Tag Archives: curls

Todays Training – Chest, Biceps and Some HiiT

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Kiddie Biceps

Just a very quick training diary update for today. Todays aim was to hit my chest hard, then do some Bicep work and finish with a few rounds of a HiiT type routine. It’s late and I’m knackered so I’ll keep this brief.

Chest: Started with Dumbbell presses on a very low (almost flat incline), maybe around 15 degrees. 1 x warm up set of 12 reps @ 17.5kg in each hand. Then some proper sets. 1 x 10 reps@24kg, 1 x 6 reps@30kg, 1 x 5@30kg, 1 x 8 reps@22kg and 1 x 10@17.5kg. Tried to keep rest to a max 1 minute between sets.

Then put the incline up slightly but still only about 30 degrees. The next exercise was again dumbbell press but alternating from hand to hand. So basically press both dumbbels overhead, then lower one back to your chest whilst keeping the other hand extended overhead. This really works your chest well but has the added advantage of working your core as you need to maintain your balance and prevent rotation of your body.  1 x 10 reps (each side)@22kg, 1 x 8 reps @24kg, 2 x 10 reps @17.5kg.

Then 4 sets of cable crossovers @20kg each side.

Finally I shot across to the seated front bench press machine and knocked out one set of 40 reps at a low weight (think it was about 20kg in total) just to really fatigue the chest.

Biecps: I decided to start with an exercise I am really poor at but which is a great mass builder, close grip chin ups focusing on pulling with Biceps rather than using the back. 5 sets and managed a feeble 6 reps, 6 reps, 5 reps, 5 reps and a final 3 and a bit. Definitely needs work.

Then good old fashioned standing barbell curls. 4 sets of 10 @ 35kg and really focusing on no body movement, squeezing the weight up with the biceps and no body movement with a slow lowering of the weight.

Finally seated incline dumbbell curls with a drop set. 10 reps @10kg per hand, then no rest into 10 reps@6kg, then 10 x 3kg. Repeated this 3 times. I realise the weights sound really low but if you go slow, don’t cheat and really squeeze and isolate your bicep it hurts like crazy by the end.

Finally onto a quick HiiT (High Intensity Interval Training) circuit.

30 jumping jacks, no rest into 12 press ups, into 16 (8 each side) alternate leg jack knives, into 20 twisting slow mountain climbers and then 20 (10 each side) jumping alternate leg lunges. Had about a minutes rest then went again. Did it 4 times.

That’s it, am already feeling the chest tonight but not so much the biceps. Think I’ll probably do some more resistance circuit work tomorrow. Have a good night.

Take Care,

John

My Daily Training Diary!

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No Pain No GainI’ve had a bad couple of weeks from a health and training perspective. I have lots of good excuses (I’m in the middle of getting a loft extension done, the kids are off school on Easter holidays, it was my birthday and we had a couple of days out to celebrate etc etc, but the truth is I’ve just neglected things a bit and not been training as much as i should. I’m only human, and very much the Ordinary Guy that this blog is about.

So I’m determined that for the next month or so I’m going to be very strict, get back on track and smash the training and healthy eating again. A few people have asked me how i train, what i do, how often etc? So i thought it might be an idea to do a quick daily post outlining what training i have done, what it involved, weights lifted etc. Hopefully some of you will be interested and I’d welcome any comments. It won’t be every day as i tend to do some sort of activity 4 to 5 days per week. If any of you would also be interested in what i eat and my diet then please let me know and maybe I can start to include that as well. So here is day 1.

Thursday: I only had about 50 minutes to squeeze a session in today so the aim was to hit shoulders and arms and maybe do some cardio/abs if i had time. My left shoulder is buggered (that’s a technical term) and as soon as i start to lift any heavyish weights in terms of shoulder press or bench press it becomes sore and stays that way so i have to work around it. Therefore i started with 5 minutes of shoulder joint stretches, muscle stretches, rotator cuff stretches to try to loosen it up as much as possible. Then here is the routine i hit.

1 x warm up set of 10 reps @ 14kg of seated dumbbell shoulder press

1 x 10 reps @ 20kg, followed by 2 x 8 reps@ 22.5kg, followed by 3 x 10 @ 16kg. Rest between all sets was approximately 50/60 seconds.

Then moved on to standing side lateral raises.

I took a 10kg dumbbell in each hand and did alternate reps for each side, 10 reps per side. Then immediately dropped those and picked up 7kg each side and with no rest went into a strict set of 10 reps (both sides at the same time). So effectively supersetted side lateral raises. Repeated 3 times. Rest between sets was about 1 minute max.

Then sat on a bench, leaned forward and went into bent over rear lateral raises. Again i did a superset style. So did 10 reps with 9kg, dropped them and straight into another 10 reps with 5kg. I realise the weight for these lat raises may sound light to some people but… a) I am trying to protect my shoulder and b) If you do them really strictly and only engage your deltoid muscle without “throwing” the weight up, it still gives you an amazing pump and is very effective.

Then picked up 2 x 30kg dumbbell and did 3 x 15 reps of shrugs, concentrating on shrugging my shoulders up and back to really work the traps (trapezius). That’s shoulders done.

For arms i normally work with free weights but i watched a video by a guy called Jeff Cavaliere from Athlean X who i rate very highly and would massively recommend his videos. The video is here and it is a cable machine workout that works both biceps and triceps at the same time and wow is it effective. Basically you set a flat handle on a cable machine. I was lucky as at my Gym i had two right next to each other. Have 1 handle up high to do Tricep push downs and one down low for bicep curls. You move from Biceps to Triceps with no rest and move the weights up or down after each set. So…..

1 x 10 reps@ 60kg Tricep push down, followed by 1 x 12 reps@20kg bicep curls. Then 1 x 10 reps@50kg Tricep push down, followed by 1 x 12 reps@30kg bicep curls.  Then 1 x 10 reps@40kg Tricep push down, followed by 1 x 12 reps@40kg bicep curls.  Then 1 x 12 reps@30kg Tricep push down, followed by 1 x 10 reps@50kg bicep curls. Then finally 1 x 12 reps@20kg Tricep push down, followed by 1 x 8 reps@60kg (That’s all i could manage). I rested for a few minutes then squeezed out 2 sets of 15kg hammer curls and 2 sets of 50kg overhead tricep extensions. My arms were fried by the end of it.

I was running out if time so couldn’t do any cardio but quickly did a little ab superset of 8 hanging leg raises, followed by 10 v-sits, followed by 45 second plank. Did it three times and then headed for the door.

Tomorrow I have slightly more time so plan to do back and legs + some cardio stuff.

I hope you like this and enjoy it over the next few days. Please let me know your thoughts.

Take Care,

John