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I'll post my numbers; McCauley wasn't too far behind in weight - not bad for a rookie  .... INCLINE BARBELL PRESS
I do these with ulta-slow eccentrics straight down to my chin. I use that plane of motion with the elbows dropping straight to the floor to get all I can from the clavicular portion of the pec. One third of the origin of the pec major is there, the other two thirds is sternal. I only come to chin level, not lower, because after that it's more strain on the rotator cuff than good stress to the chest. Bar x 25 65 x 25 (I know, I'm a warm-upaholic) 95 x 20 135 x 15 155 x 12 185 x 8 (failure) 205 x 5 (failure) At this point we started supersetting flat bench flys into the same incline bbell press: Flys 35 x 15, incline bbell press 205 x 5 50s x 15, 185 x 5 (failure) 60s x 12, 135 x 7 or 8 (failure) 75s x 8, 135 x 6, straight to pushups to failure to pushups on knees to failure (Sean almost got one push up - almost - he tried his hardest....then he dropped to his knees and almost got one pushup on his knees....a valiant effort, but still no dice even on the "girls" pushup  ....heehee....just kidding, Sean, that's what high-intensity training to failure is all about.) On to delts... SMITH MACHINE UPRIGHT ROWS
I do these with a slightly wide grip, lean over the bar slightly, and row straight up to the lower chest only - not the neck. Going higher is just grinding the suprapinatus tendon to dust and trauma on the wrists and does nothing more for your delts or traps - they are maximally contracted when the elbows are above the shoulder. 95 x 15 115 x 10 135 x 8 (failure) 155 x 5 or 6 (failure) (Sean did whup on me on these - he got more weight and more reps) Then we went to: SEATED DBELL PRESS 35s x 15 50 x 12 60 x 7 or 8 (failure) then we did a superset from upright rows again, back to seated press: 135 x 10, 50s x I think around 8-10, Sean killed me as a spotter here. Not a ton of weight on any exercise today as this was a higher-intensity day, done in less than an hour, but a lot of sets to failure in hypertrophy rep ranges, a lot of super sets and drop sets. In less than 10 hours I get Sean on legs. Why did I just giggle when I typed that? It's gonna be a tough plane ride back to Iowa. |
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1,284 post(s)
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Joe, For the Incline BB press, does the Bar get targetted to upper chest level while lowering it to only your chin level? J |
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1,284 post(s)
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Also, i m going to try upright row to my lower chest level only, cause doing that exercise use to give me so much problems in my shoulder, and that is probably due to the fact that supraspinatus tendon is being grinded to dust. :)
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2,961 post(s)
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J, Yes, as you drop the bar straight toward your chin - actually just in front of it - and your elbows go straight toward the floor (assuming your low back is arched/shoulders plasterd back against the bench), you'll feel all upper chest. On the upright rows, that's the key: just focus on leading with the elbows, pulling straight up, when they go past the shoulders and the bar is hitting your lower chest, you're done. Lean slightly over the bar so the contraction is straight up over the bar.
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1,284 post(s)
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Dr J,
Do you just keep upper arm parallel to the floor at its lowest point?
Also do you keep elbows closer to the body or further out?
I m going to try this on the Smith Machine as doing Inc BB bench usually creates havoc on my rotators. This might actually make my upper chest grow. By the way your avatar is CRAZY!!!!! Who says your back is your weak point? When was this pic taken? J |
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I'm a much better bodybuilder at 6% or above. Note the fat oozing out above the waistband and a handful being constrained in my trunks on each glute. This was about 6-8 lbs above contest weight - then as I dip down to lose the fat necessary to even look respectable - and my glutes/hams are still very soft on stage - I lose a lot more upper body. I'm tell'n ya, we need a jogging short division - I could be a contenda!
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Joe, I am about 6-8 lbs above my contest weight the last 3 times i competed, that just goes to show how UNLEAN i was the last two times. So when i start looking like that this year, that means i still have another 6-8 lbs of fat left. Crap, i am FAT!!! |
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Joe, I tried Inc BB press just for kicks today with 95 lbs using your instruction, and i got to say i dont feel it at all in my rotator cuffs, and really feel it on my upper pecs. Not sure if i would feel the strain once i go heavier, but i could already feel it just with 95 lbs. I m going to give it a go on monday when i do chest! J |
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Cool, Jerry. It's all physics. Ask Sean how his chest feels today . Actually, he's all worn out and sleeping in his hotel room right now. And speaking of sleeping, being with that guy is like one big insulin roller coaster. Man! Eating is a full-time job; I think I gained 5 lbs with him here. |
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Hahahahahaha!!! I got to say though, that 95 pounds Inc BB press that i tried today was a pretty good weight already considering that i have just fried my delts before that. Joe, do you train with your NON LINEARISED program all year round, or do you throw in some other kind of programs like Max OT here and there? I WANT TO EAT!!!!
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I use my program at least once a year, but the key times are when you want your max strength progress. So, my first priority is when I'm eating to grow - a calorie increase in the offseason. The second is the fist 3/4 or so of my precontest diet when I want to maintain as much muscle as possible. The rest of the time I'm more instinctive/ecclectic, but sometimes that still includes some very heavy work when I'm up for it and always includes pretty high intensity as long as I'm not working around an injury.
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So Joe, whats your training goal when you are trying in your INSTINCTIVE stage? Any rep ranges, exercise priorities? |
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Thought ths post should probably be here too. I just put it in the leg thread before I thought to put it here. OK, so I just got back from Evansville. A few thoughts: 1) Joe's legs are mutated and are clearly not human. 2) I tried some Gaspari SuperPump before the leg workout and it made me nearly puke. Thats my story and I am sticking to it...the solid leg workout had nothign to do with this feeling like I was going to spew. LOL. Joe was kind enough to point out that I was "more pale than normal". Thanks brother. I have to admit though...I was going into that workout expecting to puke, so holding it down was a win for me. The workout was great and was the most intense one I have had in the last 12 weeks or more. Coming down the stretch with those shows was tough in the intensity. With the reintroduction of food, I am looking more to many workouts like that one. 3) Being a big fan of leg extensions, I was wondering if yesterday was going to be enough for my quads, but I gotta say, they are pretty tender today...so mission accomplished Joe. Those hack squats are what did it. between the weight we moved, the supersetting we did and the fat that my gym has no hack squat(therefor its been literally a year since I have done them!)....my lateral and medial quads are smoked today. My hams and glutes were cooking yesterday, but today do not feel bad at all. 4) Getting crammed into an airline seat after a leg day with Joe is bad. Getting crammed into an airline window seat next to a dude who is 5'6" and 320 pounds after a leg day with Joe is the equivalent to water boarding. The big man was nice and all...but I was in a world of hurt for an hour and 23 minutes. LOL. To further complicate matters, the overhead compartment was full. This guy apparently opted to check exactly none of his luggage. So I had to sit with my carry on under the seat in front of me, thus relegating my legs to the fetal position. Getting out of the plane was ummm, painful. 5) Joe can eat pretty well. I saw where he called hanging out with me "an insulin roller coster". LOL. The guy kept up great with me on the food. 2 highlights for the board here: First, the meal after a our chest workout. Cordova, Heath (the gym owner and an AWESOME guy by the way), Joe and myself went to Golden Corral for the buffet. We struck fear into the hearts of the people there I think. Without exagerrating, I think we each had 4 plates of food. It got ugly. I recall having 2 huge servings of speghetti, a piece of pizza, about 1/2 a steak, some beef stir fry, some cornbread, 4 dinner rolls with honey butter, some cornbread stuffing, half a potato, some roast beef, a piece of vanilla cake, a piece of peanut butter pie(awesome, but the single most unhealthy thing ever), and some sort of apple crisp. I KNOW I left some stuff out. Like I said, it got ugly. We all felt like we had ingested a basketball after we were done. Next highlight: The meal after the leg workout. It was less impressive in its volume, but it ruled. After that leg workout, we were a couple of ravenous dudes. Cue up the stop at Denny's. It was a breakfast of champions. We each killed a stack of pancakes and a steak omlette. That was the first of 4 meals that we ate out yesterday. We hit up Arbys, Subway and for the grand finale, Logans Roadhouse last night. A big steak and a loaded sweet potato rounded out the trip nicely. Anabolism was the word for the day. 5) Evansville is a great town. Everyone there was really nice. I got to meet Jim and Tony briefly and those are two of the nicest guys you will ever meet. They just opened up a small gym/training studio and its a sweet place that is sure to do very well for itself. Feel free to call of email guys. 6) If my legs are toast, my chest is pulvarized. Being my weakest area, I knew it was going to be a good lift and it was. Joe had me doing a different range of motion that I was used to. Specifically, dropping that bar down to my on the Incline bench. Like every other gym rat, I used pretty standard form before that. Doing the press Joes way was clearly more efective and hit a waek spot for sure. DOMS earned its name in this case, as the pain was definitely delayed by about 24 hours. Within house of completing our leg workout my chest started to throb. LOL. Sweet. Shoulders are not as bad as I had hoped. I could have handled a little more colume there I think. next time I try that workout I think I will run the rack with DB laterals or something like to end it. Intensity was high and Joe killed me with spotting. I was giving it 110%, as evident by my inability to do a single pushup afterwards. As soon as I got about 2/3 of the way up and stalled, my FIRST thought was "ahhhh crap, now everyone on the board is going to hear about this". Surely enough....you did. LMAO! I had an absolute blast out there. To everyone who has not made the trip....do it it. Its worth it. Trust me. :) Sean |
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1) Incline BB Press: Â BarX20, 65X20, 95X20, 115X15, 135X12, 155X10, 175X6 (failure) Than superset with Flat DB flies: 40X12 (175X4), 45X12 (155X4), 45X12 (135X4), 45X12 (115X 4 or 5)Â ( ALL THESE WERE DONE TO FAILURE) THan just finish off with Incline BB press: 95X 8 or 10. 2) Flex Leverage Bench press superset with Icarian Pec Deck: 185X12 (120X12) 4sets. After the last set of the superset, i did a drop with push upsX4, Knee Push ups X4 (those push ups must have looked so grueling that people must be wondering why the heck this kid is struggling with just 4 knee push ups) On to Bis: 1) Inc Db Curl (both arms at the same time): 15X20, 20X20, 25X15, 25X 12 Than Superset this exercise with Close Gril EZ-Curl Bar 25X10 (50X8), 25 X9 (50X6), 25X7 (50X5) 2) 1 set drop of Hammer DB curls: 40X5, 25X6, 15X30. That's all i did today. TOTAL WORKOUT TIME: 55 min. |
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My chest is just now returning to a state where I feel like I could work it again. Its now Monday and we did that on Thursday...just for the record. My next scheduled chest workout is Wednesday, so I think it was perfect in terms of how much pain I was in. I'm not gonna lie here guys...it was a little crazy. Like I said before, I got all of 1 pushup whereas you got 4 Jerry...consider yourself lucky. LOL. Of course, you didnt have the luxury of Joe standing right there to mock you. I think the exact line was "Oh look, you almost got one". LMAO.  Joe...my hams and glutes were fine even the next day. We need to up the ante there next time. I am thinking some SLDL superset with a standing leg curl would do the trick. You in? The quads felt like somebody had surgically implanted razor blades in them though. LOL Sean |
