The day after…

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving; I was fortune enough to eat at two places yesterday, so I was ready to bang out some Back, Shoulders and Traps today

Again today there were four of us, once in a while Mike was still in town and needed more abuse which we are much obliged to give him…

Today damaged started with Back then Shoulders then Traps.

And it went something like this…

Reverse grip Chin-Ups/ 4 sets

Low Row Cable Rows/4 set

Barbell Bent over Rows/4 set

Wide grip cable Pull Downs/4 set

Standing Barbell Shoulder Presses/4 sets

Close Grip up Right Rows/4 sets

Machine Side Laterals /4 sets

End of a bench, Rear Dumbbell laterals /4 sets

Barbell shrugs 4/ sets

Finishing on stomach

I want to thank once in a while Mike for hanging and banging with the crew and welcome him back on his next visit for more thrashing.

Next two days off, back at it on Monday

Until next time… size BIGGER!

Time for a protein drink!

please pass the turkey leg

There is nothing like having no work the day after a legs night, other than having no work the day after a legs night and it being thanksgiving. A time, where for me I might have the chance to overeat and get ahead of putting on some weight.

Last night there were four of us, Me, Cliff, Animal and once in a while Mike. Mike’s in town for thanksgiving and he knows where to go to get his legs trashed.

I decided I wanted to run legs backwards, which I like to do every so often. We started with calves then into hamstring curls and legs extensions, leg presses, ¾ dead lifts, hacks and stiff legs

Training with four is the maximum limit unless you make two teams, but rather than having a three person rest in between sets, we use multi machines and did it in a way that you only rested one person between each set.   

The first person goes, then moves to the next exercise, but waits until the second person finishes their set on the first exercise, so that they get a full person's rest, it’s like you are training with only two of you

And it went something like this…

Standing Calf raises, Seated Calf raises and Seated Calf presses for 4 sets

Lying down Leg Curls, Seated Leg Extensions, Leg Presses. This group we did 4 sets around doing 15 reps on the leg presses and after the 4^th set around we ended on leg press for another 2 set of 15 reps adding 3 plates each side each set, totaling a 6 plate jump each side, 6 sets total.

Cliff Note - I left my legs on that press machine

¾ dead lifts and the hack machine for 4 sets ending with stiff legs for 3 and finishing up on abs… 

Again an awesome workout…size BIGGER!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Time for a protein drink!

In the wind.

I rode into work yesterday, it’s an hour’s ride, but on a bike it’s so much less stressful, having the ability to go around cars that can’t seem to go around cars... I can’t tell  you how much stress release I get knowing I can do that, knowing I never have to sit in traffic if I choose not too… awww

I had to give up the bike for a bit due to the competition, it’s hard enough to lug all your food around with you, never mind adding the bike element to the equation, it’s that much harder when you have to eat at a certain time and you have the bike, plus carrying around my frozen gallon of crystal light can be challenging

Banged out Chest and Arms last night with Alex and my shoulders hurt more then usual, it dawned on me this morning that we ran Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, last week as opposed to our Monday, Wednesday, Friday routine so that only gave us one days rest after blasting shoulders on Saturday, then to do Chest on Monday… oh my aching shoulders…

But that’s not going to stop me… damage went something like this…

Flats /4set

Incline dumbbells/4

Flat dumbbell flies/4

Cable crossovers/4

If you never tried doing your biceps before triceps, give it a try. You get this nice cushion pump from your bicep that your forearms rests on when working your triceps. Plus if your like me and have elbow pain when you do triceps, this gets the blood in the area and greatly reduces the pain

And it went something like this…

Standing wide grip barbell curls/4

Machine preacher curls/4

Scull crushers/4

Pushdowns angle grip/4

One arm over head extension with rope/4

End of the bench wrist curls both ways/4

Ending with abs…

Lets on Wednesday… can’t wait!

Time for a protein drink!

Come out as a double X

Back and Shoulders, I like this combination I call this the shaper. 

It’s best to hit the Back first, but you can do Shoulders first, and it isn’t as bad as one might think. A benefit of doing Back before Shoulders is you get this cushion hitting the back of your arms when you’re doing Shoulder presses, from the already pump in your Back, which gives you the added pop when pressing

The exercises used to train these two muscle groups really aid in shaping your body like a bodybuilder when combined. This combination combines all the Back and Shoulder muscles together with your Traps and all the little muscles around your Shoulder blades. This combination gives you such a great pump!

Today we terrorized Gold Gym in Natick. This is the first time we've hit Back and Shoulders at this gym. We've done Legs many times there because of the old school Vertical Legs Press machine and the Donkey Calf Raise machine they have. 

I like to train all around to get different atmospheres and use different movements as much as possible; I find that each gym brings something different to the table

And it went something like this...

Big John started the damage on the Lat Pull Down machine for 4 sets. We finally found a Back cable pull down machine where big John can get a stretch; the Animal is 6'4" 252lbs under 10% body fat. Second was seated lat machine pulls. It's free movement pull machine where you add weights, it’s not a cable machine. Then onto High Lat Rows and we ended doing reverse grip straight bar cable pull downs... 4 exercises 4 sets, over 10 reps, we don't count

Shoulders started with Rear Dumbbell laterals for 4 sets, followed with an old school standing side lateral machine for 4, (we don't get to see this machine too often) and we ended Shoulders with Front Presses on the Smith Machine for 5 sets.

 As Alex (aka Cliff) would say, "I've left my Shoulders on the press machine". I call this “ Cliff Notes” and I would have to agree with him on this one, shoulder were definitely toast after that...

Traps, 4 Sets of barbell shrugs, 2 with bar behind you, pulling bar over your ass and 2 in front....finishing with Abs

Another great working!

Go in as an extra large and come out as a double X

Time for a Protein drink!

And then there were four or should I say 8.

Last night there were four of us, which completes our team I like to call size BIGGER.  You have already met Alex aka Cliff and now we have John aka Animal and legs day Vinny, who kills legs with us every week.

As I mentioned before, I for the most part never count reps, but I do like to pick a number once in a while and drive myself to go as heavy as possible and last night the number was 8

The damage last night started with squats, we started with the 1 plate (135lbs) for 8 reps, then a plate and a quarter for 8, then 2 plates for 8, then 2 plates and a quarter for 8, then 3 plates for 8 and the last set of 3 plates an a quarter for 8 reps (365lbs) 6 sets of squats did the damage I was looking for

Next was onto the legs press were we started with 6 plates on each side for 8 reps, then we throw another 3 plates making it 9 on each side for 8 reps, then 2 more making it 11 for 8, then ending with 2 more making it 13 plates each side for 8 reps, talk about a quad pump!

And if your legs didn’t already have enough blood in them, we then did a set of walking lunges, a 100 lunges total, 50 away and 50 back, and talk about a throbbing blood pump!

Stiff legged dead lifts was the next attack for 4 sets, then to leg extensions for 4, lying down leg curls for 4 and ending on calves, 4 sets of seated calf presses and 4 of seat calve raises.

Legs today gone tomorrow... definitely!

Great workout last night guys!

Time for a protein drink!

Where it all began

Tuesday’s workout was back to the original two, me and Alex (aka Cliff) and today we blasted chest and arms.

Recently we started doing a Monday, Wednesday, Friday three day spilt, but because I lost a long time friend Vinny Greco, the once owner of Powerhouse gym in Watertown, I had to say my goodbyes to him on Monday, so this week it’s Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. 

When I started competing in bodybuilding at the age of 20, Vinny was the man who taught me how to pose. In fact, we use to go into his gym before it was a gym, when it was a warehouse in the making of a gym, lean a mirror against the wall and put together a routine, which won me best poser a couple of times. There hasn’t been a gym since that is even close to Vinny’s gym. The atmosphere was all about training hard and getting big. He didn’t care if you dropped your weights or used chalk for your grip or made loud noises because you were giving it all you got. That is what training is all about, as the saying goes, intensity for immensity and sickness for thickness, you can’t think like this with out making noise or dropping a heavy weights now and again. Vinny you will be missed, rest in peace!

The damage starts with three dips to failure, oh by the way, we don’t usually count our reps, and instead we go by feel and to failure. I like to keep the reps around 10, sometime under and sometime over, it all depends on the exercise. If you feel you need more reps to get the feeling you’re looking for, lower the weight and increase the weight, if you’re getting too many reps.

From Dips to incline barbell bench, to flat dumbbell presses, ending on incline dumbbell flies. We did four movements for chest.

Triceps started with french curls, leaning on a preacher curl machine, to skull crushers lying on a bench, ending on standing triceps pushdown.

Biceps started with incline dumbbell curls, to straight bar preacher curls, to a machine where we did reverse curls to end the biceps and start the forearms, we ended up on the end of a flat bench where we did reverse wrist curls superset into regular wrist curls… these give you such a forearms burn, something’s it’s mind boggling

Legs on Thursday, until then…

Time for a protein drink!

Definition of insanity

If you know me, you know I hardly ever do the same workout over and over again, I'm always creating new workouts by changing my workouts around and always starting with something different.

You have the most energy on your first exercise, so I want to start with a different movement every time. I like to change from starting with dumbbell vs barbell vs machine and charging up my other movements as well, never repeating the same workout as before or even before that or before before before that, I have so many combinations

Today was Back and Shoulders

Three of us today for the damage and I wanted to bounce from a Back exercise to a Shoulder exercise and go back and forth between the two. Keeping a one person rest between sets, so after you did your KICK ASS set, you have a whole person rest until you had to go again, giving you the energy needed to have another KICK ASS set

It went something like this...

We grouped lateral pull-downs with machine shoulder press for four sets, Bent-over rows with upright rows for four sets, Seated cable low row with machine side laterals for four sets, Reverse grip machine lat pull-downs with rear dumbbell raises for four sets and four sets barbell shrugs, ending with Abs.

Quote: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results."

So I asked you...  is this sane?

Awesome workout today!

Time for a protein drink!