Mr. Farang’s mumbo jumbo corner

I tried the wide grip deadlift yesterday. It was an awesome feeling. It hits the deltoids & lats very intensely indeed. Also I tried to strengthen my dimishing pull up power again. Using an old Arnold recommendation in his bodybuilding encyclopedia, one can set a 50rep target and try to complete it.  You can do 6 sets, 8 sets whatever no., ultimately you gotta complete that 50reps. It was my back and bicep day.

Pull up (50reps goal) 15, 10, 10, 7, 8

WG Deadlifts 225lbs x 12, 225lbs x 13, 225lbs x 10, 225lbs x 10

T-bar Rows +135lbs x 15, +180lbs x 15, +225lbs x 10, +225lbs x 10

WG pulldown (10o degree body angle) 77 x 12, 87 x 10, 87 x 10

Shoulder Width Straight Arm Pulldown 28 x 15, 28 x 15, 31.5 x 12, 31.5 x 10

Incline 45o Bicep Curl DB dual arm 35lbers x 12, 35lbers x 12, 35lbers x 10

Cable Concentration Curl 24 x 12, 24 x 12, 24 x 12

Precor Machine Preacher Curl 80 x 10, 80 x 10, 80 x 10

Seated Calf Press +50lbs x 40, +50lbs x 40, +50lbs x 40 …. Boom!

This is a workout done two days ago. Again, I am switching my workout sequences.  It is important to switch things a little bit. And most importantly, I always give it all for my workouts. Be it rest time limitation, more volumes, less volumes, heavier load, etc.  I want to give it all.

I did chest and triceps 2 days ago. It went like this:

Warm up with Incline Bench Press 135lbs x 20, 135lbs x 20 (1 min rest)

Incline Bench Press 225lbs x 8, 225lbs x 7, 225lbs x 7 …  BOOM!!!

DB Bench Press 90lbers x 8, 90lbers x 10, 90lbers x 12, 90lbers x 8 (Boom!!! LOL)

Hoist Vertical Chest Press 9 x 15, 10 x 5 … +1 Boom!!! (DAMN IT!!!), 10 x 9 … Boom!!!

I limited my rest time to 1min approximately and boi! it hurt the chest real bad. My chest were pumped for good.  Needlessly to say, my triceps are worked on pretty intense.  So I hit triceps right after chest. 

Skullcrusher 85lb barbell x 12, 85lbs x 13, 85lbs x 14, 85lbs x 10 …  Boom!!!

DB Tricep Extension (Dual Arm) 90 x 8, 90 x 8, 90 x 8

Tricep presses using Cable pulldown machine 33 x 10NG 10WG, 33 x 8NG 8WG, 33 x 10NG 10WG.

For the last tricep exercise, I use 2 grips. Narrow and wide.  I’ll dig up some reference on the use of narrow and wide grip for tricep presses. 

Seated Calf Press +45lbs x 40, +45lbs x 40, +45lbs x 40, +45lbs x 40

Yet again post my meals. I have not done so for a while.  I am a little bit lazy to post my diet plan. Thank goodness, I have the hots for training as always. 

My meals for the last 1 week is slowly taper down the carb intake. So my meals yesterday are such

Meal 1

• 10 eggwhites
• 1/2 cup of low fat milk
• water
• multi vit

Meal 2

• 2 sets of chicken sandwich
• 2 cups of coffee
• water

Meal 3

• Beef slices
• 1/2 bowl of noodle
• 2 cups of ginger water
• water

Meal 4

• water
• 1 handful servings of roasted almonds

Meal 5

• 2 sets of wholemeal chicken sandwich
• 1 cup of coffee
• water
• anti-oxidants

Meal 6

• 4 roasted pork rolls
• 1/2 plate servings of grilled salmon (w/ olive oil)
• cucumbers
• water

Lower carb diet takes a little effect for now. I felt my pants slightly looser on the glutes and quads department. It has grown onto a panic for me. I couldn’t locate the pants my size in Asia. And last week, I have to order from bodybuilding.com for tshirts.  There aren’t many from me to choose from.  This is still a panic for me. ;(

Just some notes to upate my training programs.

This time what I did for quads is focusing on great rep range. I felt my quads training evolve somewhat in the sense that my quads actually respond better with exercises other than ATG squats.  With less than 1 minute, it was brutal for the quads and it hit the upper thighs too. And DOMS are somewhat more painful. I’m thrilled by the slight change in my routine (cutting rest time).

Here how it went.

ATG Hack Squats +180lbs x 15, +180lbs x 15 for warm ups.

ATG Hack Squats +270lbs x 13, 360lbs x 9, +450lbs x 6… (rest pause) +6 (BOOM!!!)

Leg Press Wide foot stance +540lbs x 12, +630lbs x 10, +720lbs x 10, +810lbs x 10

Leg Ext. 190 x 10, 190 x 12, 190 x 15

Honestly, I feel better and better with machine on my quads. My quads felt stronger and stronger.  Most of all, I hit the upper thighs with hack squats. Absolutely great feeling. Give Hack squat a try. Focus on ATG.

My crazy calves routine is back!!!! Basically, I took the principle off Arnold’s "running down the rack" bicep curl routine.  He did it for bicep with 45,40,35lbers as giant routine. Rest 1 minute and back up 35,40,45lbers.  I use it as a twist drop set down-and-back-up immediately.

Seated Rotary Calf press Giant Set #1

170lbs x 28 + 150lbs x 28  + 130lbs x 20…Failure + 110lbs x 26 +130lbs x 27 +150lbs x 20…Failure + 170lbs x 20…BOOM!!!!!!

Seated Rotary Calf press Giant Set #2

170lbs x 20…failure + 150lbs x 20…Failure  + 130lbs x 20…Failure + 110lbs x 20….failure +130lbs x 20…Failure +150lbs x 20…Failure + 170lbs x 20… Failure (BOOM!!!!!!)

Here’s what I did for shoulders. 

Warm up with 45o Bent standing side laterals 15lbers x 25 supersets w/ standing front laterals 15lbers x 20

Precor Shoulder press +90lbs x 20, +90lbs x 11, +110lbs x 10, +110lbs x 6, +110lbs x 5

Alternate DB Front Laterals 35lbers x 15L 15R, 35lbers x 15L 15R, 35lbers x 15L 15R

45o Bent standing DB Side laterals 25lbers x 20L 20R, 25lbers x 20L 20R, 25lbers x 20L 20R

Cable Front Laterals 17.5 x 14, 17.5 x 14, 17.5 x 14

Single Arm high Pulley laterals 10 x 20L 20R, 12.5 x 20L 20R, 12.5 x 20L 20R, 12.5 x 20L 20R

After 2 weeks of heavier weights training, I add on a twist to my workout but using the rep range routine at 80 ~ 85% one rep max. Rep range targetted is 12 ~ 15rep, some at 20s.  With a rest time of 1 ~ 1.5mins, it almost choked the muscles. LOL :p I wanted to grow strong and build a little bit of endurance capacity.  Going heavier and heavier weights defnitely brings out the size of a bodybuilder. I didn’t want to go another week of heavy weights without knowing how my endurance is.  I almost injuired my shoulder last week even though I had fun with heavy weights. Injury is not a fun thing I wish to go through.

Warm ups with Olympian Deadlifts 135lbs x 10, 225lbs x 12

Olympian Deadlifts 315lbs x 12, 315lbs x 12, 315lbs x 12

DB Rows 100lbers x 20L 20R, 100lbers x 20L 20R, 100lbers x 20L 20R

WG Pulldown 77 x 14 Boom!!!, 77 x 10…+4 Boom!!!, 77 x 11…+3 Boom!!!

Barbell Rows 135lbs x 15, 135lbs x 17, 135lbs x 18

My back was brutalized going to barbell rows. I could even feel my arms working a little bit. As the reps drawn closer to failure reps, my biceps feel the burnt. It was a good feeling. I definitely feel stronger this time and didn’t expect myself to perform a 12reps for 315lbs on deadlift.  Next aim, bump it up to 15 ~ 20. My arms are worked up by the end of my back workout.

DB Incline Bicep Curl 30lbers x 12L 12R, 35lbers x 12L 12R, 35lbers x 12L 12R

45o Angle Cable Bicep curls 21 x 16, 21 x 14, 21 x 14

Now, you might ask why 45o angle cable bicep curl is. It simply standing cable bicep curl with your body forward bended at 45o angle.  This makes the range of motion shorter and it essentially targets your lower portion of the bicep. It was great thing to do this. Right now, my lower biceps actually feel a little soreness, a tingling bit.

Give the 45o angle standing cable bicep curl a try.  

For some reasons my workout plan ends up with Sunday (legs day) & Monday beings the chest day. Doing chest on Mondays seems to clash with many gym members especially metrosexuals. Nevertheless, here goes my training. I trained my chest and triceps.

Warm ups with Barbell Bench Press 135lbs x 20, 135lbs x 20 (1min rest)

Barbell Bench Press 225lbs x 12, 225lbs x 10, 225lbs x 10

DB Incline Bench Press 75lbers x 12, 75lbers x 12, 80lbers x 10, 80lbers x 10

Pec Dec Flyes 11 x 12, 12 x8 Boom!!!, 11 x 8 Boom!!!, 11 x 8 Boom!!!

DB Pullovers 85lbers x 10, 10, 10

With the chest exercises all worked out alright, my triceps are pretty much whacked. heh heh… :D

Barbell Skullcrusher 75 x 14, 75 x 14, 75 x 14

Cable Wide Grip Pressdown 24.5 x 20, 24.5 x 16, 24.5 x 14

Life Fitness Tricep Press 75 x 10, 75 x 10, 75 x 10

This session of workout has a slight twist to it. I tried to limit my rest time to 1min ~ 90secs.  I left the gym with chest sored.  Thank god I had some purple drank (Purple Wraath) in a 1lit bottle. It helps recovery and remove DOMS.

I have not mentioned my meal plans for sometime now. Well, it almost the same as before.  Not much change. While lowering my carb intake, I am also spreading our the timing & portion of carb intake.  Most notably, I had some carbs in the morning snack, lunch and preworkout.  I workout at 630pm and after workout, I am skipping my carbs intake on certain days i.e. shoulder days or chest days or non cardio days. 

Meal 1

• 10 eggwhites steamed
• water
• multi vit

Meal 2

• 2 cups of coffee
• water
• 2 sets of chicken sandwiches

Meal 3

• Beef slices
• Rice Noodle 
• water
• 3 servings of ginger tea

Meal 4

• 2 sets of chicken sandwiches
• water

Meal 5

• Torrent 2 servings (PreWO)
• 1 liter of water

I have had problems with torrent postWO. It left me with quivers and cold sweats. Sometimes, I get slight faints? :confused:

Meal 6

• 1/2 bowl serving of low fat cottage cheese
• 2 servings of yogurt
• water

This week, I will have a shorter workout week much due to scheduled meetings. Working in my industry, it is always the case of unscheduled action plans.  As much I love to have a proper workout plan mapped out, work comes a priority to earn myself a living.  Enough said though, here is what I did for yesterday’s quads routine.

Warm ups with Nautilus Leg Ext supersets w/ Nautilus single leg ext supersets w/ nautilus leg ext.

90 x 12 superset w/ 90 x 6L 6R supersets w/ 90 x 8

Warm ups further with LifeFitness Leg ext. 75 x 20, 89 x 20, 96 x 18

LifeFitness Leg Ext 110 x 16, 110 x 15 (Boom!!!) 110 x 15 (Boom!!!)

Hack Squats (toes pointed outwards, quads wide opened) +180lbs x 15, +270lbs x 12, +270lbs x 12, +360lbs x 12, +360lbs x 10….Boom!!!

Leg Press Wide foot placement +720lbs x 10, +720lbs x 10, +720lbs x 10

I did 2 sets of seated calf press but I wasn’t feeling it that evening. So I skipped the rest of it.  It’s always great to make a slight change be it the tempo of your exercises, the reps, the time of entire workout, the rest time, the angles of your exercises, etc.  Change is good. I felt great after make a little change on my exercises.  Those are my usual exercises but I normally do it using my narrow toes point to front foot placement. The wider stance brought some DOMS into my quads coupled with reduced rest time to 1min.  It made me walked like a old man after the workout. 

:)

This is my workout I did 2 days ago, it’s my last workout of the week.  Shoulders. The barbell rack is occupied and I always never want to wait too long upon arrival in the gym. So I change the exercise to start off. Typically, I started off with barbell military seated press but I had to change it to Precor Shoulder press (that moves slightly in circular motion). Here’s picture of it.

Precor Shoulder Press Warm ups +90lbs x 20, +90lbs x 15

Precor Shoulder Press +140lbs x 6, +140lbs x 5, +140lbs x 3

DB Alt Front Laterals 30lbers x 10, 40lbers x 10, 40lbers x 10, 40lbers x 10

Cable Front Laterals 17.5 x 10, 21 x 8, 21 x 7 (Boom!!! ), 21 x 8 (Boom!!!)

One Arm cable side laterals 7.5 x 15L 15R, 10 x 10L 10R, 10 x 8L 8R, 10 x 6L 6R

Hoist Reverse Pec Dec 8 x 15, 10 x 9, 11 x 8, 13 x 4 … +1 (Boom!!!)

My shoulders were brutalized and I have to say the Precor Shoulder press is one hell of machine to use.  Try it if your gym has one.