It always happens this way…….
Since March I’ve dedicated myself DC training. It’s not for everyone. You have to have a take no prisoners mentality when you’re in the gym and beat the log book at all costs. And if you take a look at my progress pics, it freakin’ works! If I was more diligent about nutrition (I’m learning, I just like beer) I would probably be even further along. But I like it. Hammer it as hard as you can 3 nights a week and lift heavy. So things a going great. I get through my first blast and have sick strength gains and can see noticable gains almost every time I peel my shirt off.
My second blast started in mid-May. For those of you unfamiliar with DC training, it is a rest-pause training method where each set is taken to failure. It you’re training alone and in your basement like me, it means you can’t avoid the Smith machine. At least not when your waiting for your 120lb add-on kit for your Ironmaster dumbbells to arrive. Can you see where this is going…..the evils of the Smith machine……or more specifcally, an ill-concieved blast that required too many Smith machine exercises?
After 8 weeks of a blast that included Smith Bench Press, Smith Incline Press, Smith Decline Press, and Smith Military Presses, my shoulders had tendinitis so bad I couldn’t sleep at night. No, they were not all done during the same workouts, for those of you scoring at home. So now I’m paying for my stupidity.
I know a few of you I have talked to through my Bodyspace have inquired about DC training so heed my advise. Go easy on the Smith exercises and heavy with dumbbells. Dumbbells are going to recruit a lot more of he stabilizer mucles and insure a nautal bio-mechanical arc in your exercise. In my future blasts I am limiting myself to a maximum of 1 Smith machine exercise for upper body.
Big props to quite a few of you on the Injury and Recovery board in the Forums section. The Broomstick straight arm hyperextension strecth for the shoulder has me feeling pretty good again and I am going to start back light and work quite a few AC joint and rotator cuff exercises into the rotation and warm-up routine.
It’s just always frustrating that these things happen when you reall feel like you have mometum going. Since March I’m up 10 pounds, down 3% bodyfat, and have gotten to where I’m deadlifting almost 400 pounds. Obstacles like this take a little bit of time to overcome but exist to teach you a lesson I guess. So consider this my gift to you, new DC trainees. Structuring your workouts correctly will help you avois these speedbumps in your road to the body you want.
This is my first go at this so please, hit me up with any questions, comments, or random musings you may have.
July 30, 2008 at 6:25 pm
What is DC Training?
July 30, 2008 at 6:32 pm
It’s full name is Doggcrapp. It is a low volume rest-pause training regimen where you essentially have one full-out set. You aim for 12-15 total resp in the set but have 2 rest-pauses of roughly 20-25 seconds. So for incline press, for instance, you would do warm-up sets to get the blood flowing, then start you set to failure using a weight you get 7-9 reps out of before failure. Then you do a rest pauses of about 12 deep breaths, and go to failure again. Another rest pause and then to failure again. Then to cap it off you do a minute long stretch of that bodypart which hurts like hell. There is a website called intensemuscle.com that is dedicated to training this way. Check it out.