Ludlum3k’s BodyBlog

Missed last thursday’s shoulder workout. Did back on friday, Chest and abs today… Not really in the mood to elaborate the last two workouts, so I’ll just lay it out

FRIDAY MAY 25, 1007
Lat Pulldown
2×12x80
8×120
8×130
8×140
8×150
Reverse grip BB row
2×8x185
2×12x135
BB shrugs
2×6x365
20×225
16×225
Seated cable rows
12×100
10×100
10×85
8×85 -> 8×55
Straight arm pulldown
3×15x40

MONDAY May 28, 2007
Incline bench
10×135
8×155
4×185
4×225
4×205
6×185
Incline DB press
3×8x70s
10×50s
Incline DB flyes
2×12x25s
2×12x20s
Reverse grip dB press
12×40s
10×40s
2×8x40s
Low cable crossover
10×30s
12×25s
15×20s
Hanging knee raises
4×10
decline crunches
3×10

In the wise words of Big Ron from his Relentless DVD, "Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder… Don’t wanna do these lunges though…" I understand why. I did dumbell lunges today for the first time, and I know that I’m gonna be hurting like hell tomorrow. Also, I started with front squats today, forgot how painful they are on the shoulders lol. Everything else was pretty standard.

Front squats
8×135
6×155
3×4x185
8×135
Walking DB lunges
(One set consists of 10 steps, rest, then 10 steps back)
1 set x 50’s
1 set x 40’s
1 set x 30’s
Superset
   Standing calves
   2×10x300
   12×200
   12×160
   Seated calves
   15×90
   2×15x70
   12×70
Lying leg curls
3×12x100
Leg extension
15×100
12×100
12×85
12×70

Due to Victoria Day, the gym wasn’t open yesterday, so once again I have to deal with a 4 day week. Today, instead of arms, I did chest and triceps. Again focussing on upper chest, bodybuilder style. Tried reverse grip flat DB press, to hit the upper pecs and triceps, and it was amazing. Everything else for chest stayed the same, except the weight/rep combos, and at the end I did rope pressdowns, with drop sets. Back to White Blood this week.

Incline Bench
10×135
9×155
4×185
4×225
6×185
Incline DB press
3×8x70s
10×55s
Incline DB flyes
12×25s
10×25s
2×12x20s
Rev Grip DB Press
15×40s
12×40s
10×40s
8×40s
Low Cable Crossover
2×10x30s
12×25s
Rope Pressdown
12×100
8×100 -> 8×60
8×85 -> 8×60

Once again, I’ve been lazy about the BodyBlogs, so here’s the update for last wednesday through friday. Wednesday, I decided to do some powerlifting squats for fun, got up to 295 no problem, then decided to attempt 315 just for the hell of it, but failed, didn’t bother me. Proceeded to do the rest of the leg workout as normal. Thursday was a pretty standard shoulder workout, not much new there. Friday had a couple changes. I started doing pullups, but skipped one last set of those, because i was really in the mood of doing T-bar rows, so i did those. After the barbell shrugs, I gave incline DB rows a try, felt pretty damn good. Finished off with a superset of straight-arm pulldowns with lat pulldowns.

Wednesday May 16, 2007
Squats
10×135
5×185
3×225
1×245
1×275
1×295
failed x 315
Leg press
4×10x450
Superset
Standing Calves
2×10x300
12×200
12×160
Seated calves
15×90
15×70
12×70
15×50
Glute-Ham raises
12xBW
2×10xBW
8xBW
Leg Extension
2×15x100
12×85
12×70

Thursday, May 17, 2007
Behind-Neck Press
10×105
3×8x125
10×105
Overhead DB press
2×10x50s
10×45s
12×40s
DB upright row
2×15x25s
2×12x25s
Rear delt
10×20s -> 10×15s
12×15s -> 12×10s
15×10s
Seated DB laterals
2 x (10×20s -> 10×10s)
10×15s -> 10×10s
15×10s

Friday May 18, 2007
Lat pulldown
2×12x80
Pullups
2×5xBW
3xBW -> 3 x negatives
T-bar Rows
2×5x225
10×180
15×135
BB shrugs
2×6x365
20×225
15×225
Incline DB row
2×10x60s
10×50s
12×40s
Superset
Straight-arm Pulldown
3×12x40
Lat pulldown
3×12x70

Well I havn’t updated my BodyBlog in a bit, so here’s everything since last tuesday. Last Tuesday was arms as usual, not too much different, just that I wanted to do preacher curl 21’s, but there was a group of guys using our only preacher curl bench, so I decided to give the machine preacher a try, and it did the trick. The next different thing was that I supersetted rope hammer curls with rope pressdown. Then finished with a superset of reverse grip barbell curls with barbell wrist curls. Unfortunately, I missed the gym on wednesday thursday and friday due to getting hired at my new job. Yesterday, I had a GREAT chest and ab workout. I decided to go back to the true bodybuilder style of chest workout, to try and bring up my upper chest. I took some tips from the recent episode of Getting Cut With Glass, and he truely is the super-trainer of bodybuilding. I started with Incline bench press, and was able to do 2 plates finally (of course while still trying to focus on bodybuilding rather than powerlifting/weightlifting) and then moved on to do incline dumbell press, Glass style (with 60 degree incline, wrist turned in slightly, and not flaring out the elbows, to focus more on the chest) Next, I did incline DB flyes with the same incline, and a pronated grip, like Glass explained. Followed that by DB pullovers and low cable crossover. The end result was my upper chest being hit harder than any part of my chest ever has been. Once the chest was done, I moved on to abs, again with the hanging knee raises, decline crunches and normal crunches. Today, I wanted to hit my triceps hard. Today’s workout started with barbell curls, as usual, folowed by triceps dips, where I tried to really focus on hitting the triceps nicely. Moved on to machine preacher 21’s again, and then Close grip bench press, where the first two sets were done normally, but the second two sets, I decided to give a reverse grip a try. The reverse grip worked very well, but I think next week I’m going to try doing it with dumbells, so I can turn my grip in slightly, see how it works. Followed by a superset of high cable curls with rope pressdown and finished with reverse grip barbell curls and 20 minutes on the treadmill.

MAY 8, 2007
BB curls
15×50
2×8x80
8×70
10×60
Bench dips
15xBW
3×10x70
8×70 -> 8xBW
Machine preacher
4 x 21’s x 55
Lying tricep DB extension
15×25s
10×25s
10×20s -> 5×15s
12×15s
Superset
    Rope hammer curls 15×50
    2×15x60
    Rope pressdown
    15×85
    2×15x70
Superset
    Reverse BB curls
    10×50
    10×40
    15×30
    BB wrist curls
    2×20x50
    15×50

MAY 14, 2007
Incline bench
12×135
8×155
4×185
4×225
3×225
6×185
Incline DB press
12×65s
7×65s
8×55s
10×50s
Incline DB flyes
12×25s
10×25s
2×12x20s
DB pullover
4×12x45
Low cable crossover
10×30
12×25
15×20
Hanging knee raises
4×10
Decline crunches
3×10
Crunches
3×10

MAY 15,2007
BB curls
15×50
2×8x80
8×70
10×60
Triceps dips
2×12xBW
2 x (8xBW -> 8 x negatives)
Machine preacher
4 x 21’s x 55
Close grip bench
13×135
10×135
15×95 (reverse grip)
12×95 (reverse grip)
Superset
    High cable curls
    3×15x30s
    Rope pressdown
    3×15x70
Reverse BB curls
10×50
6×50
12×30
10×30
TREADMILL 20 minutes

Man, today’s Chest and ab workout was unbelievable! Considering last week where I had a terrible day when I did chest (and did no abs), today made up for that for sure. I felt stronger than usual, I was able to hit my chest with a couple more exercises than usual, and I was able to completely exhaust my abs. I started with bench press, where I changed my warmup sets a bit, and was able to do 2 sets of 4 clean reps with 245, then 4 clean reps with 225, and a nice last set where I did 8 reps with 185 and immediately dropped to 135 to finish with 8 more full reps (as opposed to 7 and 5 reps, with not the greatest form that I did the other week). I moved on to chest dips, where I did considerably more than the last time. Supersetted decline DB press with decline DB flyes (with better weight and more reps). Because I felt like superman, I then did DB pullovers, with lighter weight, but concentrating on focusing on the chest doing the work, instead of the lats. And finished with pec deck flye. Next, for some reason, I was in the mood to give hanging knee raises another shot (last time I tried them, I just ended up swinging and tiring my arms out, didn’t feel anything in the abs) but for some reason, this time I was able to get it right, and I loved it. Did 4 sets of 10 with that, then moved on to do 3 sets of 10 with decline crunches, and finished with 3 sets of 10 regular crunches

Bench press
12×135
6×185
2×4x245
4×225
8×185 -> 8×135
Chest dips
8xBW
7xBw
6xBW
5xBW -> 3xnegatives
Superset
    Decline DB press
    10×60s
    8×60s
    10×50s
    10×40s
    Decline DB flyes
    4×10x20s
DB pullover
10×50
12×45
15×40
Pec deck flye
2×15x55
12×55
Hanging knee raises
4×10
Decline crunches
3×10
crunches
3×10

Here’s my update on the past three days. Wednesday was legs, didn’t hit the gym for shoulders on thursday - but got in some cardio, and today as back. Wednesday, I continued with my different emphasis on legs; wider squats, wider leg press, superset standing calves with seated calves, swapped lying leg curls with glute-ham raises (worked very well), and finished with leg extensions. All the rep ranges and weights were tweaked a bit, liked how it worked. Missed the gym on thursday, because I had other stuff to do, but due to the physical labour aspect of that day, I guess I can consider it a cardio day. Finally, friday, today, I did my good ol’ back. Did pullups, bent barbell rows, barbells shrugs, 1-arm dumbell rows, straight-arm pulldown, and again finished with my "jump-n-holds." I tried taking 1.5 scoops of Shock Therapy today, to see if there would be a noticeable effect, it might have, as I felt I had a little more stamina, but not really enough to make it a cost-effective choice, so I’ll stick with 1 scoop.

WEDNESDAY
Squats
10×135
3×8x225
6×225
Leg Press
4×10x450
Superset
   Standing calves
   2×10x300
   12×200
   12×160
   Seated calves
   15×90
   15×70
   20×50
   15×50
Glute-Ham raises
12xBW
2×10xBW
8xBW
Leg extension
15×100
12×100
12×85
12×70

FRIDAY
Lat Pulldown (warm up)
2×12x80
Pullups
2×5xBW
2 x (3 x BW -> 3 x negatives)
BB row
2×6x185
2×10x135
BB shrugs
2×6x365
20×225
20×185
1-arm DB row
2×8x100
12×75
12×60
Straight-arm pulldown
4×12x40
JUMP-N-HOLD x 3

Monday was a VERY bad day, so it was also reflected in my workout. Furthermore, because I was short on time, I was only able to do a quick workout, but still got a good pump in my chest. Nothing really much to say about it, so on to today’s workout. Today, I finally got to do an arm day, which I was forced to skip the last two weeks. Anyways, a couple changes, as is normal for arm day. First, I went back to the straight bar for barbell curls, which meant a little extra weight. Second, I tried weighted bench dips for the first time, and found that they are GREAT. Did one warmup set with those with just bodyweight, then 3 sets of 12 with a 35 and a 25 plate on my lap. My 4th working set for those, I used the same weight, did 10 reps, dropped them off, and continued with 10 bodyweight reps. Next I went back to incline DB curls, not much happening there. After that, I decided to try lying DB triceps extensions (skull crushers with dumbells in a neutral grip). I proceeded to do DB hammer curls (simultaneusly) supersetted with triceps pushdowns. Finally, I supersetted reverse grip barbell curls with barbell wrist curls. Also, I’m back using Shock Therapy this week…

MONDAY
Bench press
12×135
4×245
6×225
6×205
6×185 -> 8×135
Superset
   Decline DB press
   12×60s
   8×60s
   10×50s
   12×40s
   Decline DB flyes
   10×25s
   3×10x20s

TUESDAY
BB curls
15×50
10×80
8×70
2×10x60
Bench dips
15xBW
3×12x60
10×60 -> 10xBW
Incline DB curls
12×30s
6×30s -> 6×20s
8×25s -> 6×15s
10×20s -> 10×10s
Lying triceps DB extension
13×25s
10×25s
10×20s -> 5×15s
12×15s
Superset
   DB hammer curls
   2×15s20s
   12×20s
   Tricep pushdown
   2×15x55
   15×45
Superset
   Revese grip BB curls
   10×50
   10×40
   10×30
   BB wrist curls
   25×50
   20×50
   15×50