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 – Daily Workout

Tags

Back, Bicep, Bodybuilding, Calves, Down and Up Mass, Forearm, Jim Stoppani, Jym Army

Happy Friday!

Today the workout concentrated on Back, Bicep, Forearm, and Calves. As a reminder, the Down and up Mass program is a 4-day workout per week. On the first and third days are Abdomen exercises. On the second and fourth days are calve workouts.

Also, you’ll notice that each exercise is only two documented sets. This workout hits muscles hard in the first and third week of each phase. This week, 2 sets are done, but the 2^nd set is followed by a rest/pause set and a drop set to failure. So, 1 set of 11 reps; another set of 11 reps; followed by a rest/pause (about a 15-second rest) set of 11 reps (set #3), and then immediately following the rest pause is a drop set (drop 5-10 pounds) and work to failure. So, this routine is actually 64 total sets (32 are normal sets; 16 are rest/pause sets; 16 are drop sets to failure). The intensity of this workout is unbelievable! I woke up this morning feeling like someone had taken a baseball bat to my chest and triceps (from yesterday’s workout).

Today’s Workout

Deadlift                                                2              9-11       Whole Body       11/45.0 11/45.0

Barbell Bent-Over Row                  2              9-11       Back                       11/95.0 11/95.0

Seated Cable Row (Close)             2              9-11       Back                       11/100.0 11/100.0

Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown                 2              9-11       Back                       11/100.0 11/100.0

Reverse-Grip Lat Pulldown           2              9-11       Back                       11/100.0 11/100.0

Straight-Arm Pulldown                  2              9-11       Back                       11/40.0 11/40.0

Standing Barbell Curl                      2              9-11       Biceps                   11/45.0 11/45.0

Incline Dumbbell Curl                     2              9-11       Biceps                   11/20.0 11/20.0

High Cable Curl                                  2              9-11       Biceps                   11/10.0 11/10.0

Prone Incline Dumbbell Curl        2              9-11       Biceps                   11/15.0 11/15.0

Hammer Curl                                      2              9-11       Biceps                   11/20.0 11/20.0

Barbell Wrist Curl                             2              9-11       Forearms             11/30.0 11/30.0

Barbell Reverse Wrist Curl            2              9-11       Forearms             11/20.0 11/20.0

Standing Calf Raise                          2              9-11       Calves                   11/208.0 11/208.0

Seated Calf Raise                              2              9-11       Calves                   11/208.0 11/208.0

Cable Toe Raise                                 2              9-11       Calves                   11/20.0 11/20.0

Since Sunday is Father’s Day, I’ll be working shoulders tomorrow and then take Father’s day off. Hope everyone is having a great Friday!

See you tomorrow…

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 Completed!!

Tags

Jim Stoppani, Leg day, Mission Accomplished, Routine Completed, Shortcut to Size, Weightlifting

Today’s workout

Today was the final day of the Shortcut to Size workout by Jim Stoppani (www.jimstoppani.com). It’s hard to believe I started this program in March. Boy! Time really flies.

Lessons Learned

Weightlifting is all about learning and progression. We have to learn how our bodies react to stress, food, nutrients, sleep, and water intake. Each workout routine teaches us new things about ourselves, that if applied, will yield better results.

One thing I did learn is that regardless of what I did, I continued to increase weight per exercise from the beginning to the end. Some of my increases were gradual, while others were quite dramatic. For example, I went from Leg Pressing around 200lbs in week 1 to over 568lbs today. On the Squat, I started out at about 70lbs and finished today at 200lbs. The same thing applies to all of the key exercises from Bench, to Curls, to Triceps work.

Diet

My diet was all over the place 😉. I wish I could control what I eat more, but I’ll take the hit on that. My supplementation, my water intake, and my current diet, regardless of the inconsistency of my macro intake resulted in increases in my ability to move heavier and heavier weights. I’ll stick with what I am doing for the time being.

What’s Next…

Well, we’ll be in the gym for sure. I was considering a routine to shed some weight but decided to hit another bulking routine. Stay tuned as I go through the huge list of exercise routines Jim Stoppani has put together on his website. I’ll update everyone tomorrow with my choice. Tomorrow will be a day to celebrate as I completed the 12-week Shortcut to Size program.

I hope some of you have been motivated to get out there and exercise. I’m going to keep going and keep posting my results to this blog for all to see. It is a great motivator for me to honestly post what I do and do not do in the gym.

Happy Lifting!

See you tomorrow for my next program overview…