Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Abdomen, Bodybuilding, Deltoids, Down and Up Mass, Jim Stoppani, Oblique, Shoulders, Trapezoids

Overview

Today was a killer shoulder, trapezoid, abdominal, and oblique workout! 28 sets of shoulder work, 12 sets for the trapezoid and the abdomen. Day 3 of the Down and Up Mass program completed. As mentioned in yesterday’s posting, I’ll be taking tomorrow off to celebrate my Dad’s 78^th Father’s Day. I hope all of you are having a terrific weekend! I’ll be posting my workout results for Day 4 on Monday. This will be the first leg day routine. As always, if you have any questions or would like more information about Jim Stoppani’s website or weight lifting programs, feel free to reach out. I can point you in the right direction.

Asking for help…

There are a lot of folks who go to the gym, each for their own reason. Watch the people in the gym as you go through your routine. You’ll see some folks who come once in a while, others that are a little more consistent, and others who are in the gym every day of the week. Look at the folks who appear to be in good shape. They are a wealth of information. Today I asked one of these guys the best exercises for bulking the upper chest. His response was awesome! He said, “if you want to bulk the upper and middle chest, Incline everything, and do lots of flys from the upper and lower cable and dumbbell positions.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to be open to other ideas. Watch others. Why are they doing that exercise? What are the set and rep counts? What are they expecting to achieve by doing this particular exercise? If you remain open-minded and humble, people are more than willing to let you in on their routines and why they are doing what they are doing.

Today’s Workout

Barbell Shoulder Press                                   2              9-11       Shoulders            11/70.0 11/70.0

Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press               2              9-11       Shoulders            11/30.0 11/30.0

Smith Machine Upright Row                        2              9-11       Shoulders            11/40.0 11/40.0

Dumbbell Lateral Raise                                  2              9-11       Shoulders            11/15.0 11/15.0

Face Pull                                                              2              9-11       Shoulders            11/35.0 11/35.0

Barbell Shrug                                                     2              9-11       Traps                     11/135.0 11/135.0

Behind the Back Barbell Shrug                    2              9-11       Traps                     11/135.0 11/135.0

Straight-Arm Pushdown                                2              9-11       Traps                     11/180.0 11/180.0

Cable External Rotation                                 2              9-11       Shoulders            11/15.0 11/15.0

Cable Internal Rotation                                  2              9-11       Shoulders            11/15.0 11/15.0

Hanging Leg Raise                                            2              9-11       Abs                        11/1.0 11/1.0

Standing Cable Crunch                                   2              9-11       Abs                        11/50.0 11/50.0

Cable Woodchopper                                      2              9-11       Abs                        11/35.0 11/35.0

Daily Ramblings – Workout Log

Tags

Abdomen, Bodybuilding, chest, Down and Up Mass, Jim Stoppani, Jym Army, triceps, Weightlifting

Down and Up Mass

Ok folks! Here’s the new program. I decided to continue to bulk up and chose another one of Jim Stoppani’s (www.jimstoppani.com) workouts. This one is called Down and Up Mass. This program is quite unique in that it utilizes two of Jim’s favorite torture techniques. The Rest/Pause and the Drop Set.

Rest Pause is used on the final of two sets. This means you rest for a few seconds and then bang out another set. Then, once you’ve hit failure, you drop some weight (10-20%) and do another set to failure. Sounds fun huh? It was, but it was brutal. That’s ok though. The muscles loved the pump.

More to follow folks!

Today’s workout!

Bench Press                                        2              9-11       Chest    11/110.0 11/110.0

Reverse-Grip Bench Press            2              9-11       Chest    11/80.0 11/80.0

Incline Dumbbell Press                  2              9-11       Chest    11/40.0 11/40.0

Dumbbell Fly                                      2              9-11       Chest    11/35.0 11/35.0

Cable Crossover (High Pulley)     2              9-11       Chest    11/22.5 11/22.5

Close-Grip Bench Press                  2              9-11       Triceps  11/45.0 11/45.0

Dumbbell Overhead Extension   2              9-11       Triceps  11/45.0 11/45.0

Lying Triceps Extension                 2              9-11       Triceps  11/50.0 11/50.0

Triceps Press down                         2              9-11       Triceps  11/57.5 11/57.5

Dumbbell Triceps Kickback           2              9-11       Triceps  11/12.5 11/12.5

Smith Machine Hip Thrust            2              9-11       Abs        11/90.0 11/90.0

Smith Machine Crunch                   2              9-11       Abs        11/20.0 11/20.0

Standing Cable Oblique

Press down                                         2              9-11       Abs        11/25.0 11/25.0

Documentation

In case your new to my blog, you read the above like this: Exercise name 2 Sets of 9-11 repetitions body part attacked and the number of reps and pounds.

The part I do not document on this workout is the rest/pause and drop set at the end of the 2^nd set, where I literally continue to push the weight until I can no longer hold good form. Failure is not necessarily an inability to move the weight, it is more about keeping good form. When I lose good form, I stop.

Another note

When starting a new workout routine, I always begin a little light, just to get used to the exercises and volume of sets. The Rest/Pause and Drop Set work in this week will occur again on Week 3 of the first phase of this workout routine composed of 4 weeks. We alternate the rest/pause drop set routine to avoid overtraining and allow the muscle a good 7 days to recover. On week 2 and 4 we utilize another technique. I’ll talk about this when we start moving through week 2.

See you tomorrow!!

Daily Ramblings – Workout Log

Tags

Abdomen, Back, Biceps, Bodybuilding, Oblique, workout

Today’s Exercises

Back

• One Arm Dumbbell Row 4 x 5 (50lbs)
• Behind the Neck Lat Pulldown 3 x 5 (120lbs)
• Seated Cable Row 3 x 5 (160lbs)
• Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown 3 x 5 (160lbs)

Biceps

• Standing Barbell Curl 4 x 5 (70lbs)
• Preacher Curl 3 x 5 (45lbs)
• Behind the Back Cable Curls 3 x 5 (25lbs)

Abdomen and Obliques

• Hip Thrust 3 x 9
• Machine Crunch 3 x 9 (150lbs)
• Abdominal Twist Machine 3 x 9 (75lbs)

Workout Overview

Today’s workout is Day 14 Week 4 Phase 2 of Jim Stoppani’s Shortcut to Size (www.jimstoppani.com). This workout works in three 4-week cycles starting on week 1 with rep ranges of 12-15. All exercises this week will be in the 3-5 rep range.

Today’s workout hits the Back, Biceps, Abdomen and Oblique muscles.

Current Bodyweight

My current weight is 240lbs and I am 6’ tall. The goal is to be around 245-250 by the end of this 12-week workout and maintaining my body fat percentage, which is around 20%. This is higher than I’d like, but during any bulking phase, it is quite common to gain some body fat or stay where you started because of a large amount of food a mass building program requires.

My Macros

My current macros were calculated using Jim Stoppani’s recommendations. He recommends 1.5 to 2.0 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight, .5 grams of fat per pound of bodyweight, and 2.0 grams of carbohydrates per pound of bodyweight. Since I am trying to maintain my body fat percentage, I’ve reduced the carbohydrate intake to 1.0 gram of carbs per pound of bodyweight.

235lbs (current weight)

235 x 1.5 = 352.5 grams of protein per day

235 x 1 = 235 grams of carbohydrates per day

235 x .5 = 117.5 grams of fat per day (rounded to 117 for ease of tracking)

Yesterday’s macros

Carbohydrates 234g; Fat 74g; Protein 211g;

I use my MyFitnessPal (I the iTunes App Store) to track my macros each day.

Supplements and Water intake

Water

Water intake is more than a gallon a day. I drink a 1/2 gallon of water just with my pre-workout, during, and post-workout drinks. The rest of my water intake is around my meals (six in total each day). I currently feed every two hours.

Morning

• AlphaJym
• ShredJym
• PreJym combined with flavorless Whey Protein (25g)

During Workout

• BCAA drink during workouts with flavorless Whey Protein (24g)

Post Workout

• PostJym Dextrose and BCAA Matrix combined with flavorless Whey Protein (24g)
• OmegaJym
• VitaJym

Evening

• ZMAJym

See you tomorrow!!