Wed., 11/27/13, Chest, Shoulders, Tri's

I got in a good leg workout yesterday. My schedule was crazy yesterday, so I worked out in the afternoon in a time slot that happened to be available- different than normal. It was all basic stuff: seated leg curls, standing leg curls, machine calf raise, seated calf raise, squat, leg press, and hyper extensions. It was a good workout. Again the focus was on hamstrings, and again, no sets to failure yet.

Today's workout was great- very similar to last weeks. I did increase the weight and/or reps on a couple things, but still nothing to failure:
incline dumbbell press up to 100's for 7; flat dumbbell press 75's 2 sets of 10; incline hammer strength press up to 270-6; bent cable fly 2 sets 80lb for 10-12; dips 3 sets 15,12,10; laterals up to 30's 2 sets of 10; military press up to 145 for 6; rope pushdowns and reverse grip pushdowns- great pump, very tight.

The next 4 days I'm taking off to spend time with the family, and eat a ton of food. Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Be blessed.

Mon., 11/25/13, Back/ Traps/ Bi's

I got in a great workout this morning. It was all basic, similar stuff to what I've been doing. Again, I did not hit failure on anything, though I was definitely working on several sets, I just got a good pump in the muscle:
6 sets of rows
3 sets of pulldowns
3 sets of straight arm rope pulldowns
2 sets of 1 arm dumbbell rows
3 sets of barbell shrugs
4 sets of barbell curls
3 sets of cable rope hammer curls
3 sets of concentration curls

Fri., 11/22/13, Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

I got in a great pump this morning. It was similar to Monday's workout, with a few changes:

incline dumbbell press: 20's-30; 35's-20; 50's-15; 65's-12; 80's-10; 100's-6
incline hammer strength press: 90-15; 180-12; 270-6
bent cable fly (for upper chest): 70-15; 90-8,8
dip: 15,15
pullover: 60-12
hammer strength delt press: 90-15; 180-10; 270-6
military press: 95-15; 135-8
incline face down front raise: 25's-15 laterals: 25's-15 incline rear laterals: 25's-18
pushdown: 70-35; 100-20; 130-15; 160-12
seated triceps extension: 50-15; 70-10; 90-10

Thur., 11/21/13, Legs

I got in a good leg pump today. The focus was on hamstrings, so the order of exercises was stretch and work the hams the hardest. Here's how it went:

seated leg curl: 30-30; 60-20; 80-15; 110-12; 140-8
reverse lunge: 20's-15; 35's-12; 50's-10
  super-set with calf presses: 180-30; 270-25; 450-20
seated calf raise: 90-20; 140-15 + 1 set of lying leg curls
squat: 135-15; 225-12; 275-10; 325-10
leg press: (high/wide stance) 450-12; (normal stance) 630-10; 770-6
hyper extension: 15,10,10

I did not take any sets to failure, this was a good recovery/ stimulate the muscle workout...my wife says she's proud of me...haha, she says I'm addicted to intensity.

Tue., 11/19/13, Back/ Traps/ Bi's/ diet update

I got in a great workout today. It was a killer pump, even though I'm not training to failure yet. It was all basic stuff: rows, close pulldowns, wide pulldowns, seated rows, curls, spider curls, hammer curls and shrugs.

Here on my recovery phase the diet is much looser than it was during my contest prep, obviously. But, in order to maintain and grow muscle mass I have to be just a disciplined, just in different ways. The exact menu changes from day to day, but this is what I ate yesterday, it is a good rep of offseason eating:

meal #1: 8oz egg white; 1c oatmeal
meal #2: 5oz chicken; 1c oatmeal
meal #3 (post workout): 40g whey protein; 1c oatmeal
meal #4: 5oz chicken; peanut butter, banana, honey sandwich
meal #5: 5oz chicken; 1c pasta with tomato sauce; almonds, raisins
meal #6: puppy drum; white rice with butter; peas
meal #7: casein protein, plain yogurt, 1 1/2tbs. peanut butter
The total: 285g protein, 370g carb and 100g fat; about 3500 calories.
On the weekends I'll eat a dessert if I want it.

Mon., 11/18/13, Chest, Delts and Tri's

After a full weekend off, I got in a good workout this morning. The intensity is not very high right now, but it was an excellent pump. The volume was medium. Here's how it looked:

incline dumbbell press: 20's-25; 35's-20; 50's-15; 65's-10; 80's-8; 100's-6
flat dumbbell press: 60's-12; 70's-10; 80's-10
dips: 15,15,15
bent-over cable fly (for upper chest): 60-15; 80-10; 100-8
Hammer Strength shoulder press: 90-15; 180-10; 230-6
incline face down fronts: 20's-15; 25's-15; 30's-12
laterals: 30's-12
rope pushdown: 60-20; 80-15; 100-12; 120-10
seated rope extension: 120-8; 100-12,10
lying triceps extension: 80-8 + close bench

Fri., 11/15/13, Back, Bi's and Traps

I got in a good pump this morning. The workouts now are focused on recovery so I'm not hitting failure on anything, just feeling the muscle and getting a good pump. Here's the workout for today:

row: 45-20; 95-15; 135-12; 185-10; 225-7
V-grip pulldown: 135-12; 165-10; 195-8
Medium grip pulldown: 135-12; 165-10,10
barbell shrug: 135-15; 185-10; 235-10
seated dumbbell curl: 20's-15; 30's-10,8
concentration curl: 35-8,6,6
hammer curl: 20's-15; 25's-15; 35's-6

Thur., 11/14/13, The recovery program

If you've followed my previous blog, you know that this year I won the overall at the Tournament of Champions and got 2nd in the light weight division last weekend at the Pro World Championships- so, my body is a little weary. But, I'm phsyched up for next years World Championships. From now until then every workout is focused on being better than I have ever been November 8, 2014. So here's the start to the game plan:
I will train on a 3 day split- #1 chest, shoulders, and triceps; #2 back, traps and biceps; and #3 legs. I will train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Thursday will always be legs and the other days will rotate the 2 upper body days. This is designed to recover the body from the hard 11 months of trains I've just finished. Over the next month I will slowly increase the intensity of my workouts. Here we go....