5 July 2009 Legs (Quads and hamstrings), calves and abdominals

Hello everybody! So yesterday (Sunday) was time to workout the legs. I gotta admit that i have mixed feelings, when it comes to leg training days, i dread it since i know that I’m gonna destroy my muscles with hard training and going to be sore as hell the following 2-3 days, but on the other hand excited to lift heavy weights as my legs are my strongest body parts by far. As i have mentioned previously, i don’t take any pre-workout supplements before leg training, because the pumps would be too painful and i would start cramping. I just drank 1 liter of pineapple juice before and during my workout to keep my energy level high.

I warmed my body up by doing 10 minutes on the cross trainer

Warm-up on cross trainer

After which i did some explosive stretches lightly to wake my muscles up, i usually don’t do conventitional static stretches BEFORE my workouts, but i do light static stretches to the muscle I’m working in between sets and after workouts at home.

Let’s get to my workout:

Leg extensions light (to warm my knees up)

Leg extensions for quads

2 sets of 15 reps with 50kg/110lbs

Deep squat (same as traditional squat, but i go really deep to shock my leg muscles and get more muscle fibers involved)

Deep squat

Set 1: 10 reps with 80kg/176lbs

Set 2: 10 reps with 90kg/198lbs

Set 3: 8 reps with 100kg/220lbs

Note. I did the reps in a slow, controlled fashion. Slower than normally, to force the muscles to work and not have any momentum helping my lift the weights up.

Wide squat (sumo squat)

3 sets of 8 reps with 90kg/198lbs

Note. In order to do this exercise correctly, make sure that your knees and feet are pointing to the same direction from start to finish of the exercise, your feet should be pointing outwards slightly.

V-squat machine ( i rarely do this, just wanted a bit of a different angle to work my quads)

V-squat machine for quads

Set 1: 12 reps with 60kg/132lbs

Set 2: 10 reps with 75kg/165lbs

Set 3: 8 reps with 85kg/187lbs

Note. I tried to position my feet fairly down on the machine platform to target my quads more instead of my hamstrings.

Seated leg curls for hamstrings

Seated Leg Curls

3 sets of 12 with 50kg/110lbs

Note. I have trouble with putting up big weights with hamstring exercises, i have to work on that more. To hit the hamstrings from a different angle during this exercise, make sure your feet are pointing forwards instead of upwards, you will notice a difference and the weight will become heavier. This reduces the help you receive from your calves and relies more on the hamstrings alone.

Dumbbell deadlifts

Dumbbell deadlift for hamstrings

3 sets of 10 reps with 26kg/57lbs dumbbells

Note. Gotta remember to stick your butt out to keep your back straight throughout the movement and slight bend in the knees are ok, have control over the dumbbells and really feel your hamstrings stretching and working. Don’t over-stretch your hamstrings as you might pull a muscle.

Seated calf raises

Seated Calf raise

6 sets of 12-15 reps with increasing weight, starting from 40kg/88lbs pyramiding all the way to 70kg/154lbs.

Note. As mentioned, i do calves in a two-motion phase, i push 60% and pause for a split second then squeeze the remaining 40% of the movement. I do this to really cut my calves in two and have a noticeable peak to it. You guys should give it a try.

Last but not least abdominals:

I did weighted crunches, leg raises, some ab machines etc. I tried to go heavy on them, to develop my abdominal muscles and force them to grow. As for the last years i have done abs without weights for the most part, and like any other muscle they need resistance to grow bigger.

That’s it for my workout from yesterday. Tried my newly bought HD camcorder, not sure if it’s really any good, gonna try to have somebody take some clips of me to post here or gonna have to buy another one, that is better.

Remember keep training hard and stay motivated, don’t slack off. Sometimes it’s easy to miss practices and eat junk food since it’s summer, gotta have self-discipline. Make promises to yourself that you can keep, but even if you break them, don’t feel to bad about it, just make sure not to break too many promises! 🙂

Copyright: Gif pictures are courtesy of http://www.exrx.net. Own illustrative exercise pics will be up soon.

3 July 2009 Upper back, traps & abs workout

Hey guys,

On friday i did upper back, traps and abs. I had a great day outside the gym, so i automatically assumed that it would remain at the same level, when i would go to the gym. How wrong was I, I wasn’t satsified with the gym i have been going to lately, so since i didn’t have an active membership since wednesday 1st of July. I thought to myself, that hey i still gotta workout, so decided to go to a public fitness center like a YMCA type facility. I can honestly say i had the worst workout of my life, no air circulation, crappy equipments etc. etc. I was so actually hurrying to finish my workout and left it a bit short. So I NEED to find a good gym fast, as i don’t wanna go back to that gym.

But hey at least i grined through the workout, here goes:

Upper back

Wide grip front pulldown

Wide grip front pulldown

Set 1: 10 reps with 70kg/154lbs

Set 2: 10 reps with 75kg/165lbs

Set 3: 8 reps with 80kg/176lbs

Seated Row

Seated row

I only managed to squeeze 2 sets of 10 reps with 90kg/198lbs.

Note. Machine was really old and unreliable, so i chose to move on.

T-Bar row

T-Bar row

Set 1: 10 reps with 60kg/132lbs

Set 2: 8 reps with 70kg/154lbs

Set 3: 8 reps with 80kg/176lbs

Note. I enjoyed this exercise, as the machine was working fine. So i pushed 3 really good sets out of this one. Felt a bit better at this point.

Dumbbell Shrugs for traps (trapezius)

Dumbbell shrugs

4 sets of 10 reps with 41kg/90lbs dumbbells

Note. Wanted to go heavier than normally and in a sense punish myself for not having a good workout. I gotta admit, that at this point i was happy that i did most my exercises that i was supposed to, but couldn’t bare the thought of staying there and doing abdominals, so i decided to do them at home later in the evening.

Abs

I usually do abs with weights to develop the abdominal muscles and make them thicker, but since this time i was gonna do abs at home, i tried to do different varieties of crunches etc. for a total of 250 reps. Guys remember, that the number is not the most important thing, you have to control your body and it’s motion to actually feel the muscle working and contract the muscle properly, without too much of a swing action.

Anyway enjoy your weekend guys, keep training hard and eating healthy. Remember that a little cheat meal or snack is ok 1-2 twice a week, to keep the mind sane 🙂

Copyright: Gif pictures are courtesy of http://www.exrx.net. Own illustrative exercise pics will be up soon as mentioned before.

26 June 2009 Chest and biceps/triceps superset workout

Hello everybody! Hope you’re all doing great, enjoying your summer but still working out hard to stay in shape.

For this workout, i actually forgot my pre-workout supplement mix a home, so i had to manage with my natural energy and see how far that would take me. I was actually running pretty high on energy, since it was a noon workout, after a healthy breakfast. So i was mentally looking forward for the workout, so here goes:

Chest

Dumbbell flat bench press

Dumbbell Bench Press

Set 1: 10 reps with 26kg/57lbs dumbbells

Set 2: 8 reps with 31,5kg/69lbs dumbbells

Set 3: 8 reps with 36kg/79lbs dumbbells

Set 4: 8 reps with 38,5kg//85lbs dumbbells

Incline dumbbell bench press

Incline dumbbell bench press

3 sets of 8-10 reps with 26kg/57lbs dumbbells

Note. Was tired from the previous exercise, so wanted to really concentrate on the muscle and form, hence having only 26kg/57lbs dumbbells.

Incline smith machine bench press

Smith Incline Bench Press

Set 1: 10 reps with 60kg/132lbs

Set 2: 8 reps with 70kg/154lbs

Set 3: 8 reps with 75kg/165lbs

Dumbbell pullover (for the lower part of the chest)

Dumbbell pullover

3 sets of 10-12 reps with 23,5kg/52lbs dumbbell

Note. In this exercise it’s very important to have the muscle-mind connection, meaning you have to stabilize the rest of your body and only work the chest area by concentrating your mind on that muscle being worked. Having a controlled speed is important for reaching that muscle-mind connection for maximum benefit.

To cap off my chest workout, i did a fly with cables to hit the inner chest area and get some more definition on my chest

Cable standing fly

Cable Standing flies

3 sets of 8-12 reps with varying weight, heavy enough to get maximum muscular contraction but without pushing myself too hard, with this being my last chest exercise for the day.

Great, so i’m done with my chest exercises. Feeling good, had to have a 5 minute break before going through with my intense biceps and triceps superset. I do these supersets sometimes just to add variety to my workouts and also i find them to be great if you are looking to increase intensity of your workouts, have more blood flowing into your muscles and also if you happen to be short on time with a busy lifestyle. Supersets workouts don’t last too long and are extremely effective. Let’s get to it:

*First superset is barbell bicep curls with z-bar and lying tricep extensions with z-bar

Barbell Bicep Curls

Lying Triceps Extension

3 sets of 8  reps for each exercise, making a total of 6 sets, with no rest. Going back and forth between the two. Wow that was intense, you will see it from the video, when posted.

*Dumbbell bicep curls paired with cable tricep pushdowns.

Dumbbell Bicep Curl

Cable Tricep Pushdown

3 sets of 8 reps for each exercise, total of 6 sets. Again with no rest. My muscles felt like they’re ready to explode. Imagine if i had my usual pumping pre-workout supplement, haha maybe next time.

*Last superset pairs are dumbbell preacher curls with dumbbell tricep kickbacks to get the final touch on my biceps and triceps for more definition and brining the bicep peak out.

Dumbbell preacher curl

Dumbbell tricep kickback

Did a total of 3 sets of 8-10 reps for each exercise, making a total of 6 sets. Didn’t go heavy weights, i usually want to go more for definition for last exercises that i have, no matter what muscle i’m working. I wanna stay injury-free, so no need to always be pushing maximum weights, but then again you have to in the beginning, specially if you want to grow bigger and stronger. Lift big, eat big and sleep big and you shall become HUGE 🙂 Anyway that’s it for the day, will be back soon with my upper back workout from sunday and my leg workout from yesterday (monday). Tune back in soon and maybe i have FINALLY posted the videos as promised so many times.

Keep training hard and smart!

Copyright: Gif pictures are courtesy of http://www.exrx.net. Own illustrative exercise pics will be up soon as mentioned before.

25 June 2009 Shoulders and abs

Hello again everybody,

Posting my shoulder and abs workout from thursday, which i actually have videos of also, just need to get the clips from my friend who took was kind enough to take the clips with his Iphone.

I started by taking my pre-workout supplement drink, which is a mixture of two great supplements (Universal nutrition’s Storm & SAN V-12), a year ago i combined these two products and although they have similarity in ingredients, i personally feel that they give me a bigger boost together than alone.

So even before getting to them gym, on my way there from the beach to the gym i was EXCITED to workout. Couldn’t wait to hit the weights, what can i say the sunny weather does that to me, gives me an amazing amount of energy.

Enough talk and let’s get to the workout:

Dumbbell shoulder press ( only difference, which you will see from video when posted, that i take my arms down to a 90 degree angle and not lower than that).

Dumbbell shoulder press

Set 1: 10 reps of 20kg/44lbs dumbbells

Set 2: 10 reps of 23,5kg/52lbs dumbbells

Set 3: 8 reps of 26kg/57lbs dumbbells

Set 4: 8 reps of 26kg/57lbs dumbbells

Standing barbell behind the neck shoulder press (picture is seated)

Barbell behing the neck shoulder press

Set 1: 10 reps of 40kg/88lbs

Set 2: 10 reps of 45kg/99lbs

Set 3: 8 reps of 50kg/110lbs

Dumbbell lateral raises

Dumbbell shoulder raises

3 sets of 10 reps with 13kg/29lbs dumbbells with very strict form and controlled motion, as to limit the movement of my upper body hence decreasing the involvement of other muscles than the shoulders.

Front dumbbell raises (with a slightly different angle, that you will see when the video is posted VERY SOON)

Front shoulder raises

3 sets of 8 reps/per hand with 13kg/29lbs dumbbells

Note that with these last two exercises i’m not going for strength and power, so i try to have a weight that is heavy enough but that i would still be able to do my reps in a controlled motion, to target the shoulders specifically.

Last exercise for the shoulder was seated rear shoulder machine

Rear shoulder machine

3 sets of 10-12 reps with varying weights, not paying much attention to the weight, although i do try to increase it regularly to increase the intensity. I really like this exercise as the rear deltoid muscle is hard to hit, with this exercise one can easily isolate that muscle without being able to do a mistake as the machine doesn’t allow too much extra movement beyond the range of motion designed for that muscle from that position. U guys should try it out, if you haven’t already.

Then i moved along to abs, where i did 4 different exercises, all with weights for increased resistance or i was doing some abdominal machine. I keep changing my abdominal routine rapidly, so my muscles get attacked from all different angles. I go fairly heavy weight, did a total of 4 different exercises, 12 sets alltogether and 250 repetitions. U do that math and divide them as you wish for your program. Abs should be trained just as any other muscle, don’t to countless repetitions. Try to do between 8-15 reps, that’s more than enough with proper technique and enough weights to force the muscle to respond and work hard.

That was it for that workout. I still gotta post the Chest and Biceps/Triceps superset workout which i did on friday, which was amazing and intense. Aaaand i gotta post todays (Sunday 28th June 2009) Upperback, trapezius and abdominal workout, which i also have video of. Make sure to come back and check them out. Until then, keep training hard, eating clean and sleeping a lot. 🙂

Copyright: Gif pictures are courtesy of http://www.exrx.net. Own illustrative exercise pics will be up soon as mentioned before.

23 June 2009 Upper back, biceps and traps(trapezius) workout

Hey guys,

Couldn’t wait to go to the gym and have a great workout once again and getting one more step closer to to achieving my ultimate fitness transformation, i hope you are also excited and motivate to have some goals of yours, no matter how small or big. Since we are only competing with ourselves by always trying to improve ourselves physically and otherwise in life

So let’s get to the workout today i took my usual pre-workout supplement mixture (containing nitric oxide, creatine malate etc. will tell more some other time) 30 minutes before my actual workout for the day.

Started off with my usual 10 minutes of warming up by doing 5 minutes on the treadmill and then warming up my body (muscles and joints), but i don’t do static stretches as it’s not desired before your actual workout, only immediately after your workout or even some hours later. However i do very light stretches in between sets for that specific muscle i’m currently training.

Actual workout for the day(will add pictures to all exercises very soon and video also):

Upper back (using lifting straps to help with my grip)

Pulldown to the front with a wide grip

Set 1: 10 reps of 70kg/154lbs

Set 2: 10 reps of 75kg/165lbs

Set 3: 8 reps of 80kg/176lbs

Set 4: 8 reps of 85kg/187lbs

Seated row with a narrow grip

Set 1: 10 reps of 80kg/176lbs

Set 2: 10 reps of 90kg/198lbs

Set 3: 8 reps of 100kg/220lbs

Bent-over row with a dumbbell (one arm)

Set 1: 10 reps of 31kg/68lbs

Set 2: 10 reps of 38,5kg/85lbs

Set 3: 10 reps of 41kg/90lbs

Close grip lat pulldown with a lever machine (SOON a picture will explain it better)

3 sets of 10 reps with varying weights, didn’t pay attention to weights on this one as usually at this stage of my back workout i try to go for the feel, as in the beginning i go more for strength and mass.

Some people do traps right after the back workour, i tend to leave it until after i’ve finished my biceps workout, so let’s get to that.

Biceps

Z-bar (barbell) bicep curls

Set 1: 10 reps of 30kg/66lbs

Set 2: 8 reps of 35kg/77lbs

Set 3: 8 reps of 40kg/88lbs

Set 4: 8 reps of 45kg/99lbs

Alternating dumbbell bicep curls with a twist (Bring the peak of bicep out)

Set 1: 8 reps of 18,5kg/40lbs dumbbells/per arm

Set 2: 8 reps of 18,5kg/40lbs dumbbells/per arm

Set 3: 8 reps of 18,5kg/40lbs dumbbells/per arm

Z-bar preacher curls

Set 1: 8 reps of 30kg/66lbs

Set 2: 8 reps of 30kg/66lbs

Set 3: 8 reps of 305kg/66lbs

Crucifix bicep curl on cable machine ( finish the workout out with exercise that blasts the peak of the biceps, love it!)

3 sets of 10 reps with 20kg/44lbs on each side of the cable machine weight rack

Last but not least the trapezius muscle

Traps

Dumbbell shrugs (6 reps erect posture and the last 6 reps with a slight lean to hit a different angle)

6 sets of 12 reps with 40kg/88lbs dumbbells

Oh my god, i felt so pumped at that point. My biceps were looking huge compared to normally and vascular, i feel like my pre-workout supplement and training is working. At this point, i’m happy and still VERY motivated, hope you guys are also and talk to you soon about the next training session which will be legs, calves and abs. I’ll try my best to finally get some pics and video posted from the workout session.

Anyway i’m off to eating some good, healthy food and just relaxing. Visualising my body transforming and becoming a fitness muscle beast. 🙂

21 June 2009 Chest, triceps and abs workout

Hey everybody!

So today i had chest, triceps and abs to do. Before hitting the weights in the gym, i took a Universal Nutrition Storm & SAN V-12 personal mixture of mine to get my body amped and ready for a hard training session.

After not being able to go to the gym for 4 days now, i was really excited about getting to lift some weights, so i started my regular warm-up routine, which i will show to you guys sometime soon on video.

I started with chest, followed by triceps and last i did abs. Here is what i did (haven’t included a few light warm-up sets):

Barbell bench press

Set 1: 10 reps 70kg/155lbs

Set 2: 10 reps 75kg/165lbs

Set 3: 8 reps 80kg/176lbs

Set 4: 8 reps 85kg/187lbs

Dumbbell bench press

Set 1: 10 reps with 26kg/57lbs dumbbells

Set 2: 8 reps with 31kg/68lbs dumbbells

Set 3: 8 reps with 34kg/75lbs dumbbells

Incline dumbbell press

Set 1: 8 reps with 26kg/57lbs dumbbells

Set 2: 8  reps with 31kg/68lbs dumbbells

Smith incline bench press (very high angle to hit the top of the chest area)

Set 1: 10 reps with 60kg/132lbs

Set 2: 8 reps with 62,5kg/138lbs

Set 3: 8 reps with 65kg/143lbs

Pullover (to hit my weak lower chest area)

Set 1: 12 reps with 21kg/46lbs dumbbell

Set 2: 12 reps with 21kg/46lbs dumbbell again

To finish off my chest workout, i went to the flye machine to open my chest up and bring more definition

3 sets of 12 reps with medium weights, i was just going for the feel of it and concentrating on contracting the chest muscle, not so much about how much weight i can lift/push.

Moving along to the triceps, at this point i’m very pumped and still have plenty of energy and excitement to continue with my workout

Triceps:

Weighted dips

3 sets of 10reps with only 5kg/11lbs as extra weight on my waist, but hey gotta start somewhere, right?

Two arm dumbbell extension seated on bench

3 sets of 8 reps with 36kg/80lbs dumbbell

Tricep cable pushdowns (narrow grip to bring the peak of my triceps out)

4 sets of 8 reps with 60kg/132lbs

Dumbbell tricep kickbacks both hands simultaneously

3 sets of 8 reps with 10kg/22lbs dumbbells

Feeling good and pumped, damn the pre-workout drink works great, loving it!

Gotta finish strong, so i did 4 different exercises for abs. I tried to have them all weighted, since i want mass and definition on my abs, big blocks. Tried to stay withing the range of 10-15 reps doing a total of 15 sets for the abs.

That’s it for todays workout, tomorrow i have upper back and biceps along with some cardiovascular/aerobic exercise. Be sure to tune back in and let me know how you’re doing with your training and dieting.

PS. sorry for not having any videos today, i was training alone. But in the future i will try to include video on almost every workout with a little spice 🙂

So take care and see you later!!!