8/18s x 12 - drop - 6/13s x some - 4/9s x some - different grips x pumps
Low Rope OH Extensions (adjustable cable at low setting, twist round and press)
15/33 x 15 - LR - 17.5/39 x 9 “default pr” - drop - 10/22 x 5 < new favourite long-head movement, definitely a keeper, feels way better then from high setting and 0 strain on shoulders/anything else.
Pretty awesome arm day overall, especially since I found a new long-head movement I love and will use lots from now.
That long head extension sounds good. Only thing I’m really missing at home is cables…
[quote]pbclax1 wrote:
[quote]SamMcLoughin wrote:
Not sure if push presses work much with 5/3/1 - would doing an explosive movement not skew the targets a bit?[/quote]
You just plug in your push press max.[/quote]
I understand that…
My point was that doing ir for 5/3/1 doesn’t seem like it would make sense because:
- The amount of push used varies from rep to rep
- Fatigue doesn’t work the same way.
Any OH rope extension variations are my favorite tricep movements…nothing burns more…
Anything in particular for the short head? I need some ideas.
And solid workout bro, hitting the arms from all possible angles.
[quote]SamMcLoughin wrote:
[quote]pbclax1 wrote:
[quote]SamMcLoughin wrote:
Not sure if push presses work much with 5/3/1 - would doing an explosive movement not skew the targets a bit?[/quote]
You just plug in your push press max.[/quote]
I understand that…
My point was that doing ir for 5/3/1 doesn’t seem like it would make sense because:
- The amount of push used varies from rep to rep
- Fatigue doesn’t work the same way.[/quote]
Fatigue in what sense? I will agree that the fatigue doesn’t work in the same way in that your delts are not as quick to fatigue while push pressing. You could also say the amount of leg drive on bench varies from rep to rep. I just think you’re reading into it a little much.
I’m sure you will be surprised to hear this from me, but I think doing 5 exercises for bis and 5 exercises for tris and going all out on all of them, as you appear to be, is going to be overkill. I don’t like to throw the word “overtraining” around, but it’s a ton of volume dude, haha, even for a muscle mag-style high volume split.
That said, if you’re experimenting with different things and this feels right, by all means continue as you are. I would rather see your sessions more structured and focused. I was discussing this topic with BONEZ, and he likes to structure his arms workouts like this for complete arm development:
Biceps:
Long-head emphasis movement (i.e. incline curls)
Short-head emphasis movement (i.e. preacher curls)
Brachialis emphasis movement (i.e. hammer curls)
Triceps
Flexing movement (i.e. pressdown variation)
Dipping movement (could throw pressing if you were so inclined)
Extension movement (anything overhead)
Everyone has their own style and likes to order things a certain way, but there is something to be said about exercise selection and the order they fall during a workout. I am guilty of sometimes being haphazard in the way I structure arm workouts, but I think this is a good template to keep in mind.
Just food for thought. Good work all around.
@jab: It felt awesome, but yeah training at home is just a matter of experimentation with what you have, for sure you can do a hell of a lot. I strongly feel the two biggest factors for exercise progression should be 1. Can perform exercise without any joint/shoulder pain 2. Offers good potential progression. Hence why I love bench dips personally, though they may bother others I’m sure.
I feel for triceps that cable rope movements are awesome/very important though. Great pre-fatigue without taking so much out of you in energy for “bigger” movements like bench dip and I see a lot of big guys training tri’s in this way.
@push pressing 5/3/1: I’m sure it would work “similarly enough” to be a good plan, though the nature of the lift could make each rep a little different (in theory), in practice I like to think I’m always going for maximum acceleration and speed regardless of weight and rep number, in fact, the exercise lends itself so well to being explosive that I like it just to practice explosiveness, which I do not otherwise specifically train.
@austin: Thanks man, it felt good, arms still suck but have changed a lot since I really started nailing my arm workouts. I agree on the OH rope in general, I just find with this variation balance and staggering your stance is a non-issue, as opposed to the high cable version. I don’t really specifically target the short/medial (?) head and I’m still working on finding a movement as most reverse grip pressdowns feel uncomfortable to me. I wouldn’t say I have big enough arms to focus on it specifically but I’m sure throwing a movement in there might benefit in the long-term to the look of my arm, just as focusing on lots of long head exercises certainly does.
I write too much.
Hey Bug, appreciate the detailed post and thoughts. My base structure is not too far off what Bonez suggests, officially it is:
Bi’s
- Cross-body curls (brachialis, warm up lowers biceps for…)
- EZ-Spider Curls
- Oly Bar w/3 sec ecc.
Everything I’m throwing in after there is done relatively low rest and for the pump, I would generally be happy to finish the workout after the oly curls, but the light reverse curl high rep set just lets me “leave with a pump”, the light concentration curls were 100% for the pump and it’s normally 3 exercises + 1 pump set. So it looks haphazard when I separate all the exercises, but the first 3 are basically straight from the JM MD Arm training article and done with mentioned technique.
Admittedly I have not really thought about the difference between focusing on the long/short head of my biceps, I generally think of exercises as either “biceps and brachia or just biceps”… I guess I will have to up my anatomy knowledge if I’m going to be a PT.
Triceps-
Rope PD
Bench Dip
Long-head movement
^ is my normal setup/straight from MD arms article as well more or less, the kickbacks are just for pump and the extensions were just an experiment because I wasn’t feeling the PJRs today.
I’m definitely taking the advice on board though, today is more volume then I think is optimal for sure. I think the way I list my workouts just makes it look more extreme, when in reality the sequencing for the first 3 movements is logical “to keep you healthy” and everything I do after that is for an experiment or purely as a pump set.
[quote]SamMcLoughin wrote:
[quote]pbclax1 wrote:
[quote]SamMcLoughin wrote:
Not sure if push presses work much with 5/3/1 - would doing an explosive movement not skew the targets a bit?[/quote]
You just plug in your push press max.[/quote]
I understand that…
My point was that doing ir for 5/3/1 doesn’t seem like it would make sense because:
- The amount of push used varies from rep to rep
- Fatigue doesn’t work the same way.[/quote]
As the creator of 5/3/1 would say, “majoring in the minors”.
Here I am, waterlogged from a days fluid intake and lots of sodium.
Your chest is really coming along.
CS