More changes to my bicep routine

More Changes to my Bicep Routine

Hello All,

There has been another slight modification to my bicep routine since my last post. Last time I talked about substituting preacher curls for straight bar curls, which by the way is working awesome so far. I am definitely very pleased with the pump that it gives. I really feels great after a hard work out. I certainly feel it the next couple of days! I’ve also been making steady gains with the weight. 125 is my heavy set currently and it fells pretty good. 135 is my short term goal. When I hit that I will asses how I feel the preacher curl works v/s the straight bar curl and decide which one to continue with.

Recently I have introduced wrist weights into my inclined dumbbell curls. My progress in this exercise has been very stagnant lately. It was just too big a jump going from 40 to 45 and from 45 to 50. Going up 5 pounds was too much. I needed something to bridge the gap, so I grabbed some wrist weights. 2.5 pounds on each wrist was just what I needed to fill in the blank between 40 and 45. I really wish I had thought of this sooner instead of wasting a lot of time with weight that was either to heavy or not heavy enough. In my opinion, this is a great technique that I strongly recommend to anyone. Next time you hit a plateau, add some wrist weights!

That’s all for now, I can’t wait to hear from you!

~Matt

A Change in my Bicep Routine.

Last week was one of those weeks. After a kick a** flat bench workout on Monday it was straight down hill. First I had meetings in the morning on Tuesday and Friday. Next the starter in my truck went so I had to spend Wednesday morning fixing that. To top it all off I can down with a cold that had me out of commission on Thursday. This all added up to a really crappy week for working out. I don’t remember the last time I only hit the gym one day out of the whole week. It is sure good to have things back to normal and be back in the swing of things.

I’ve decided to mix up my bicep routine a little bit. Instead of starting off with straight bar curls, I switched to preacher curls. I feel I’ve been cheating the weight to much over the past couple of works out with straight bar curls. I’m worried that I’m cheating myself and not getting the most out of the exercise that I should be. I think that the preacher curl will be a great exercise to really isolate my bicep and give me a great pump.

Today was my first day with the preacher curls. I kept the format the same as with the straight bar curls. The number of sets and reps are the same, just a different exercise. Here are the weights that I worked with today:

warm up: - 45/ 17 - 55/ 8 - 65/ 6
1st: - 95/ 10
2nd: - 100/ 7
3rd: - 105/ 5
4th: - 110/ 4
5th: - 115/ 2
6th: - 120/ 1

Next week I'll be going up five pounds. I'll be starting my first set with 100.


That’s it for today. As always, I look foreword to your feedback!!



~Matt

Flat Bench 11/12/2007

I had an awesome flat bench workout today! I was able to hit all the reps in each weight, which means that I can move up in weight next week!

Here is what I did today:

Warm up: 135/ 17 - 145/ 8 - 155/ 6
1st: - 210/ 10
2nd: - 220/ 7
3rd: - 230/ 5
4th: - 240/ 3
5th: - 245/ 2
* I did an extra set: - 250/ 1

I was super psyched to bust out of this weight group so quickly. This was only my 2nd week working with this weight and I'm already through it! The progress that I've been making with my flat bench over the past few weeks has been incredible. In the back of my mind I keep thinking "enjoy it while you can, you'll be hitting a plateau soon", but I try not to let this get me down. I keep pushing it as hard as I can ever set of every workout and the numbers keep going up.

That's all for today, I hope to hear from you all soon!

~Matt

Work out stats for 11/5/07 - 11/9/07

Hi Everybody,

First I would like to thank Jason for posting a comment! It was awesome to hear from him and he had some great advice on supplement stacking. Keep the comments coming!

I am extremely happy to report that there was some progress made this week! My flat bench has gone up again! I am honestly amazed at the progress that I am making with my flat bench. After months of plateau my bench has been steadily going up work out after workout. This week I added more weight, here is what I’m working with now weight first then the amount of reps:

210/ - 8
220/ - 5
230/ - 4
240/ - 3
245/ - 2

I’m psyched! I can’t wait to hit the gym Monday and bust out of this weight group!

I honestly don’t know why, after struggling with the same weight for such a long time, I am making so much progress all of a sudden. Is it just coming out of the plateau state or is something else going on. In a previous post I mentioned that I have been eating a ton of fish (tuna mostly) lately and soon after making the change on my diet It seems like I can do any wrong in the gym. Before I switched to a bunch of tuna I was still getting plenty of protein, just from different sources. Is the protein in tuna different than the protein in meat and whey protein shakes?

I’m dying to hear what you folks have to on this subject. I can’t wait to hear from you!

~Matt

A little about protein

Hi All,

Things have been going pretty well in the weight room this week (it’s only Tuesday thoughJ). I’m back on the creatine after my three week off cycle. Bodybuilding.com shipped my third bottle of Higher Power CE3 to me. This time it is a complete success! It’s great to have it back. I love the extra energy it gives me. I can just keep pushing it. I don’t fatigue easily at all with creatine. I’m getting ready to order more Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard protein. The banana cream flavor is my favorite. I’ve tried the chocolate malt, strawberry, and the vanilla. I strongly recommend the banana cream. For whey protein, they are all pretty delicious. It’s nice to have found a line of protein that I don’t have to choke down and that I can actually enjoy drinking. I used to just get the cheap stuff at Wal-Mart and it absolutely sucked! I didn’t really know to much about what was out there for protein until my brother in law turned me in to the ON brand line of proteins. It digests so much better, doesn’t upset my stomach, and I honestly notice a performance difference. I love it!

That’s it for today. Really soon I’m going to update my workout stats to keep you up to speed on my progress. It’s great to be able to report progress!!

Talk to you soon,

~Matt

I love supplements

Hi Folks,

Last time I talked about my workout, now I want to talk about supplements. I absolutely, positively love supplements! I swear by them. I am currently taking creatine ethyl ester and it is the best thing since sliced bread in my opinion. It has all the positive benefits of regular creatine with out needing all the glucose that is required to deliver regular creatine to your muscles. It takes a lot of sugar to deliver regular creatine effectively to your muscles. That means a lot of calories. Creatine EE is designed to absorb straight into you bloodstream and, in turn, be delivered into your muscles more effectively. The majority of regular creatine spends most of its time in the small intestine and not doing much for you performance. If you’re into creatine, ethyl ester is the way to go.

I’ve also been taking No-xplode. This stuff is great! If you want an awesome boost before a workout, this is where it’s at! This stuff will jack you up like you won’t believe. Kiss those plateau’s good by! This was just the kick start I needed to get over a slump in my flat bench routine. In addition to an awesome energy boost, No-xplode also has out buddy creatine in it . It’s a one stop shop for most people. Me, personally, I still supplement creatine along with it.

A while back I was taking HMB and I must say, I think it works pretty well. It helped reduce my body fat along with aiding in strength gains. They say that HMB is a beginner’s supplement, however, I don’t consider myself a beginner and I’ve seen decent improvement with the stuff.

I have a love hate relationship with fat burners. They work pretty well for me, but they make me feel all anxiety stricken and weird. Usually I quit taking them after a week of so because the results aren’t worth the way they make me feel. Lipo 6 is pretty decent though. It has the fewest bad side effects and the results are the bomb. I recently tried Zantrex3 and that stuff made me feel sick and irritable. I don’t know if it’s because it’s really strong of what but holly crap, I didn’t like it. Nothing like paying $30 for something that I took for 5 days and then stopped.

I have got to tell you about my recent Bodybuilding.com experience. I recently ordered higher Power CE3 (the creatine EE that I can’t like with out! Bu far the most bang for the buck.) and when my order came, the capsules were all stick together. It was like they were heated up and melted or something. I called Bodybuilding.com and let then know and they apologized and sent another bottle right out. When the second bottle showed up, it was the same thing. All melted together. So, I called them back and, once again they sent another bottle out. Well, the third time was the charm. The third bottle was perfect. I’ve been doing business with Bodybuilding.com for a long time and nothing like this has ever happened. I was extremely impressed with there customer service. They were friendly and didn’t hesitate to put another order in the mail with not hassle what so ever. They were great! The prices are hard to beat, and with customer service like that they have a customer for life with me. I strongly recommend checking them out if you haven’t already. They are just a click away.

That’s it for me today. Post comments and let me know what you think. I’ll update my workout stats for the week on Saturday.

By y’all.

-Matt

Hello out there fellow bodybuilding enthusiasts! My name's Matt and I am addicted to working out. Bodybuilding has been a passion of mine for a long time but I've always been an on again off again type of guy. I would practically live in the gym for a year or two, make a lot of progress and then something would change. New job, new girlfriend,or I'd moved. Stuff like that would come up and completely derail my progress and all my hard work would go down the drain. I'd be out of the gym; fall out of shape and pretty much lose everything that I'd worked so hard to accomplish. Then eventually, things in my life would even out and I would find myself back in the gym again on a regular basis trying to get back to where I was and hopefully make a little progress.

I've been working out now for about two years straight, with no interruptions and I'm loving it! I am married now and bought a house (that's about an eighth of a mile from the gym) and things are pretty stable at work also. This all ads up to regular work out and a ton of progress! That is why I've decided to share my work out with all of you. I think it will be a blast outlining my routines and keeping you up to date with the weight I'm working with and how everything is going in general. It will be an awesome forum for me to ask all of you questions and also answer any questions and concerns you might have. This will also be a great way to keep moving in the right direction! I figure that if I'm reporting to a global audience, I will be more apt to really push it and keep making gains.

Here is a break down of my routine. I work out Monday - Friday and I take the weekend off to rest. I am currently training for size and strength so I am pyramiding the weight up with each set. I start off with three light warm up sets followed by five working sets of my main exercise for each muscle group. My working sets are as follows; 1st set- 10 reps, 2nd set- 7 reps, 3rd set - 5 reps, 4th set- 3 reps, and the 5th set- 2 reps. I follow this pattern for all of the major exercises for each muscle group. I don't add more weight until I can hit the predetermined number of reps for each set (when I can do 10/7/5/3/2 with the weight I'm currently working with, then I will add more and start all over until I can hit the reps).

I will update my weekly work out for you with the current weight I'm working with and the number of reps I'm doing.

Mondays are chest and triceps.

Flat Bench:

warm up: 135/ 11 reps 145/6 reps 155/5 rep

1st Set - 205/ 9 reps
2nd set - 215/ 6 reps
3rd set - 225/ 4 reps
4th set - 235/ 2 reps
5th set - 240/ 1 reps

Flat Dumbbell Fly’s:

1st set: - 50/ 6reps
2nd set: - 55/ 4 reps
3rd set: - 60/ 3 reps
4th set: - 65/ 1 rep

Flat Dumbbell Press Drop Set:

1st set: - 80/ 7 reps
2nd set: - 70/ 4 reps
3rd set: - 60/ 4 reps
4th set: - 50/ 4 reps

My pecs are shot at this point!

E-Z Bar Skull Crushers:

1st set: - 95/ 10
2nd set: - 105/ 7
3rd set: - 115/ 5
4th set: - 125/ 3

I'm ready to move up in weight!!

Two Handed Dumbbell Overhead Extensions:

1st set: - 60/ 10
2nd set: - 70/ 7
3rd set: - 80/ 5

Ready to move up in weight here also!!

Single Hand Dumbbell Skull Crushers:

1st set: - 25/ 9
2nd set: - 25/ 6
3rd set: - 25/ 6

That’s if for Monday!

Tuesdays are biceps.

Straight Bar Curls:

warm up: 45/ 13 - 65/ 7 - 85/ 6

1st set: - 115/ 9
2nd set: - 120/ 6
3rd set: - 125/ 4
4th set: - 130/ 3
5th set: - 135/ 1

Dumbbell Inclined Curls:

1st: - 45/ 7
2nd: - 45/ 6
3rd: - 45/ 4
4th: - 45/ 4

This is a tough exercise for me to make strength gains in.

Standing Alternating Dumbbell Curls:

1st: - 45/ 8
2nd: - 50/ 4
3rd: - 50/ 2

Cable Curl Burnout:

For this I start with 100 and work my way down until I can't go any more.

Dumbbell Hammer Curls:

1st: - 50/ 10
2nd: - 55/ 7
3rd: - 60/ 5
4th: - 65/ 3
5th: - 70/ 2

I'm ready to move up!!

Rope Two Handed Hammer Curls:

1st: - 125.5/ 10
2nd: - 131/ 7
3rd: - 137.5/ 5
4th: - 143/ 4

Ready to move up here to!!

That's it for my arm day!

Wednesday I work my legs.

Squat:

warm up: 135/ 13 - 145/ 7 - 155/ 5 - 225/ 10

1st: - 300/ 9
2nd: - 310/ 7
3rd: - 320/ 6
4th: - 330/ 4
5th: - 340/ 4
6th: - 350/ 3
7th: - 360/ 2

Getting close to moving up!

Leg Press:

1st: - 380/ 10
2nd: - 400/ 7
3rd: - 420/ 5
4th: - 440/ 3
5th: - 450/ 3

Ready to move up!!

Standing Calf Raise:

1st: - 270/ 10
2nd: - 280/ 7
3rd: - 290/ 5
4th: - 300/ 4
5th: - 310/ 4

Ready for more weight!!

Thursday I work my upper chest and my lats:

Inclined Bench:

Warm up: 135/ 13 - 145/ 7 - 155/ 5

1st: - 195/ 10
2nd: - 205/ 7
3rd: - 215/ 5
4th: - 225/ 3
5th: - 230/ 2

Ready to move up!!

Inclined Dumbbell Flys:

1st: - 50/ 8
2nd: - 55/ 6
3rd: - 60/ 4
4th: - 65/ 2

Inclined Dumbbell Burnout:

1st: - 70/ 5
2nd: - 60/ 4
3rd: - 50/ 4
4th: - 40/ 4

Bentover Rows:

Warm up: 135/ 13 - 145/ 7 - 155/ 5

1st: - 215/ 9
2nd: - 225/ 7
3rd: - 235/ 5
4th: - 245/ 4
5th: - 255/ 3

Weighted Wide Grip Chinups:

1st: - 5/ 9
2nd: - 7.5/ 6
3rd: - 10/ 4
4th: - 12.5/ 3

Almost there!

Friday I work my shoulders:

Military Press:

Warm up: 115/ 13 - 125/ 7 - 135/ 5

1st: - 185/ 7
2nd: - 195/ 5
3rd: - 205/ 4
4th: - 215/ 3
5th: - 220/ 1

I've got some work to do here!

Lateral Raise Machine:

1st: - 100/ 8
2nd: - 110/ 6
3rd: - 120/ 4
4th: - 130/ 2
5th: - 140/ 1

Military Dumbbell Press Burnout:

1st: - 60/ 7
2nd: - 50/ 5
3rd: - 40/ 4

Dumbbell Lateral Raise Burnout:

1st: - 35/ 7
2nd: - 25/ 4
3rd: - 15/ 7

Barbell Shruggs:

1st: - 290/ 5
2nd: - 300/ 3
3rd: - 310/ 3
4th: - 320/ 2
5th: - 330/ 2

This is a killer!

Barbell Arnold Press:

1st: - 115/ 7
2nd: - 125/ 5
3rd: - 135/ 3
4th: - 140/ 2

That's it for my work out routine for the week. I will update this weekly to chart my progress for you all. Next time I'll talk about my supplement regimine.

I can't wait to hear from you!!

-Matt