Keeping things simple, everything's moving in the right direction regards to my goals so it's all good.
Really enjoying my deadlifts at the minute, my love-hate relationship with squats is slowly moving to a love-love relationship as well.
Chest today. Still just keeping things simple & looking for a good pump.
Seated chest press on Hammerstrength 3 x 8-10
Then a bit of a wait for a couple of pretty boys wearing matching, fitted t-shirts to finish on the Smith machine
A nice, easy set to re-warm things up on the Smith, around 16 or so reps, kind of lost count.
Incline Smith machine press 1 set, followed by 5 drops. Each weight to failure.
Cable Crossovers
supersetted with
Incline cable flyes 4 x 8-14. 4th set followed with 3 drops, then onto 2nd exercise which included 3 drops as well.
Not the most hardcore movements, but the combination of drop sets & supersets destroyed me. The final superset with drops included led to what was effectively 8 sets done with as much time as it takes to remove and reset a pin, and to adjust the bench & change the height of the handles. Im no pussy, but this had me dry-heaving in the gents shortly after I'd finished, & had the shakes for a while afterwards (I coudln't even face my post-workout shake for a good half an hour afterwards).
I think cables are sometimes overlooked in the pursuit of 'hardcore' exercises. Constant tension & the ease to incorporate drops make them a valuable tool for chasing the pump.
Chest today. Still just keeping things simple & looking for a good pump.
Seated chest press on Hammerstrength 3 x 8-10
Then a bit of a wait for a couple of pretty boys wearing matching, fitted t-shirts to finish on the Smith machine
A nice, easy set to re-warm things up on the Smith, around 16 or so reps, kind of lost count.
Incline Smith machine press 1 set, followed by 5 drops. Each weight to failure.
Cable Crossovers
supersetted with
Incline cable flyes 4 x 8-14. 4th set followed with 3 drops, then onto 2nd exercise which included 3 drops as well.
Not the most hardcore movements, but the combination of drop sets & supersets destroyed me. The final superset with drops included led to what was effectively 8 sets done with as much time as it takes to remove and reset a pin, and to adjust the bench & change the height of the handles. Im no pussy, but this had me dry-heaving in the gents shortly after I'd finished, & had the shakes for a while afterwards (I coudln't even face my post-workout shake for a good half an hour afterwards).
I think cables are sometimes overlooked in the pursuit of 'hardcore' exercises. Constant tension & the ease to incorporate drops make them a valuable tool for chasing the pump.
Looks like a serious pump you got going on. "Pretty boys wearing matching fitted shirts" hahahaha
I walk on the fringe of the iron game, so come with me on the ride of your life. If you make it, you will have one thing that is impossible to buy and very hard to come by--my respect.
Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me for the path is narrow. In fact, just piss off and leave me alone.
Looks like a serious pump you got going on. "Pretty boys wearing matching fitted shirts" hahahaha
1 of the best pumps I've ever had.
Yeah, actual proper matching t-shirts. The sort you'd consider wearing on the town for a casual night out. Tight fit, speaking of pumps, if they were to get a good pump going their shirts would be fucked.
On reflection I should've invited them to join me..
4 x 200m, in continuous relay form so recovery of about 45 secs between runs.
Hit me harder than I was expecting. Im having a bit of a playabout with pre-training nutrition at the minute to see how my body reacts out of morbid curiosity than anything, & can safely say just munching on some grilled turkey isn't the way to go.
Back to my old gym for another workout with my old training buddy this morning...
Light dumbell shrugs 2 x 8-10 to warm up
Arnold press
supersetted with
Lateral Raise 4 x 8-10
Bent lateral raise 2 x 12-14
40 rep giant set of
Bent lateral raise
Lateral raise
Upright row
Shoulder press
10 reps each exercise, never put the dumbells down until rep number 40.
Lateral raise machine, 1 arm at a time. 1 set folllowed with 7 drops, running the rack moving up a pin at a time. Repeat on other arm.
I bet that 40 rep giant set killed you in the end, looks tough. Good shit bro
I walk on the fringe of the iron game, so come with me on the ride of your life. If you make it, you will have one thing that is impossible to buy and very hard to come by--my respect.
Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me for the path is narrow. In fact, just piss off and leave me alone.
Great Job Sprint. Bet you were feeling that when it was done.
Originally Posted by Legacy
I bet that 40 rep giant set killed you in the end, looks tough. Good shit bro
Yeah you better believe it was tough.
I implore you to give the giant set a bash, front, middle & rear delts get targeted along wit the traps. Forearms get a bit of extra work too as they're not used to gripping on for 40 reps without a break.
It's typically done twice through, with a full 2 min break between sets and each set has an isometric hold at the top of the 10th shoulder press until you can't keep the weights there anymore.
I prefer the giant set, my buddy prefers the drop sets on the lateral raise machine, so we compromised and did 1 each.
We're in "Free Time" now which is a 2 weeks period to break up the final competition phase from the summer & the shift into winter training.
During this period, Coach still puts on set sessions as normal but you've got a choice if you want to do it, or do another track session of your own making or go try something totally new like pole vault etc. If you choose the Coach's session, you can do it to whatever intensity you want.
He'd set up something a bit different, a run around the outside of the track, on the grass, up a little grassy embankment, onto the cycle track that runs around the outside of the grass on the outside of the track, then back down to the track for a minute's recovery before doing it again.
Rough distance is about 450metres, to be done 5 times.
I want to get a good winter in, & as ever I spend the free time doing the coach's session to the same intensity as if it were a normal session.
This was hard though, because the cycle track is concrete, couldn't wear my spikes. After training in spikes for years, suddenly going to wearing trainers was like wearing fucking clogs. The lack of grip was scary as well. I suppose I've been spoilt over the years.
Tough old session though, could hardly breathe by the final run.
More worryingly, the last 2 days, my adductor has tightened considerably. I thought I was over that now, it might still be a little bit of scar tissue (although I doubt it, considering the intensity & power generated in my final outdoor competition. Any scar tissue would've torn being put through that) or it could be a slight strain. It's definitely not a pull or a tear, I'd have known right away during the session.
Problem is, the tightness caused by a strain can very easily lead to a pull or torn muscle and I'm back to square one again.
I'll monitor it over the next couple of days, probably won't even do anything on tuesday at the track, and see how it is for the thursday.
Got a leg session today with a kickboxing friend of mine. I'll feel things out, but right now will probably end up training him rather than joining him.
We'll see. Feeling a bit down because of it to be honest. I just want to fucking run. Is that too much to ask?
Have you seen a physical therapist for that adductor? Need to focus on healing that shit this winter. Sessions are looking good as usual bro.
No, havn't seen a physio. Been a bit stubborn there, seen so many physio's in my time.
Can be weeks with no problems, even competed with no problems, then it'll rear it's ugly head.
However, it seems the leg workout has flushed it out a bit. Loads of stretching the last few days, & getting my thumbs in there. Feels pretty much a-ok again now, still going to cruise training tomorrow though.
Got together with one of the other PT's today for a chest & back session.
Flat bench press with a fat bar (a really fucking fat bar, can just about get my hands halfway around it) 4 x 8-12
Barbell row (with the fat bar again...brutal) 4 sets, rep range varied from 5-10 (underhand grip,with fat bar...ended the sets pretty early)
Incline smith machine bench press, 1 giant set with 5 weight drops (3 for the other pt, he's used to the stereotypical pt training shit. Overcomplicated, soft exercises. Drop sets were a shock to his system)
Hammerstrength Iso-lat pulldown 4 x 8-10
Cable crossovers
supersetted with 4 x 8-12
Incline cable flyes
Then 3 sets pull ups to failure with as wide a grip as the bar allows.
Chest and back on the same day huh, how are you feeling? I've tried to do that before but died out. Tough
I walk on the fringe of the iron game, so come with me on the ride of your life. If you make it, you will have one thing that is impossible to buy and very hard to come by--my respect.
Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me for the path is narrow. In fact, just piss off and leave me alone.
I felt "fat bar" didn't quite do it justice. It's like a drainpipe. I always considered fat bars to be around the same thickness as fat gripz, this thing was more obese.