RE: Cpl's All Star workout
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Wednesday, March 30, 2005 8:00 PM
Day one-
Started a little late this week 'cos life got in the way. Just as well though- On Monday and Tuesday, I didn't really feel like working out anyway- Not one bit. I took it as my body letting me know that it enjoyed last week off, and wasn't quite ready to get back to work. Today, however, was a different story-
I won't go into a whole breakdown of my meals for this program, but I'm taking in about 3250 calories a day, nice clean bulking food- Only one protein shake, post workout with a banana.
On to the workout that kicked my ass.
Today was chest, triceps and lats apparently- According to Mr. Sisco, anyway- Just three exercises, one per muscle group.
I warmed up with about fifteen minutes on the stairmaster we have at work, then did twelve partial bench presses- Upper portion of the movement only, using 180 pounds. Then on to the actual lift- Just one set, one VERY partial rep, if I'm reading the program right- Here's the kicker though. I won't go into how you come up with the amount of weight you should lift, since as I mentioned in the top entry here I'm not interested in giving away the whole e-book or anything, but I will tell you I put 380 pounds on the bar for this lift- And that was being conservative. Today was the first time I've ever loaded that sort of weight for any form of chest work, so I wasn't taking any chances by going all out- Plus, I had three reliable spotters, all of whom thought I was nuts for working out like this.
Basically, once you get a monster amount of weight on the bar, you unrack it, but stop a couple of inches short of locking out your arms- This way, your muscles have to work to keep the weight right there- If you lock out, your bones will support the weight instead of your muscles. You have to hold this weight in this position for five to ten seconds- Not easy. I think I might have been able to handle it for longer, but I decided again to play it safe and stop at eight seconds- My chest and triceps were screaming at me anyway, which didn't help- I didn't feel too much in my shoulders, but I'm sure they got their fair share of work here too.
Next up, close grip bench press. Same sort of warmup, ten or so partial reps in the upper portion of the movement, light weight. Again, loaded the bar with a weight I could never do a full rep with, and brought the bar within a couple of inches of locking out. WOW. Triceps really felt this one- At seven seconds, I felt myself trying to change the angle in my arms to take some of the stress off the tri's, and that's when I decided to have my spotters help me re-rack the bar. It was poor form.
Lastly, lats- Lat pulldowns, the easiest of today's lifts, only because there was no fear of dropping the weights on myself. I warmed up as prescribed, loaded up the insane amount of weight, and pulled the bar down a couple of inches- I actually had to have one spotter lay across my knees so that we outweighed the amount of weight I was trying to pull, otherwise I was just doing pullups at the lat station.
How did I feel afterwards? Strong as hell. Not pumped, no burn, not sure if I'll be sore tomorrow or not- (We all know I don't believe those things have anything to do with growth anyway, but figured I'd mention the absence of those things for those of you who are curious) But I did feel pretty damn strong, even if it was just a mental thing- I had never handled that sort of weight on those exercises before, and even though they were nowhere near a full rep, my muscles did support it- Which amazed me. I can't wait to see what sort of gains this type of workout will bring in thirty days.