Tag Archives: lats

Todays Training- Sunday & Monday

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Sunday Training

Hello All,

I’ve decided that for now at least this will be the last update of my daily training diary. It’s been going for around 2 weeks and hopefully given you an idea of what i do and how i train. It was never intended to go on forever and I’d hate to get to the stage where I am boring you. I’ll do it again as and when i change my training drastically. As always if you have any questions please feel free to ask or drop in some comments.

Sunday: Yes Sunday….I don’t normally train on Sundays but the kids were out, I had 50 minutes to kill so i thought why not. I feel that my Chest is lagging behind a bit compared to some other parts so this was a good chance to give it an extra session. So here we go.

Incline Barbell bench press. This is not an exercise i do too often but thought I’d give it a go and hit it hard. I tried to hit 10 sets although struggled a bit on the last 2. I did 2 warm up sets of 12 reps@40kg, 2 sets of 10 reps@50kg, 2 sets of 6 reps at 60kg, 2 sets of 6@50kg and then 2 sets to failure @40kg which only got to 10 and then 7 reps.

Then onto a flat bench and some dumbbells. I picked up 2 sets, a 22kg set and a 14kg set. I then supersetted dumbbell press (alternate 1 arm then the other) with the 22kg’s which also strengthens the core, with dumbbell fly’s with the 14kg’s, 4 sets in total.

Finally over to the cable machine and 4 sets of standing cable crossover. This was not too heavy (25kg on each side) but with real concentration on squeezing the Pec’s as much as possible.

That was me pretty much done but i just wanted to finish with some cardio/HiiT. Out into the Gym car park which was pretty empty and did some sprints. The distance was about 50m. Sprinted the distance at about 90% capacity and to a slow walk back to the start. Repeated 8 times, then got in the car and went home, Sunday training finished.

Monday: Today i wanted to hit back, abs and possibly some biceps if i had time. Last week i did heavy deadlifts and have come to the conclusion that i need to be more careful with them as my lower back and left hip hurts and i still have some sciatica down my left leg and into my calf…..so no Deadlifts for me today.

I started wide grip pull ups. I’m not good at these but they are gradually improving. I cranked out 5 sets of 7 reps, although the last 2 sets were more like 6 and a bit.

Then over to a bench and some heavy bent over single arm rows with 35kg. I concentrated on really pulling with my back and rowing the weight up and back to my hip rather than pulling with bicep. 4 sets of 8 reps on each side.

Then over to the Lat pulldown machine. 3 sets of wide grip pulldowns with palms forward super setted with close grip pulldowns with palms facing backwards towards my face. Again the concentration was on pulling down with the Lats and squeezing the scapular together.

Finally to the cable machine for some high level face pulls with a rope, again concentrating on squeezing the rear Delts and Traps. That was back done.

Next on to Abs. I like to work Abs in a circuit to really fry them and also because it saves time.

Hanging leg raises 8 reps, straight into V sit type sit ups where you touch hands to toes, but using a 6kg medicine ball for 12 reps, and then finally a 45 second plank. No rest between exercises and 4 sets.

I had 10 minutes left so just grabbed an EZ curl bar and banged out 6 sets of 10 reps with 30kg.

Job done, time to head home. My back is killing me today so may have a day off from training tomorrow.

Take Care,

John

Todays Training – Back & Legs….Sort of!

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Back TrainingSo here’s today’s training diary or log. I’ve spoken a few times about being flexible and able to change your plans at short notice. Today was a prime example. I had about 70 minutes and thought i could fit in a really good back and leg session + some cardio. As i got to the Gym i bumped into someone i used to work with and hadn’t seen for about 4 years. He kept me chatting for about 20 minutes. It was good to see him but my workout plans were blown. However it turned into a positive as i decided to really blast my back and finish with an intense HiiT style weighted circuit focusing on legs at the end. Here is the workout.

Deadlift: 1 x 8 warmup set @70kg, 2 x 5 @100kg, 2 x 3 at 110kg, 2 x 8 at 70kg. For me doing reps at 110kg is a big step up (i know it won’t be for some of you who smash that sort of weight) so i was delighted with that, although I’m a bit concerned as my lower/middle back is still shaking.

Then the Lat pulldown machine. 3 sets of 8 @ 50kg, 55kg and 60kg. Then across to a cable machine, fitted a straight handle and did 3 sets of straight arm lat pulldowns in front of the body. This is similar to a tricep pushdown but keep your arms straight oin front and squeeze down with your lats 3 x 8 at 40kg, 50kg and 55kg.

Then the cable seated row. 1 x 10 @50kg 2 x 10@60kg and 1 x 10 at 65kg.

I tried to finish by doing some wide grip pull ups but to be honest both my grip and my back had gone so managed a measly 4 sets of 3 and even then it was more like 2 and a bit on the last set.

Then onto the circuit. I wanted to focus on legs as i hadn’t done the session i wanted, but also wanted to incorporate some metabolic/cardio training and some abs. This was the circuit.

I grabbed 2 12kg kettle bells as extra’s and did the following, no rest between exercises.

12 squats (weight in each hand by my side), 12 Press ups, 12 reverse lunges (6 each side), 25 jumping jacks, 45 second plank, 12 alternate touch your ankle straight leg v sits, 12 goblet squats (with just one of the 12kg weights). Then rested for approx. 1 minute and repeated twice more for a total of 3 sets. By the end i was blowing smoke out of my backside and my legs were throbbing. Given the limited time i was really pleased.

That’s it. Not sure when the next workout will be but I’ll keep you posted. By the way my back feels 2 hours after finishing training it might be a few days.

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