My weight Monday morning (yesterday) was 217 pounds. That is 26 pounds from my goal of 190 by September 1st. It was chest and back day… my shoulder felt pretty good today so I decided to go for incline presses on the smith machine… a pretty basic movement. I like to keep the pace of the workout going quickly so I decided to superset pull-downs to the front. The pull-down machine is right next to the smith machine so I don’t have to concern myself with someone taking over one of my stations. I used a 4 second down 2 second up cadence on both exercises up UNTIL my final burn out sets.
On the Smith Machine Inclines, I touch my chest and push the bar to about 1inch short of total lockout to keep the tension on the pecs. This is an old school style of pressing that I learned from Danny Padilla several years ago. Samir Bannout used the same style. So did the late Serge Nubret and Arnold. None of those guys lacked chest development.
After each set of Smith Machine Inclines it was over to the pull-down cable for wide grip pull-downs to the front touching the bar to the low pec, ab line. I increase the weight on each set up until the last two for one or two burn out sets. The key to building lats on these is the form. I start sitting upright and then very s-l-o-w-l-y lean backwards (it’s really just a slight lean backward—more so, you’re arching your back and puffing your chest out as if there were a string tied to the center of your chest pulling it up while your shoulders were being pushed back and down) and pull the bar to my chest flexing and contracting the entire back and the pecs through the movement.
In total I did eight supersets starting with 12 reps on both movements working heavier to 3 reps and then backing off to 12-15 on the last two sets.
I moved on to superset feet elevated pushups with a band for resistance alternated with T Bar Rows. T-bars are my favorite heavy back movement and I’m experimenting with the band resisted pushups since they don’t seem to have a negative effect on my shoulders.
I finished off with 4 sets of two arm dumbbell shrugs. Then abs. 3 sets of cable crunches and 3 sets of bent leg raises.
Diet was a good day. I’ll stay with it. Here is what I ate yesterday:
Meal 1 –– 2 scoops whey and casein protein/ 16 ounces water
Meal 2 –– 1 egg, 7 egg whites, 2 slices turkey bacon.
Meal 3 –– During workout 2 scoops whey & 16 water
Meal 4 –– Post workout 2 scoops whey protein, 16 ounces water, 4 Brown Rice Cakes
Meal 5 –– 8 ounces grilled flounder, 2 cups corn
Meal 6 – 16 ounces low fat cottage cheese & 1 nectarine
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