Natural Al's DC training Journal

[natural al]

calf sled-385*12...very, very heavy.  No need to do the partials at this point.

Lying Leg Curl-150*26 with a 20 second static.  I looked back on my old log and before I switched to higher reps I got 170*13 so I've doubled my reps and only lowered the weight by 20lbs..

V-Squat-600*6 plus whatever the sled weighs, upped it by 25lbs from last time.  I also got 20 reps on the precor leg press with 300lbs.

short and sweet.

[natural al]

hammer front pulldowns-underhand grip, 70lbs a side and I got 30 reps RP and a 20 second static.

DB Rows 120*17/20 RP, right arm is stronger than my left.  I wanted to do hammer rows but some tool was hoggin the machine so I just went with these.

drag curls-135*27RP with a 25 second static

pinwheel curls-30*20/25RP, again my right arm is stronger than my left.

[The Squadfather]

hammer front pulldowns-underhand grip, 70lbs a side and I got 30 reps RP and a 20 second static.

DB Rows 120*17/20 RP, right arm is stronger than my left.  I wanted to do hammer rows but some tool was hoggin the machine so I just went with these.

drag curls-135*27RP with a 25 second static

pinwheel curls-30*20/25RP, again my right arm is stronger than my left.

do you do the drag curls with the same ROM that Dave Henry does in BFTO 06?

[natural al]

do you do the drag curls with the same ROM that Dave Henry does in BFTO 06?

I don't know....is his good?  I start from a dead hang, try to keep my shoulders down and come up as high as I can.  I don't think you can have a really big rang of motion with this type of movement.  It's cool cause it doesn't hurt my back at all and regular BB curls don't do me any favors.  I saw the clip of Dave doing them about 6 months ago, I didn't think his form was all that bad.  Like I said, I don'tthink you can have a really big ROM with these.

[The Squadfather]

I don't know....is his good?  I start from a dead hang, try to keep my shoulders down and come up as high as I can.  I don't think you can have a really big rang of motion with this type of movement.  It's cool cause it doesn't hurt my back at all and regular BB curls don't do me any favors.  I saw the clip of Dave doing them about 6 months ago, I didn't think his form was all that bad.  Like I said, I don'tthink you can have a really big ROM with these.

no i wasn't ripping on his form at all, he came up to maybe the top of his abs or so, he used 2 45's on each side and like a ten and a five or something like that.

[natural al]

no i wasn't ripping on his form at all, he came up to maybe the top of his abs or so, he used 2 45's on each side and like a ten and a five or something like that.

I think that's about as far up as you could go, it's a very different movement than standard BB curls.  I like em alot better.

[thewickedtruth]

I think that's about as far up as you could go, it's a very different movement than standard BB curls.  I like em alot better.

they really hit hte bicep well? looks almost like a shrug to me. You just focus on dragging it up your waist with your bi's hard?

[natural al]

they really hit hte bicep well? looks almost like a shrug to me. You just focus on dragging it up your waist with your bi's hard?

yeah pretty much.  they work a little different than standard curls, I like em cause like I said no strain on the back.  I would say I come up to the top of my abs or at the highest my lower pecs.  I'm trying to handle some pretty heavy poundages-for me that is and I'm 90% sre I couldn't do this with regular BB curls. 

[natural al]

chest-hammer inclines-160*32RP, 25 second static

I did 45*24 on my widowmaker movement.

hammer shoulder press-what I was doing was one arm at a time as heavy as I could go for 12 reps rest paused, problem was it puts your body in an awkward position so I figured I'd go back to both arms at once, did 180-90 on each side-for 30 reps rest paused, I also got a 20 second static.

tri's-so I go over to the smith, I was watching them while I was unloading the hammer machine cause there were a few people hanging around but no one was using one of them that was set up for calf raises so I unload it, move the calf rasie stand put my bench under it, change the weight and get ready to go to work, that's about 5-10 minutes and this big guy comes up and goes "man, I was using that for calves"...I go c'mon, you havent' touched it for 10 minutes and he started mumbling about doing a triset for his calves and all this other bullshit, I almost hit him.  I did my set-which sucked and told him he could have it, he was all pissed off.  This is the same tool that was hogging the hammer row machine the other day.

anyway I totally stalled out on reverse grip bench press, usually I kick ass on these but for some reason I've lost steam so I'm gonna start doing dips between to bench's, you know legs up on one bench with weight pilled on your lap?  I did BW*40 so I'm gonna stack a 45 on next time and go from there.

[The Squadfather]

chest-hammer inclines-160*32RP, 25 second static

I did 45*24 on my widowmaker movement.

hammer shoulder press-what I was doing was one arm at a time as heavy as I could go for 12 reps rest paused, problem was it puts your body in an awkward position so I figured I'd go back to both arms at once, did 180-90 on each side-for 30 reps rest paused, I also got a 20 second static.

tri's-so I go over to the smith, I was watching them while I was unloading the hammer machine cause there were a few people hanging around but no one was using one of them that was set up for calf raises so I unload it, move the calf rasie stand put my bench under it, change the weight and get ready to go to work, that's about 5-10 minutes and this big guy comes up and goes "man, I was using that for calves"...I go c'mon, you havent' touched it for 10 minutes and he started mumbling about doing a triset for his calves and all this other bullshit, I almost hit him.  I did my set-which sucked and told him he could have it, he was all pissed off.  This is the same tool that was hogging the hammer row machine the other day.

anyway I totally stalled out on reverse grip bench press, usually I kick ass on these but for some reason I've lost steam so I'm gonna start doing dips between to bench's, you know legs up on one bench with weight pilled on your lap?  I did BW*40 so I'm gonna stack a 45 on next time and go from there.

you ever do any regular weighted dips, Al? i always do a few sets when i train chest.

[natural al]

you ever do any regular weighted dips, Al? i always do a few sets when i train chest.

I used to do them all the time for chest, I worked up to either the 80's or the 100's for reps, I don't remember which ones, I think the 80's but it doesn't sound right.  I've always been a good dipper, I broke madison heights highschools dip record, I did 35 the record was 31.  I didn't go there but was there for a wrestling camp and the coach bet me I couldn't do it, he got to run my laps for me and if I lost I had to do double.  I did them last year for tri's and I couldn't do as much as I could in the past but my form was different since I was trying to hit tri's.  I might work them in once I have to drop a chest movement.  I love em.

[The Squadfather]

I used to do them all the time for chest, I worked up to either the 80's or the 100's for reps, I don't remember which ones, I think the 80's but it doesn't sound right.  I've always been a good dipper, I broke madison heights highschools dip record, I did 35 the record was 31.  I didn't go there but was there for a wrestling camp and the coach bet me I couldn't do it, he got to run my laps for me and if I lost I had to do double.  I did them last year for tri's and I couldn't do as much as I could in the past but my form was different since I was trying to hit tri's.  I might work them in once I have to drop a chest movement.  I love em.

yeah i've always been good at dips as well, never wrestled though, i would have hated to do that peg board.

[natural al]

yeah i've always been good at dips as well, never wrestled though, i would have hated to do that peg board.

they never made you do the pegboard.  It's a very demanding sport, you bust your balls everyday.  I was decent but I started late-10th grade and we lost our coach during my junior year so we got a guy who new nothing about wrestling to fill in for him.  By the time he got back I had pretty much lost a year of development.  A couple of guys who were in the same situation did well but I didn't.  It takes me alot to get really competitive and I don't think I really did that when i wrestled, I made it to regionals and if I would have been a little more aggresive with my conditioning and take down skills I might have been able to go to states.  I did beat a guy who placed 5th in class "c" at states during team districts my senior year, I lost by 1 point to the guy who placed 7th in class B that same year.

I kept my weight at 145lbs all through school, I tried to certify my weight at 132 for my senior year, got down to 135 the day before looked at myself in the mirror and I've got viens everywhere all over the place in my quads and calfs and forearms, my BF was checked at 8% and  just couldn't loose the extra 3 lbs, sat in a sauna for 3 hours that night and got down to 133.5 the next day...just couldn't do it in time.  it was a rough sport.

[natural al]

calves-I legged donkey raises-150*12 then I went to failure with both legs using 400lbs on partials.

seated leg curl-150*31RP, 28 second static

hack squat-350*4, 20 partials and then I got 20 reps with 405 on my WM.  I also did a static on a leg extention machine 120lbs for 70 seconds.

[Honour]

I also did a static on a leg extention machine 120lbs for 70 seconds.

Damn thats gota hurt .

[natural al]

lifefitness pulldown-100*31RP with a 25 second static

reverse grip row-145*33RP...yes I rest paused these, I won't get into how I did them but the way I set it up my low back was in no real danger.

2 hand hammer curl-60*28RP with a 20 second static.

hammer curl-25 * 40/42RP...going for higher reps on these just to see what happens, I've been hitting 20-30 for along time so I'm amping it up to 40, big pump in the forearms.

[natural al]

man, I'm still busy as hell but snuck in a workout today anyway:

Decline-260*25RP with a 20 second static on a smith, felt great, weights are getting up there, got 18 on my first go which is pretty damn good.

got 50*20 on my widowmaker.

Paramount Shouler Press-don't like this machine but it's all I had today
145*31RP with a 30 second static.

assisted dips-30lbs of assistance and I got 38 reps rest paused.  I'm moving about 170lbs so I think that's pretty decent.  Wonder how many I'll get with just my body weight, my record was 37 about 10 years ago.

stretched everything for a minute.  Too bad I'm so f'n busy, I'd like to really get going but I'm swamped.  I've got 3 huge presentations to make next week, big $$$ for my company if we can pull it off and maybe a raise for me

[natural al]

left knee has been bothering me for a few days so I changed things up a little to be on the safe side.  Instead of pushing 930lbs on the legpress I went with 600 but I went for 30 reps, knee hurt afterwards but we'll see what happens from here on out.

toe press-560lbs*12, no partials heavy as hell.

sumo legpress-565*18SS with a 20 second static.

Leg press-600*30 reps straight setted, I'd stop for a second after a few reps with my legs bent and take a few really deep breaths, thighs were throbing afterwards.

OA it went pretty well, it's hot as hell right now so I got in and out as fast as possible.

[natural al]

DC Pullups-I've been going good on these since starting them, last time I did them I made a pretty huge jump in weight, I do these on an assistance machine since I want my rep total to be pretty high I went from 80lbs of assistance for about 30 reps to 40 lbs of assistance for 20.  I decided my rep total took to much of a hit and I needed to step back so yesturday I used 60lbs of assistance and got 34 reps rest paused.  I'm a pretty big believer that if you make nice consistant weight increases you can gain more over a period of time.  I was pretty happy with my rep total, taking it slow like this will probably get me to 30 reps using the 40lbs of assistance in the next few weeks.

Machine row-145*32RP

2 hand hammer curls-60lbs for 25 RP, 20 second static.  I really like this movement

regular hammer curls-40lbs for 30 reps with my right and 34 with my left both rest paused.

I've been doing alot of cardio, probably the most I've done in 10 years for the most part I'm doing about 25 minutes in the morning on an empty stomach and them 20 minutes in the evening so I'm doing 45 minutes a day.  I've bumped it up to an hour a couple of times this past week.  This hasn't really hurt my training but I'm gonna keep an eye on things, if it starts to effect what I can do in the gym I'm gonna cut it down.  I'm making some progress as far as dropping BF, I had a few major hiccups in the last few weeks but I think I'm gonna get back on track now.  I'd still like to do a show either at the end of this year or early next year but I still have some areas I really want to bring up.  Chest is still a problem but it's actually gotten a little better, there's alot of other areas that I need to zero in on in the next few weeks.  I think bumping my reps up has helped alot.

[natural al]

Inclines-250*24RP, with a 25 second static.

I got 21 reps with 50lbs on the WM I'm using.

Press Behind the Neck-145*27, for some reason my tri's were throbbing during these, I thought I did a good job focusing in on my pecs earlier but my tri's were on fire by now.

Overhead rope extentions-60*21

not my best workout but I didn't loose any ground just didn't advance as far as I would have liked.

[The Squadfather]

Inclines-250*24RP, with a 25 second static.

I got 21 reps with 50lbs on the WM I'm using.

Press Behind the Neck-145*27, for some reason my tri's were throbbing during these, I thought I did a good job focusing in on my pecs earlier but my tri's were on fire by now.

Overhead rope extentions-60*21

not my best workout but I didn't loose any ground just didn't advance as far as I would have liked.

i've always said that overhead presses are one of the best triceps movements there is, especially if your grip is relatively close, Charles Poliquin has them listed as one of the best tricep movements in his arm training book.

[natural al]

i've always said that overhead presses are one of the best triceps movements there is, especially if your grip is relatively close, Charles Poliquin has them listed as one of the best tricep movements in his arm training book.

I've got a weak chest in terms of development compared to my shoulder and arms, if my chest was up to par with my shoulders and arms I could probably do really well in a natty show but it's so bad I really have to concentrate on it.  When I was done with my inclines my chest felt really good but my tri's were fried as well, I probably could have gotten away with skipping tr's all together but I just didn't feel right doing it.  I can move big weights-for me-on just about any pressing movement and it probably has alot to do with my short arms and the fact that my tri's insert pretty close to the elbow, I can walk around and not train arms directly and they still "look" big just cause of how they insert.  In highschool everyone thought I had 16" guns-which was a big deal back then when in fact they only taped at 14.75 but I let everyone believe they wre 16.

[alexxx]

When you have a 2 inch range of motion it is easier to lift heavier weights. What I would recommend you do is use full range of motion and start training your chest with real ferocity. Good luck on your quest to 16 inch arms bro.

[natural al]

When you have a 2 inch range of motion it is easier to lift heavier weights. What I would recommend you do is use full range of motion and start training your chest with real ferocity. Good luck on your quest to 16 inch arms bro.

actually I totally exxagerate-sp-my range of motion for chest on some movements, I'll admit I have short arms...it's not really a curse...oh, yeah...they're about 17.5 right now, I beat 16 along time ago but thanks for your concern and suggestions.

[thewickedtruth]

actually I totally exxagerate-sp-my range of motion for chest on some movements, I'll admit I have short arms...it's not really a curse...oh, yeah...they're about 17.5 right now, I beat 16 along time ago but thanks for your concern and suggestions.

another 6 months at this pace and you'll crack 18" arms no problem big guy!