It’s a mind game

No GoPro this weekend, but that doesn’t mean no kick ass work outs

Lasts night, Dave, Donnie and I, banged out shoulders and triceps. We started with standing over head presses for 5 sets, then reversed the grip for a few more. Upright rows, seated dumbbell side raises and bent over rear laterals. (head on back of incline bench) 

Triceps we stuck with cables. We did rope pushdowns and straight bar reverse grip pushdowns and we went back and forth for 4 sets. We did the same with over head rope french curls and bent over head extensions. We ended everything doing 3 sets of crunches

Today it was just Jon and I, and thanks to Donnie's suggestion last night, John and I did 10 sets of 10 reps, squatting 225, after warming up with 135 and 185. It took us 25 minutes to do 12 sets of squats, that's 120 reps!  So much blood went into my legs. I think they grew 2” or 3” in circumference. We will be doing this again!

How do you keep track of how many set you have done?

I’m glad you asked! Jon would throw a 5 pound plate in the corner every time he finished his set (he was last) and when we got to 5 plates, we went the other way, putting them away. This really help us stay focused and motivated to finish, it becomes a mind game after 5 sets

We finished off with leg curls, legs extensions, stiff legs (not for me-lower back was gone at this point) and donkeys

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GoPro 4/24/13 Back/Forearms/Calves

Back/Forearms/Calves

Wide grip pull ups

superset with

Wide grip cable pull downs

Bent over rows

Reverse grip machine rows

Reverse grip chin ups

superset with

Close grip pull downs

Seated wrist curls

superset

the Gripper

superset

Seat calf raises

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GoPro 4/22/13 Chest/Biceps

Chest/Biceps

Flat Bench

Incline dumbbell 

Incline Fly

Flat Fly

Pullovers

Alex was at a game and Donnie came late and trained solo

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GoPro 4/20/13 Shoulders/Triceps

Shoulders/Triceps/Forearms/Calves
and catching
Donnie aka the Rooster,  banging out a set of squats at the end

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Stick to plan

Monday night, chest and biceps and it felt like old times again. Minimal rest, heart racing, working up a sweat, fighting hard on each set just to get enough reps, as the weight goes up and the pump increases and you get deeper and deeper into the muscle.

It’s 5:15 and there were five of us, one, two, three...shoot, we all throw in one or two fingers. It’s Jon Dave and me on one team and Alex and Donnie on the other.

We ran side by side through flat bench, incline dumbbell, incline flies, flat flies and dumbbell pullovers

For Biceps, we started with preacher curls and they started with incline dumbbell curls (haven't done them in years) then we switched and ended over on the donkeys for calves

Nice and fast, huge pump! Couldn't ask for more!

Wednesday Dead lift, it was time! (Back and Traps too)

No show from Slim, down to 4 of us.

After we decided it would be a good idea to just stay together doing dead lifts, we chose to finish the whole work out that way. The thing about Back, because it’s usually high rep movements, you can still get a really nice pump with 4 deep, as long as you keep moving.

I broke a personal record last night dead lifting 550. I had it on my mind all day and it went as planned. 1 plate for 5 reps, 2 plates for 5, 3 plates for 5, 4 plates for 5, 5 plates for 3 and 5 plates and a quarter for 1.

I tried this weight before a few months back and I couldn't even get it off the floor. I knew after having a few weeks off from dead lifting this was going to be my chance. I knew if I could get it off the floor, I would be able to close out my hips and stand up and I did!

Traps for 5 sets, Lat pull downs, machine free weighted bent over rows, low rows (camera dies here) and reverse grip pull downs destroys the rest of the back.

Wrist curls, the hand gripper and seated calves, we circled around them non stop for 4 sets

Check out the the angles!

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One, Two, Three... Shoot!

I need to train Monday through Thursday this week; have something to do this weekend.

Training is going to be a little tough: four days in a row can be a little brutal, especially when legs is your last day!

Monday night there were three of us and the pace was almost perfect. It has been a long time since I've trained with only three of us. We had a nice pace going and with that less rest. I got a huge pump!

Last night, it was just Alex and I. It felt like old times. This is where it started over 3 years ago. Then came Big John 3 months later and not until just these last 4 months, we added Dave and Donnie

Talk about a fast pace! Right off the bat I knew what I was missing! It has been about 4 month of training, 4 or 5 guys deep and you get used to it and you don't know what you are missing until you go back to what brings you to the gym every day... The pump!. I said it once before and I'll say it again, it's all about the pump! The bigger the better and frankly you can not get the biggest pump possible if your rest is too long; it just isn't going to happen.

We decided, starting next Monday, when I'm back, to split up into teams. Every workout we will buck up into 2 or 3 per team and run parallel to each other. We will all get the same workout, but with a lot less rest and a much bigger pump and a short training time. It's a win win situation.

To further our efforts to grow!

Enjoy Monday night video. Chest/Biceps//Calves

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Hitting the angles

Starting to get the hang of this GoPro Hero 3. I'm using the display mount that came with it. It's basically a flat 3" square plastic piece that accepts the camera mounts. So I glued some magnets on the bottom and you can only imagine the possibilities.

Friday night starts Shoulder/Triceps/Forearms/Calves

Shoulders started with, standing barbell front presses, barbell uprights, seated side barbell laterals and machine rear delts.

Close grip bench press, scull crushers, were the the first two exercises for triceps and we ended doing cable pushdowns, taking the rope and 2 straight bars (hands both ways), and circling around them 4 times, non stop.

Forearms, we took a 2 straight bars and the gripper (its nice on friday nights, being so slow, we can use 2 benches for forearms. Only in america!) We did wrist curls, reverse wrist curls and the gripper and went around 4 times non stop, ending everything over at the donkeys for 4.

Let us not forget about 3 sets of crunches after every workout, although hardly mentioned, they are hardly ever forgotten (felt like a good place to add)

enjoy the video

Saturday morning legs we went straight forward, squats, presses, hacks, legs extensions, stiff legs, legs curls (back and forth between seated and lying) ending on standing calves,

Let the video say the rest..

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No dead lifts for me tonight

As much as I love dead lifting, I can usually only do them 3 weeks in a row. After that,
not only do I start getting weaker, but my back and hips start to feeling more tired and I
can tell. I'm more prone to hurting myself and I know it's time to skip a week.

Normally, when we start with dead lifts, I like to follow them up with shrugs, because
shrugs feel great after having your traps stretched to hell from the heavy dead lifts

So this time we saved shrugs for last (and we remembered to do them too!) It wouldn't
be the first time I/we forgot to do them.

Wide grip lat pull downs for 5 sets (The Rooster did Pull-ups instead) and from there
we did barbell bent-over rows off the floor, then to t-bar rows with our new contraption,
ending back with reverse grip pull downs, 21 sets total for back. Then we did 4 sets of smith machine shrugs, superset with seated dumbbell shrugs
We took wrist curls off the end of a bench, the gripper and seated calves raises and
went around them 4 times, going from one to the next

That’s all she wrote!

Check out some cool footage, we got some pretty bad ass angles

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There is a saying...

You should eat for what your are going to do, not for what you have down. This explains why the gym was so busy last night, being the day after Easter. (but I think it's meant for the same day)
 
That did not stop us from having a kick ass work out as usual!
 
Chest/Biceps/Calves was the damage. We started with the incline barbell bench for 5 sets, then flat dumbbells presses, incline dumbbell flies, flat dumbbell flies and dumbbell pullovers. Yes, finally, after just about a month my elbow felt good enough for them. I didn't go too heavy-80's, I just needed the movement and they felt great!
 
We started biceps with straight bar standing curls, then crooked bar preacher curls, superset the last 2 with French hammer curls, ending with French hammer curls for 2 more (4 total) 5 sets of Donkeys calls it a night
 
I bought an LCD touch screen for my GoPro Hero3 and decide to used it last night, the camera didn't even make it past chest before the new add on killed the battery. I won't be using that LCD for these filming's
 
I still got some cool footage...

 


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