Tomorrow is chest day this is my planned routine what are you working tomorrow

[cephissus]

I train each muscle every 3 days.. 2 on 1 off..  i only do 3-6 work sets (4-8 rep range) per body part coupled with 4-5 high rep(8-20) sets...   this way i train as often as possible and still recover in between workouts.. growing and getting stronger in both low and high rep ranges..  and oh, i never go to failure..

i do something similar but only about 3-5 work sets total... so on leg day you do like 4x8 heavy on squats, then 4-5 sets of 10-20?!  that seems like a lot!

[Darren Avey]

Afta me workout i is gonna hit da mean streets and fight, ima born fighta ya know

[mesmorph78]

lol back when i was a little kid i did 35 pullups in one go... could have got 40+.  these days i'd be lucky to get 7.

Last time I got 5 reps per set doing 30, so hopefully it will take about 7 sets next time.  These are a little different than my other exercises, because the first 2-3 sets are more like warmups, even though it's the same weight.  The real damage gets done in the last 2-3.

at least you do chins ... I can count on my hand 2 fingers missing the amount of guys who do it in my gym
because guys are very ego driven they would perfer to lean back and yank the stack down rather than to try and do chins because they are hard

[Per Se]

Incline dumbell presses 3 working sets
flat dubmell press 3 sets
decline dumbell press  3 sets
incline hammer press or incline smith machines press
incline flyes
cable crossovers

Regarding declines, what do you get out of them, how beneficial are they to you?

How many weeks of the month do u do bb presses instead of db?

[The Wizard of Truth]

Lol you guys actually plan your work outs. That is cute.

Yeah I kinda decide when I get to the gym
Like of course I know what bodypart im training and have a fair idea of my workout, but if im not feeling something I will do something else

[Per Se]

at least you do chins ... I can count on my hand 2 fingers missing the amount of guys who do it in my gym
because guys are very ego driven they would perfer to lean back and yank the stack down rather than to try and do chins because they are hard

x2

[Meso_z]

Yeah I kinda decide when I get to the gym
Like of course I know what bodypart im training and have a fair idea of my workout, but if im not feeling something I will do something else

yes. I always plan my workout before walking into the gym.well not exactly but i have a general idea..i love the guys who come into the gym wondering "ok, what should i do today?" the funny thing is, they actually ask you what should THEY do...

[The Showstoppa]

yes. I always plan my workout before walking into the gym.well not exactly but i have a general idea..i love the guys who come into the gym wondering "ok, what should i do today?" the funny thing is, they actually ask you what should THEY do...

I use a notebook.....mainly out of habit and because my memory sucks anymore.....I worked with this little MMA wannabe....he was literally 5'4" and chubby.....we were talking about notebooks one day and he said "haha, we used to laugh at people who brought them to the gym and call them the book club...."  My response was, "yeah, we simply called guys like you a joke....."      He didn't recover well.....

[mesmorph78]

Regarding declines, what do you get out of them, how beneficial are they to you?

How many weeks of the month do u do bb presses instead of db?

initially I used to alternate one week dumbells the next week barbells,
dumbell week I start with inclines barbell week I start with flat bench.

But over time I began to prefer dumbells they are harder yes so you won't see a lot of guys doing them in comparision to bench where they can load the bar up and have their friend pull the weight off their chest
 so at this moment in time I do more dumbell once in a while I will bench. I find dumbells makes my bench stronger too

decline movements I do rarely I prefer the dumbell version the bar version hurts my shoulder once I get past 315. The dumbell version I think is more benificial

[Alexander D]

at least you do chins ... I can count on my hand 2 fingers missing the amount of guys who do it in my gym
because guys are very ego driven they would perfer to lean back and yank the stack down rather than to try and do chins because they are hard

I hear ya, im a big believer in bodyweight exercises.. pushups, dips, chins... thats bread and butter shlt right there.

[mesmorph78]

agreed... i mastered all of these before i ever set foot in a gym.

like i said a guy will load up the pull down station and cheat and swing the weight down
ask him  chin cant even do four... why because you cant cheat with chins you either can do them or cant so to save face a lot of guys even huge ones will avoid the chining bar
.. people are suprised when they see me knocking out sets of 20 because im fairly big in real life .. people dont expect to see a dude like me chinning ..
i love chins i sometimes do them 2 times in a back workout

[dr.chimps]

at least you do chins ... I can count on my hand 2 fingers missing the amount of guys who do it in my gym
because guys are very ego driven they would perfer to lean back and yank the stack down rather than to try and do chins because they are hard

So true. I'm the only guy I know who does regularly them at my gym (in the time that I'm there), although I sometimes see 'fitness'-type guys doing them of an occasion, and they're mostly those hammer-type ones with lots of body English. It's funny because I always talk to my buds who can out-press me by miles, and all they ever do is pull-downs. In my very first set of pull-ups I got 1 and 1/2 reps. How can you not improve on that if you put the effort in!? People!?   

[mesmorph78]

So true. I'm the only guy I know who does regularly them at my gym (in the time that I'm there), although I sometimes see 'fitness'-type guys doing them of an occasion, and they're mostly those hammer-type ones with lots of body English. It's funny because I always talk to my buds who can out-press me by miles, and all they ever do is pull-downs. In my very first set of pull-ups I got 1 and 1/2 reps. How can you not improve on that if you put the effort in!? People!?   

good post
see a lot of guys don't want to "look" bad in the gym... So they will do exercises that make them "look" good like benching instead of dumbell presses so
a they can answer the how blmuch do you bench question
b load up the bar get their training partner to pull the weight off them while they yell to draw attention to themselves.

Most guys can't do chins so they will avoid it so as not to look bad eg a huge guy struggling do do 5 reps
admitedley I could always do chins even before I ever stepped into  And genetic athletisism.  But excersises I weak at like  presses dumbell presses etc I felt to way to suck at them at first because I didn't care what anyone thought because my ego was never tied up in pushing weight or trying to show off in the gym.

[tbombz]

i do something similar but only about 3-5 work sets total... so on leg day you do like 4x8 heavy on squats, then 4-5 sets of 10-20?!  that seems like a lot!

i cant do any squatting movements any more, had kneee surgery in the summer, tried over and over again to do squats, hack squats, front squats, etc... cant do em, even with light weight. i mianly do leg press and leg extensions for quads. it sucks, but these two exercises work well enough so long as im pushing it and getting stronger every week. usually ill do 2-3 heavy sets on leg extensions and 2-3 heavy sets on leg press (i do both exercises one leg at a time, so actually 4-6 sets total on each, but yeah). and after the heavy sets i will drop the weight down to about 60-75% of what i was using, and get 2-3 sets per leg in the upper rep ranges, somewhere around 15 or 20.

i do the same thing on all my muscle groups. 2 or 3 differen exercises, 3-6 total heavy sets (except for back, i do about 8 heavy sets), and 3-6 high rep sets to finish off.  this is not including warm ups, which can usually take 10-20 minutes and 3-5 sets. i rest alot in between sets.

[cephissus]

Okay, that sounds a lot more reasonable.

What do you guys think of mind/muscle connection?  I've always had chronic lower back pain which has limited my squat and deadlift for years.  Another thing I noticed, is that I never get a pump in my erectors.  Recently I've made a lot of improvement in my form, but still the slightest thing seems to set my lower back off, and then I'm just trying to manage the pain for a week or two.

Today, I reached back and grabbed my erectors, flexing them.  I could only feel them flex cause my hands were on them -- terribly mind/muscle connection.  I got them in a flexed position and did a couple sets... pretty soon they were pumped as hell and my lower back wasn't getting irritated at all!  Each set it got easier and easier to feel the burn and keep my erectors flexed.  It was like a revelation!  

I think this whole time (over five years...) I haven't really been recruiting my erectors and my lower back has just been getting hammered as a result!  Hopefully no more!

It made me think back years and years... when I first started doing crunches, and couldn't flex my abs...  or bench press, and couldn't feel my chest.  It sickens me to think I've somehow left my erectors in that state for over half a decade.

[tbombz]

Okay, that sounds a lot more reasonable.

What do you guys think of mind/muscle connection?  I've always had chronic lower back pain which has limited my squat and deadlift for years.  Another thing I noticed, is that I never get a pump in my erectors.  Recently I've made a lot of improvement in my form, but still the slightest thing seems to set my lower back off, and then I'm just trying to manage the pain for a week or two.

Today, I reached back and grabbed my erectors, flexing them.  I could only feel them flex cause my hands were on them -- terribly mind/muscle connection.  I got them in a flexed position and did a couple sets... pretty soon they were pumped as hell and my lower back wasn't getting irritated at all!  Each set it got easier and easier to feel the burn and keep my erectors flexed.  It was like a revelation!  

I think this whole time (over five years...) I haven't really been recruiting my erectors and my lower back has just been getting hammered as a result!  Hopefully no more!

It made me think back years and years... when I first started doing crunches, and couldn't flex my abs...  or bench press, and couldn't feel my chest.  It sickens me to think I've somehow left my erectors in that state for over half a decade.

that kind of thing happens to the best of us. mind muscle connection and good form are essential. but they do need to be combined with heavy weight and high reps. 

[mesmorph78]

Mind muscle connection is very imporatnt .. I tend not to worry about it when doing heavy compound movements bench press squat dead military or dumbell presses but once I'm doing an isolation movement i try to feel that muscle ... I can flex my lats chest calves quads tris exclusively

[CalvinH]

I'm doing shoulders tonight.


....it will be epic!

[JP_RC]

I'm doing shoulders tonight.


....it will be epic!

Keep us posted!

Plus, what will your 'post workout shake' be like?

Interesting stuff.

[CalvinH]

Keep us posted!

Plus, what will your 'post workout shake' be like?

Interesting stuff.

I'm thinking a chicken parm pizza as a post workout meal

[Devon97]

ME and Coach read this thread and we lost a few IQ points.
 

Some serious over training and very low training economy going on in this thread

[JP_RC]

I'm thinking a chicken parm pizza as a post workout meal

Hey you should've said something like "I'll take my Whey Isolate/hydrosolate, dextrose/maltodextrine, glutamine, creatine" to keep the bb.com vibe going on! 

[Parker]

Abs
two plates of spaghetti
2 10 piece chicken nuggets, courtesy of the 3.99 coupon
1 coffee
2 apple pies
1 quick dash in the cold

[The_Punisher]

lmao 

maybe Mesomorph Legs already reaching Tom Platz size

[coltrane]

no disrespect to tbombz everyone does what they want with their life.. I've seen his photo recent photo looks good but I think he could have achieved that naturally ...

No doubt.  A LOT of hard training and eating the correct way, mixed with TIME and you will achieve a nice physique.  AND BE HEALTH AT THE SAME TIME!!