This is one thing I most definitely do not agree on - But there are always different ways to exercise... I don't agree with doing a warmp up, then mediocre and then heavier. There have been too many exercise regimes and books and studies that recommend either the opposite or one constant weight. I don't think this is beneficial for the muscles - Especially not for creating muscle hypertrophy.SonderKommando wrote:
@Jebus Chest Workout:
Okay man, I don’t know what your strength level is, so you will have to input your own weights or experiment to make sure you can find a good fit.
Exercise 1:
Flat Bench press: Pretty standard stuff here. Take a slightly wider than shoulder width grip on the Olympic bar and slowly lower it down till it touches just below your chest area. Slowly press the weight back up to the upright position.
Warm up 15 reps
Light weight 12 reps
Mediocre weight 10
Heavier 8 reps
Exercise 2:
Incline Dumbell Press:
Set an adjustable free bench to 45 degrees (typically the number 4 on the slider thing) and raise the lower part up slightly to brace yourself on at the incline angle. Press the dumbbells up from your shoulder/chest area straight up bringing them almost together at full extension of your arms. Then Slowly lower them back down till they touch your chest/shoulder are.
Light weight 12 reps
Mediocre weight 10
Heavier 8 reps
Flat Dumbell Press:
Same concept as flat bench but with dumbbells, you will lay flat with the dumbbells resting on your chest\shoulder area. Slowly press up bringing the weights almost together at your full arm extension. You can start with your palms facing in, rotating to palms out on the way up, some people do this as it adds a little tweak in your triceps.
Light weight 12 reps
Mediocre weight 10
Heavier 8 reps
Incline Barbell Press:
Find an open incline bench, no adjustment necessary here; it should be good to go. Take a slightly wider than shoulder grip on the barbell (I didn’t mention this earlier but I particularly like to put my middle finger on the power bar which is the smooth band on both sides of the Olympic bar). Starting position here is with the weights at full extension so slowly lower it down till the bar touches your upper chest and slowly press up to full extension.
Light weight 12 reps
Mediocre weight 10
Heavier 8 reps
Decline Barbell Press:
Same concepts as other bench presses, take a slightly wider than shoulder width grip, lower slowly down. The difference in decline is the barbell will actually touch you on your solar plexus area instead of the chest/shoulder area.
Light weight 12 reps
Mediocre weight 10
Heavier 8 reps
There are two ways you should work this, Jebus
1. One constant weight for the entire exercise. You do 3x12 and you only do that. Don't go lighter or heavier. Hit the 12 reps every time and make sure you don't give up on the sets.
2. Start heavy, finish light. This allows a much cleaner muscle contraction due to your muscles being incredibly pumped after the first set and then allowing them to maintain that "pump" with lighter weights.
I always do one constant weight. It works, and it works a lot better (it may not for Sonder, but for me it most definitely does) for me. The benefits of one constant weight mean that you must keep the intensity up throughout the workout, once you start lowering reps and doing heavier, it gets stupidly easy.
Trust me. Try your 75% (of max) weight for bench press and do 3x12, you'll see how much it kills you. There is also one thing that is absolutely vital with workouts, and that is maintaining your number of reps and sets. People say that reps are not important, by my god they are - as I said before, it maintains the intensity throughout the workout and puts your muscles under constant strain (it's also a mental battle to get that 1 more rep to hit 12 on your 3rd set). I will link to all the books that say this when I get home.
My advice? Chest workout should be the following:
Warmup - Triceps, Shoulders, Chest, Back
Bench Press - 3x12 of 75-85% max weight
WITHOUT RESTING GO ON
Incline Dumbell Flys - 3x10/12 of 75%-85% max weight
Rest for 1.5 minutes
Push ups - 3xMAX - where MAX indicates when your muscles fail (not when you feel pain, when you literally cannot get up) - If you can attempt explosive push ups, do so.
Rest for 1.5 minutes
Dumbbell press - 3x10 of 75%-85% max weight
End of workout - add shoulders or biceps to your workout afterwards. I recommend shoulders.
Also, I don't advise decline bench press, for the simple reason that there are no "lower pec" muscles, and whoever says otherwise is a liar. Decline bench press is a pretty useless exercise if you have flat or incline, purely because it's easier - you have a shorter way to go and you call on your triceps more than you do your chest.
Also, when you're doing the bench press, note a couple of things that might help you
- To ensure complete stability, put your shoulder blades in the way when putting yourself down on the bench (as if you're trying to grab a coin with your shoulder blades)
- Make sure your back remains on the bench at all times, especially your lower back and glutes - This is a very common mistake by most rookies, and they usually lift their back off the bench which makes the exercise totally useless
- Try and breath in and out according to the exercise, it will allow you to hit it harder
Dumbell flys note
- There are actually several ways of doing these, but I maintain one - Keep your arms bent about 3-5% and keep that exact position all the way throughout the exercise (imagine hugging a tree). The othe rmethod is to bend your arms to about 70 degrees when going down, this make the exercise slightly easier and I don't see the big benefits of it.
Push ups
- 2 seconds down, 2 seconds up. It's gonna kill you, trust me, but it's entirely worth it and if you have push up handles, USE THEM! If you want to make it harder, put your feet on a box.
- Make sure your tris are at your sides and not 90 from your shoulders (this is wrong and shouldn't be done). Your triceps should be about 30 degrees out of your chest, no more.
That should help you on your way. Try it for a couple of weeks (bin your "warmup, mediocre, heavy" for every workout and maintain a constant weight) and see how you do with it.
If you can, increase the weight every week - if not, every two weeks.
@ Deadlift questions - Can be done with leg day, but should technically be done with every workout if you want the best results. Same goes with squats. They are the two greatest full body exercises you can do, and if you can manage a set before the rest of the workout, do it!
