Mon., 3/31/14, Chest and Calves

It was a very short and focused workout today. I was trying not to put too much stress on the neck, so the sets were close together and the reps were higher. It was a great pump. Here's how it went:

calf press: 90-50; 180-30; 270-30; 360-?,?,?
1-calf press: 90-30,20
incline dumbbell press: 20s-20; 35s-15; 50s-15; 60-s15; 70s-15; 80s-15; 90s-10
flat dumbbell press: 50s-15,15,15,15,15 + 1 feel set of pullovers: 45-15

Fri., 3/28/14, Delts/ Calves

Well continuing on the theme this week of low stress on the neck, I once again had a much different than usual workout this morning. I didn't take anything to extreme failure, just got a good pump. [My legs are stupid sore today, just to let you know.] Here's how it went:
1st I did a bunch of core stuff then-

Smith machine calf raise: 90-30; 180-20; 230-15
seated calf press (these were very unpleasant due to extreme soreness in quads): 45-20; 90-20
lateral raise: 10s-15; 20s-12; 30s-12; 40s-10
seated cable rear lateral 30-15; 40-15; 50-15; 60-15
machine lateral raise: 80-20; 100-20

Thur., 3/27/14, LEGS

I did something today that I've never done before and never want to do again: I squatted 225lb 50 times. That's too many.
With this healing kink in my neck and my knee feeling shaky last week, I did not want put a bunch of weight across my neck. So, here's the great routine:

squat: 45-20; 95-6; 135-6; 225-50
leg press: 270-10; 450-12
seated leg curl: 65-15; 95-15; 125-10

It took me about 20 minutes to be able to see straight after this and I had to walk through the rest of the workout (after squats) gingerly, for fear that my boneless, skinless chicken breast was going to revisit the world.

Wed, 3/26/14, Arms

My neck is feeling much better today, though it is still kinked up. Instead of ignoring it, like I would have a few years ago, I did a light arm workout today. I must define what "light" means: for me a light workout is one in which I keep the pace very fast, do not worry about the weight, use higher reps, use very strict form and try to reach failure without the joint straining weights that I normally use. Here's how today's "light" arm workout went:

seated dumbbell curl: 10s-20; 15s-15; 20s-12; 25s-12; 30s-12,9,6
s/s w/ rope pushdown: 60-30; 70-20; 80-15; 90-15; 100-15,15,?

spider curl:                         50-12,12,12
s/s 1-arm rope pushdown: 50-15; 60-12,12

cable curl:                           100-15,12,12
s/s straight bar pushdown: 140-15; 120-15,?

seated hammer curl:                             20s-15,12
s/s lying rotating dumbbell extension: 20s-15,8

Tue., 3/25/14, Back

I got in a great back pump this afternoon- though I was working around a kinked neck. The focus was on just pumping as much blood in the muscle as I could in a very controlled, focused manor. Here's what I did:

Nautilus uni-lateral pulldown: 50-20; 90-15; 180-12; 230-12; 280-12; 330-8
seated double D handle row: 130-12; 160-12; 190-8
close-under-hand-pulldown: 180-10,12
1 set incline dumbbell row, 1 set machine row and 1 set standing rope row to fill the lats with blood.

Mon., 3/24/14, Chest

I got in a good chest workout this afternoon. It was very focused and controlled- I did not want to do 21 reps with 100s on the incline this week, so a started with something else:

bent over cable fly (for upper chest): 30-20; 50-12; 70-10; 90-6; 110-6; 130-6
incline dumbbell press: 100s-12,8
incline Hammer Strength press: 180-12,10
rope cable fly: 60-6,8,10

fri., 3.21.14, shoulders

I got in a great shoulder pump today. I have not changed the workout yet because it seems to be working very well. I did switch a couple exercises around today:

lateral raise: 5s,10s,15s; 20s-50,20
incline barbell front raise: 40-33,22
machine rear lateral: 120-?,?
dumbbell front raise: 15s-40,15
Hammer Strength shoulder press: 90-10; 180-6; 270-8 + 2 drop-sets
Note: for the first 4 exercises the rest period is only 20-30 seconds and for the press it's about a minute. The pump is killer.

Wed., 3/19/14, Arms

Here's the great arm workout of the week:

cambered bar curl:                                15-20; 35-15; 65-10; 105-6; 125-6; 105-8; 70-15
super-set with lying triceps extension: 15-30; 35-15; 65-15; 105-6; 125-9; 105-8; 70-12

hammer curl:                                                         35s-10,8
super-set with lying rotating dumbbell extension:     "

preacher curl:                           60-?,?
super-set with pushdown: 200-8; 150-12

cable curl:                                       150-12; 120-12; 100-?
super-set with seated rope extension: 100-12,12,?

They were pumped (another "can't touch my shoulder pump")! And I'm using my P4P Muscle Iso Whey for recovery.

Tue., 3/18/14, Back

I got in a great back workout this morning. I didn't do very much volume, I just put the effort into a few hard sets:

wide pulldown: 90-20; 135-15; 180-10; 225-6; 270-6; 300-5
Nautilus row: 180-12; 270-6
row: 135-10; 225-12
Nautilus pulldown: 270-10; 360-4; 270-10

Mon., 3/17/14, Chest

I was very strong this morning. It was a great pump- all standard stuff for me:
incline dumbbell presses, bent cable flys for upper chest, flat dumbbell presses and cable rope flys (these are some of my most frequented exercises recently.) I can really tell a difference using the P4P Muscle Iso Whey after the workouts.

Fri., 3/14/14, Eat Big to Get Big

Here's a sample of my current diet (every day is a little different, but this is a good rep):

meal 1: 5oz chicken; 1c oatmeal; banana
meal 2: 5oz chicken; 1c oatmeal
post workout: 50g P4P Iso-Whey; 60g waxy maize starch
meal 3: 5oz chicken; 8oz sweet potato
meal 4: 5oz chicken; handful pretzels; 2 tbs. peanut butter
meal 5: 5oz chicken; 1/2c oatmeal; 3oz sweet potato
meal 6: 6eggs with cheese; 8oz potato
before bed: 15g whey protein; 15g casein protein

This is about 310g protein, 375g carb and 100 fat (about 3550 calories.) 

Thur., 3/13/14, Legs

Yes, it may be a little weird that the night before I train legs I dream about doing squats- standing in front of a bending bar knowing what I have to do. Ha Ha.
I got in a good leg workout this morning. It was fairly low volume and pretty high intensity. There were really only 2 "working sets" for quads and 3 for hams. The rest were just feel sets or pump sets:

squat: 45-20; 95-7; 135-6; 225-6; 315-5; 405-11
hack squat: 180-25
stiff leg deadlift: 135-6; 225-6; 315-20
seated leg curl: 95-12,12 (hold each rep for a second) 
    super-set with leg extension: 90-20,13

Wed., 3/12/14, Arms

I had a killer biceps and triceps workout this morning. It was another "cant' touch my shoulder" pump. It was very similar to last week, just a few changes. I'm getting excellent pumps using this P4P Iso Whey. It was pretty basic stuff:

cambered bar curls super-set with skull crushers;
hammer curls super-set with rope pushdowns;
concentration curls super-set with seated overhead triceps extensions;
and finishing with cable curls super-set with 1-arm rope pushdowns.

 

Tue., 3/11/14, Back

I got in a great back workout this morning. It was all basic stuff except one that I don't normally do- the machine row. I used a low medium-width grip on the machine, and really felt the lower lats- they were full!

row: 45-15; 95-12; 135-10; 185-6; 225-6; 275-9; 225-10
wide pulldown: 180-10; 210-10; 240-8(?)
machine row: 225-12; 270-7; 225-10

V-grip pulldown: 200-10, ?

Mon., 3/10/14, Chest

Happy day light savings time. I got in a great pump this morning. Typically 5 days a week I do 20 minutes of cardio and 3 days a week I train abs. I skipped both this morning. You may ask "why?" And I will answer, "It's off-season. I can if I want to." ...ha ha. My chest pump was great:

incline dumbbell press: 20s-20; 35s-15; 50s-10; 65s-6; 80s-6; 100s-19
incline Hammer Strength press: 180-12; 230-8
machine fly: 150-12; 200-8
pullover: 70-12; 80-9
twisting rope fly: 60-11, 8, 6

Fri., 3/07/14, Calves and shoulders

I've been getting in killer workouts this week and today just continued the run. It was an awesome pump for both calves and shoulders. What is funny to me is that my trapezius has been sore to the touch since Wednesday. I don't know if it was something from the back workout or the arm workout. My triceps are also about as sore as it gets!
Anyway, for calves I just did set after set of calf raises on the leg press, doing my heaviest 2 sets with 720 and then doing several drop sets from there. After this was just 3 sets of Smith machine calf raises the 1st with 180 for 20, the 2nd with 270 for 37 and the last with 270 for 15 (not much rest there.)
For shoulders it was the same basic workout I've been doing: an isolation move for each delt head using relatively light weight getting as many as possible for 2 sets with 20 second rest periods; and finishing the delts with 3 progressively heavier sets of Hammer Strength shoulder presses working up to a very heavy 6-8 rep set. And they were tight!!!

Thur., 3/06/14, Legs

I had a killer leg workout this morning. It was intense. I've been doing all sets of 15 on the squat for the last few weeks, and this week changed the weights for it. The idea is to pre exhaust the legs so I don't have to use as much weight for the work set. While squatting 315 for 15 reps is no problem for me, because of all the other sets, when I finished that set the blood rushed in. They were full, tight and burning when I started the "work" set.  Here's how it went:

squat: 45-15; 95-15; 135-15; 225-15; 275-15; 315-15; 365-11
stiff leg deadlift: 225-10; 315-6; 415-6; 225-10
leg press: 450-20,20,20
standing 1-leg curl: 45-15; 60-12; 75-10,8; 60-12 (No rest between sets.)

Wed., 3/05/14, Arms

I got in an awesome arm workout this morning. It was basic stuff, just focused and intense. The thing that was fairly unusual for me was that I started with cambered bar curls (I don't do that very often.) They felt good, so I did them. My goal was to really challenge the strength of the muscle without straining the shoulders too much. Here's how it went (everything was super-setted):

cambered bar curl: 15-20; 35-15; 65-10; 105-6; 125-6; 105-10; 65-17
lying tri extension:   "     ;    "     ; 65-15; 105-15; 125-8;   "     ;   "

seated hammer curl:     35s-12,7,6
seated 1-arm extension: 35-12,7,6

cable curl:                    130-12; 100-12,?
seated rope extension: 120-10; 100- ?, ?

+ 1 set dumbbell curls with 20s to failure
+ 1 set rope pushdowns with 100lb to failure

....THEY WERE PUMPED!

Tue., 3/04/14, Back

I got in a great back workout this morning. I am definitely getting stronger using the P4P Iso Whey. It was very focused and I did a lot of different angles:

Wide pulldown: 75-20; 105-15; 135-10; 165-10; 195-6; 225-6; 255-6; 285-6
free motion pulldown: 170-12
rope pulldown: 140-12,8
rope row: 160-12,15
seated row: 200-8,6
row: 225-10,9,10

Mon., 3/03/14, Chest and Calves

I got in a killer chest and calf workout today. I made up a new exercise for the chest (I'm sure somebody, somewhere has done it and given it a name but I just thought it up on my own)- rope cable flys with a twist at the bottom. It nails the pecs.
I started with calves: 5 sets 1-calf presses, 3 sets seated calf and 5 sets smith machine calf. For chest: bent over cable flyes; then did just 2 sets of incline dumbbell presses; next was flat dumbbell press; and ended with cable rope flys.