Gain muscle in the arms: Blasting of the Arms!

Today was an intense hell of an arms workout. All arms. No shoulder. I did the 10 in 30 Shoulders/Arms on Friday, so 3 days later, I was ready for another arms blasting mofo workout! I’m really trying to gain mass in my arms and making them wider by doing the 3 types of barbell curls.

So, today was:

The Great Bicep, Tricep Massacre. A bunch of super sets of double biceps and double triceps with 30 seconds rest in between.

Barbell curls wide,
^super: rope curls
Tricep vbar pushdowns HVY
^super: overhead bb ext

Barbell curls normal, drop set
^super: rope curls
Tricep vbar pushdowns
top cable rope ext

Barbell curls narrow super drop set 4X! wide, normal
Ovrhd EZ bar extensions
top cable rope ext

seated DB hammer twist curls
DB reverse narrow to wide curls
Overhead single DB ext
bilat cable tricep pushdowns

standing DB hammer twist curls drop sets
DB reverse in2out curls DPST
Overhead single DB ext
bilat cable tricep pushdowns

go ahead and ask if you have any questions about what the heck any of that means. I was sweating a ton while only working the arms! I see most people work out so lethargically and are not sweating at all. My freaking workout was so intense it pretty much took care of cardio too! And my biceps looked like they’d burst out of their skin. Triceps were pretty swollen as well.

Tried to run afterward since it was such a beautiful day but I started getting a pain on my head/neck so I stopped early. No run today.

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Blast them arms! {Biceps, wrist curls, triceps blaster}

Today, I did the Arms portion of Shoulder/Arms day. I refrained from shoulders because my neck muscle seems to be pulled. So, only the biceps and triceps for me today. Did the whole Superset and finished with my favorite ab exercise; Hanging Leg Raises from the Abs workout. Pretty quick workout, but the arms got a slammin!

Note: if you feel like you didn’t get much of a workout, you probably didn’t use enough weight to max out at the indicated reps. You probably could have done 10 but stopped at 6-8 and moved on to the next one which might have not been enough either. I’ll admit I sort of did that on some myself. So, after it was over, I added the forearm exercises, Wrist Curls and Reverse Wrist Curls. After 2 sets of each, I did a set of seated concentration curls with super slow return (negatives).

For bigger upper arms, be sure to use heavy enough weight so that you barely make it to 6! And then, cheat for a couple of reps using momentum. Be sure to vary your grip on the Barbell Curls as indicated in the Arms workout. Standard, Wide, Narrow. This will give width to your biceps. combine that with proper form on the triceps exercises and you’ll have bigger arms in no time. And to make sure your biceps are being properly isolated, use that BICEPS BLASTER I raved about.

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LOVE YOURSELF, DAMNIT! (Chest Day + Abs)

Today, Monday, January 3 was Chest Day. I am doing the 10 in 30 plan again with slight modifications as necessary. Hey, I know what I’m doing, ok?? Anyway, it was a great workout and I am definitely seeing major improvement in the mirror! Even when my core is relaxed, I can see a good deal of abs, and my shoulder/rear delts are looking awesome from doing the Rotator Cuff exercises. Not to mention my Lats. They really stick out from my waist. Yes I look at myself a lot. That gym mirror is good to me. But that’s the only way to judge how you’re doing, right? Plus—don’t you love yourself? You should. Seriously. You are your best friend. So LOVE YOURSELF, DAMNIT! You’ll get more respect from others, anyway, if you really love yourself.

My workout:
Incline Press on Bench
Straight Bench Press
Crossovers (high to face level for upper pec development)
Incline DB Flies (only 20#, 12 reps)
Incline DB Press
Bent Over Rev Flies (standing, sitting)
Side Rotators
Top Rotators

ABS:
Hanging leg raises
Leg Raises on Vertical Leg Raise Bench, knee raises

The reason I said this was “modified” is because I am working on lowering my fat percentage as well. I am doing ab work after most workouts on top of doing HIIT in the morning on an empty stomach. Remember, I already did the 10 in 30 and gained 10 lbs, then I did only circuits for a while with lots of cardio, so I went down on fat a little. Unfortunately, I also lost some muscle from that plus getting sick with the flu, so that’s why I’m back in the 10 in 30 plan. The morning HIIT cardio is really paying off as far as leaning me the hell out. I also plan on running (HIIT of course) after my workout for 2 days of the week on top of the morning HIIT.

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12-20-10 Back 10in30: Pullups Madness!

Today was the first day that I had a full, complete workout in exactly two weeks since I had the flu. Nasty, nasty flu it is. during these past two weeks, I only did a minor Chest day that consisted of incline Hammer machine press, reg Hammer press, and pushups, plus Step Mill. On Saturday. However, I also did  a great workout of resistance band curls (many kinds), a ton of pushups including feet up and “perfect pushups”, lat and front delt raises, and tricep extensions. But that’s only 1.5 workouts in two weeks. I had also injured my forearms by using too much weight during forearm rollers and perhaps too many pullups/curls for my inside forearm muscles.

After icing my arms, taking ibuprofen, and resting them muscles for the two weeks, my arms are almost back and I was able to have a great workout again, finally. I went with Back, from the 10 in 30 plan with slight modification.

Uni-Lateral Rows + superset: Pullups + assisted pullups after maxing out on real ones. 3X
Pull downs wide. 3x
hanging leg lifts
Rows narrow 3x
Box Situps
Rows starship fighter 3x
1 set high jumps
1 set squat jumps

Then my calves started to cramp up, so that was the end of that. I did the Unilateral Bentover Rows first, so that I could get maximum results out of them in order to properly pre-exhaust for the pullups. I’m trying a method I learned about for upping your number of pullups. My max is only 12, so I’ll see how it went after 4 Back days doing this pre-exhaust method.

I think it will have to increase my reps since I maxed out multiple times during each set of pullups.  After doing the uni-lat rows, I immediately jumped on the pullup bar and could only do around 3-4 good ones, then moved to the assisted pullup machine subtracting 80 lbs and maxed out again, this time at around 6-8. Then I raised the weight some more, (lessening the load) to around 100 lbs, and did another 6, then raised it again to 110, and maxed out one more time at around 6 again. Then, after a minute rest, I go back to the next set of uni-lat rows and repeat!

When doing the pullups, I made sure to stop and hold myself at the top and really “crunch” my back muscles and lats, squeezing them tightly for 2-3 seconds before coming back down in a slow, CONTROLLED fashion. Don’t just let your ass drop like a fucking sack of potatoes! Remember that negative resistance actually gives better results than the positive. That’s why some people even do “negs only” sets. Try them with curls sometime or at least do a super slow return—slower even than the 10 in 30 suggested 3 seconds— take around 10 seconds to come back down during your negative. Your arms will burn like mad and you’ll be sore like a mofo again. Miss that feeling, don’t you?

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DECEMBER 14 Merry Christmas!

sprinter

The holidays are here, and this is the time when we eat like piglets and generally let go of our routines. There are always sweets in the office, hot coco, candies, etc. Well, it’s OK to eat some of that stuff, but remember that if you don’t work it off, it’ll STAY IN YOU and turn into fat. Like I’ve said before, you don’t want to appear like the prude that won’t have a little festive food, so have a bite or two but remember that tonight, you’ll have to account for it during your cardio.

If you’re in the 10 in 30 gaining phase and you do happen to eat badly that day, make that an exception to the “virtually no cardio” rule, and RUN using HIIT for that day. This is only to burn off the fat you ate today, so you’ll most likely not be losing weight. To make sure you aren’t burning valuable muscle, run AFTER you do weights, for at least 20 minutes. And, remember that HIIT, High Intensity Interval Training, is better for burning straight fat and keeping muscle than consistent-pace running. In fact, HIIT builds muscle, especially when doing your sprints uphill.

If you’re unfamiliar with HIIT, just look at competitive sprinters; see how buff they are, especially in the legs? Now look at long distance, consistent pace runners like marathoners. See how scrawny, yet fat they look? That’s because their method of running does the opposite of what you want. They are burning muscle which accounts for their low mass and skinny look, yet keeping a high amount of fat, which accounts for their flabby look. WORST OF BOTH WORLDS!
sprinter

Check out my previous blog posts to see what I do when running downhill after the uphill sprints. You don’t want to sprint downhill because it can be dangerous, plus since there is no uphill resistance, you’re cheating yourself. Not to mention, running downhill can mess up your knees and ankles. SO, I have done a rather silly looking style of “running” that prevents me from landing on my heels and instead works out the calves by landing on the balls of my feet. I basically keep my legs pretty straight, and kick them straight up in front of me, landing on the balls of the feet and propelling me up again. Kind-of like a German march on silly pills. And, I lean backward, toward the top of the hill slightly to engage the abs, and then I rotate my torso in sync with my legs. Don’t worry, I don’t do this at the gym. I’ve done it at night, after my workout, on a pretty lonely street by my house, and I usually wait ’til no cars are coming. Yes, it looks that silly. : ) BUT IT WORKS, BIOTCH! And, you feel your calves being worked. This works even better if you’ve done some calf raises right before.

BTW, I prefer to RUN instead of other cardio methods, although I do vary it all the time with the Stepmill or Spin bike. Running has been proven to burn the most fat and when running uphill, you actually work the abs. (info taken from FitnessRX magazine. Highly recommended)

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Changes, Changes!

I have updated the workouts for gaining 10 pounds in 30 days. Don’t worry, not much has changed. I’ve replaced only a few exercises but I did enhance the hell out of Shoulder Day. That happens to be my favorite day because I see the most gains and results.

Monday is Back day which also includes tricep and bicep work. It has 2 tricep exercises and 2 bicep exercises. By the time you get to Friday, it will have been four days since you concentrated on those muscles. Sure, you worked out the triceps on chest day, but only with two exercises, Bench Press and Incline Bench Press. In both of those, your triceps are doing the least of the work. Your pecs and delts take up most of the work unless you use a close grip which we are not using.

Shoulder day previously had some bicep work but no triceps. Now, I added a bunch of triceps exercises in 3 sets of Quadruple Supersets. This way, you really take both muscle groups to their max many times. I did this because of the massive pump I got when I really max out both biceps and triceps during the same workout. Add that to the massive shoulder workout, and your arms will be set for maximum gains. You’ll have that horse shoe shape in your triceps in no time and your shoulders will be able to shine faster when the biceps and triceps are also pulling in opposite directions.

I also reworked Ab day to add better exercises and I removed the ball pass. It was a good follower to crunches but I felt that hanging leg raises were an absolute must as well as what I call “Plank Madness”. Planks are great for working out your obliques, while the leg lifts will blast your bottom ab muscles. You can still do it in about 10 minutes; I just did it last night and when I was done, I could clearly see my individual abs poking through. I did 2 sets.

The last thing I changed was the running on Leg day. It used to be a 20 minutes jog on the incline setting but now, I shortened it to a 10 minute HIIT session. I don’t want to spend another 20 minutes after nearly an hour in the gym. 10 I can handle.

Let me know if you have any questions or if you’ve try this new ab workout or the shoulder day, let me know how you felt!

Cheers!

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Sat, Nov 27, 2010 Push/pull Circuit

Push/pull Circuit

I basically did my 100 Deep Pushups, 50 Pullups circuit but this time, I did Deadlifts for de legs. No long jumps this time. Instead, I did a ton of abs. It went like this:

Pullups
Body Rows on Hz bar
Deep Chair Pushups
Bent over Dumbbell Reverse Flies
Deadlifts 6-8 reps
Abs variety (box crunches, vertical crunches, vertical toe touches, Leg Lifts, Windshield Wipers, Bicycles)
Then, repeat the whole thing. I repeated 3X, but continued with the the remaining Pushups and Pullups.

I did the Reverse Flies (or “Rear Delt Flies”) to work on my Rotator Cuffs and Rear Delts since it’s important to strengthen them when working on the pecs, remember? Great workout. Felt amazing afterward. I like seeing immediate results from doing that many Deep Chair Pushups. In this case, I can see that line I mentioned before; the one going from the center-top of the chest to a little lower near the pits. It comes from blasting the upper pecs. I also like how these pushups really give volume to the outer pecs by the pits.

I have messed up my forearms a bit. Grabbing heavy things hurts my forearm tendon near the elbow on both arms! This includes pullups and curls. I use Tiger Balm to relieve the pain but I might have to lay off those exercises ’til they heal. Damn. My grip is suffering a bit too from that. I notice it while doing the pullups and deadlifts.

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Friday, Nov 19. 10 in30 Shoulders/Mc Donalds, more food

Fantastic workout right from the 10 in 30 workouts! Friday is Shoulder and Arms day and that’s what I did. Here it is with slight changes:

• Standing Military Press
• Upright Rows ^superset

The rest were more of a circuit with hardly any rest in between. Alternating between shoulders and curls, then triceps.

• Seated Arnold Press
• Dumbbell curls
• Hammer DB curls^super
• Heavy Bent-arm Lat Raises
• Dumbbell curls/Pronated DB curls super
• Lateral Raise 666
• Cable Tricep Press
• Rope Tricep Press ^super

Major pump going on when you do both biceps and triceps back to back with no rest. Add shoulders to that and you’ll see major definition in the upper arms by the time you’re done! That’s why I combine shoulders with arms, to really work out and define the upper arm muscles. Biceps look better when the triceps are also pulling, and they both look better when the delts are all puffy and what not, haha.

That was during my lunch hour as usual. Right after, I had a grilled chicken caesar salad from Mc Donalds with a Coke Zero/Cherry Coke Zero mix from their awesome machine. I only drink those and sometimes add some Diet Dr Pepper—no sugar drinks!
Joy Machine. Gain muscle, lose fat fast!

When I got to work, I heated up a Tyson chicken breast to add to my salad since the chicken they provide is not enough.
Tyson Chicken Breastesses.

I finished my lunch with a half cup of unsalted mixed nuts from Target  and some raw goji berries. JOYYY.
NUTS! Gain muscle fast.

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