This has been a great read, thanks for the info.
I don’t know what else to say other than thanks a lot for your reply and taking the time to reply to everybody else. This is going to help a whole bunch of people in many ways.
[quote]DanErickson wrote:
I don’t know what else to say other than thanks a lot for your reply and taking the time to reply to everybody else. This is going to help a whole bunch of people in many ways.[/quote]
yeah good job on staying patient through it all
Hi Professor X,
Do you do triceps before the pec deck finisher; or after; or vary?
Not counting “finishers”: do all your exercises ramp up the weight gradually from the first set to the last, similar to the first two chest exercises listed below?
Do all/most of the numbers of sets below include warmup sets?
For the exercises where you ramp up the weights, do the rest periods between sets start short and ramp up along with the weights?
Thanks.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
…
-Chest
HS incline (4 sets working from two plates a side to five plates, the last set ending in 10 reps lately)
HS flatbench (3 sets working from 3 plates a side to 5…I did that for 8 reps last week)
Pec deck machine (however many sets gets enough blood into the area)
-Biceps
Warm up either going really light on the HS curl machine or real light with dumbbells (like 25lbs)
HS curl machine (3-4 sets going up to 4 plates)
Preacher curls (starting with a 45lbs dumbbell and moving up to around 85lbs lately even though I have done more in the past…I am trying to concentrate more on form lately)
Cybex curl machine (last exercise, usually just to get more blood pumped and not for going extremely heavy)
-Shoulders
Cybex plate loaded military press (warm up is real light, working sets go for about 4 sets)
Lateral raises (3-4 sets)
Shrugs (I may start cutting these out because my traps grow fast compared to the work I do for them)
One arm laterals (two exercises for the same muscle group because my focus is on really bringing them out because I don’t believe I have ever seen someone with lateral delts that were too big)
Reverse pec deck flyes for rear delts.
-Back
T-Bar rows (3-4 sets)
Lat pulldowns (3-4 sets)
Upright HS row
Cybex plate loaded Lat machine (again, two exercises for the same muscle group because I am really trying to bring them out as well.
I may do a couple more sets on the lat pulldown last but not going heavy
-Legs
Calf raises (seated and standing, 3sets of each…my calves still fall short but I?m trying)
I believe it is considered a hack press, but it allows you to get into squat position with no back support on a plate loaded machine with pads for my shoulders. I have been doing these lately instead of regular squats simply because I feel it more and can apparently go heavier on it.
Leg press (go up 22 plates over 4-5 sets)
Leg curls (3-4 sets)
Leg extensions (3-4 sets)
That is pretty much it. If you need me to go into further detail, just ask but that is how I train lately.
[/quote]
[quote]Professor X wrote:
You have to be careful about getting all of your information from only one source. While testosterone is a great resource, they don’t own the patent on training knowledge, they simply have some very good thinkers on site who are good at what they do. That doesn’t mean everyone else is a dumbass.
[/quote]
AMEN!!!
[quote]NealRaymond2 wrote:
Hi Professor X,
Do you do triceps before the pec deck finisher; or after; or vary?
Thanks.
[/quote]
The post you quoted is from years back, I believe. There may be small changes from what I did when this thread was first started.
I don’t train triceps right in the middle of training my chest, so no, I don’t do triceps before I use the pec deck. In fact, on days I train triceps with chest (because I often just train chest alone), I avoid the pec deck.
Yes, all of my sets are gradually heavier UNLESS I am going back down in weight AFTER my heavy sets are over with just to get some benefit of increased volume. This is not written in stone. I may train biceps and pyramid up in weight until my last set. I may also pyramid up in weight to my heaviest set and THEN drop some of the weight in order to hit more reps. It depends on how I feel that day and whether I think it will be beneficial. Bodybuilding isn’t really for people who can’t think outside the box.
I rest as long as needed. I don’t time it and don’t plan on ever doing so. Obviously, however, if I am on an early set and the weight isn’t that stressful, I won’t have to rest as long.
I’ve read through this thread about 5x. Great info. Thanks for taking the time to share.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
My first real routine was from a box of Cybergenics. [/quote]
Funny, that was my first routine also. Thinking back that was a tough ass workout with the positive & negative failure and drop sets.
[quote]GuerillaZen wrote:
I’ve read through this thread about 5x. Great info. Thanks for taking the time to share. [/quote]
x10
I have read this thread a lot and keep coming back to it often. It has changed the way I view lifting weights.
[quote]Der Candy wrote:
GuerillaZen wrote:
I’ve read through this thread about 5x. Great info. Thanks for taking the time to share.
x10
I have read this thread a lot and keep coming back to it often. It has changed the way I view lifting weights.[/quote]
I don’t even know what to say to that. I’m just talking about how I trained.
Haha well just looking at the biggest guys in my gym, the way you train and the way they train seem to be basically the exact same philosophy.
So it makes me wonder if the people who had a life-altering experience from this thread have ever just looked around their gym, or maybe they just don’t go to a gym where a significant portion of the regulars are big people that they can learn from.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked this thread a lot.
I would attribute a very large degree of my transition from bad training (you could call it typical T-Nation anti-arms functional change-routine-every-week training) to effective training to the things you and a couple others (AmsterdamAnimal, scottiscool, etc) have contributed on this website.
In the internet-era newbies need a light in the dark more than ever.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
No, all of my sets do not include “warm up sets”…but I still pyramid up in weight for my heaviest set. I don’t consider the previous sets to be “warm ups”. A “warm up” to me implies very little weight just to get blood into the muscle group. I do that first in a workout and leave it at that.
[/quote]
That’s sounding dangerously close to a Combat Pyramid…I think.
Hi Professor X,
When you used to split chest into two different days: did you consider it important to do two adjacent days; important to do two non-adjacent days; or unimporant/secondary-importance either way?
Thanks again.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
I used to split my chest into two different days (upper and lower chest) but now that my chest is pretty filled in on top, I now just train it all in one day.
[/quote]
[quote]NealRaymond2 wrote:
Hi Professor X,
When you used to split chest into two different days: did you consider it important to do two adjacent days; important to do two non-adjacent days; or unimporant/secondary-importance either way?
Thanks again.
Professor X wrote:
I used to split my chest into two different days (upper and lower chest) but now that my chest is pretty filled in on top, I now just train it all in one day.
[/quote]
I treated it like it was two different body parts. That gave me two chest days a week and no, I never trained chest two days in a row. It was usually spaced days apart.
[quote]mr popular wrote:
Haha well just looking at the biggest guys in my gym, the way you train and the way they train seem to be basically the exact same philosophy.
So it makes me wonder if the people who had a life-altering experience from this thread have ever just looked around their gym, or maybe they just don’t go to a gym where a significant portion of the regulars are big people that they can learn from.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked this thread a lot.
I would attribute a very large degree of my transition from bad training (you could call it typical T-Nation anti-arms functional change-routine-every-week training) to effective training to the things you and a couple others (AmsterdamAnimal, scottiscool, etc) have contributed on this website.
In the internet-era newbies need a light in the dark more than ever.[/quote]
Yeah, well we’re not all as cool as you. No life altering experience for me, but I am a relative newbie.
I have only been training for 14 months and I am addicted. One of my biggest mistakes is reading and researching too much and becoming confused with conflicting information.
This thread provides simple, no bullshit information about lifting and the psychology of it. I haven’t even incorporated anything from this thread directly into my training, but that does not mean that I haven’t learned from it and am not more well prepared to move forward from here.
[quote]GuerillaZen wrote:
mr popular wrote:
Haha well just looking at the biggest guys in my gym, the way you train and the way they train seem to be basically the exact same philosophy.
So it makes me wonder if the people who had a life-altering experience from this thread have ever just looked around their gym, or maybe they just don’t go to a gym where a significant portion of the regulars are big people that they can learn from.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked this thread a lot.
I would attribute a very large degree of my transition from bad training (you could call it typical T-Nation anti-arms functional change-routine-every-week training) to effective training to the things you and a couple others (AmsterdamAnimal, scottiscool, etc) have contributed on this website.
In the internet-era newbies need a light in the dark more than ever.
Yeah, well we’re not all as cool as you. No life altering experience for me, but I am a relative newbie.
I have only been training for 14 months and I am addicted. One of my biggest mistakes is reading and researching too much and becoming confused with conflicting information.
This thread provides simple, no bullshit information about lifting and the psychology of it. I haven’t even incorporated anything from this thread directly into my training, but that does not mean that I haven’t learned from it and am not more well prepared to move forward from here.
[/quote]
This is how I feel.
Professor X, in a post above you say that when you train triceps wih chest, you omit the pec dec. Why is this? Do you replace it with a different finisher, or are you doing more pressing work for your tris that do the job of ‘finishing’ your chest?
[quote]Der Candy wrote:
…or are you doing more pressing work for your tris that do the job of ‘finishing’ your chest?[/quote]
That would be yes.
I’m glad this thread resurfaced. It was a great and informative read for a n00b like me. I just wish I had some big dude at my gym, so I could train with and learn from them.
[quote]darwin420 wrote:
I’m glad this thread resurfaced. It was a great and informative read for a n00b like me. I just wish I had some big dude at my gym, so I could train with and learn from them.[/quote]
Don’t we all?
I live north of Boston, so I’ll take applications for any big dudes that want to train/be my mentor 