My training History: I trained less than one year before competing in my first powerlifting meet as a teenager back in 1983. Before leaving the sport partially due to injuries in 2005 I achieved my elitefts status in the 198,220,242,275 & 308 weight class. Throughout these years I did have a 3 year run in the bodybuilding world. I have degenerative joint disease, have had two shoulder surgeries (right shoulder now needs replaced), one full hip replacement, knee surgery, and herniation's in all three regions of my spine, Bone spurs (all joints). I can't even begin to list the number of muscle tears I have had, surgical and non surgical. I am "The Mashed Up Meathead" and this is my story.
You can find my training log archives HERE and my most current training log posts HERE.
My best lifts are behind be but my best training is yet to come.
* Unless otherwise noted the tempo of the work sets is about 1/2 of what most would consider normal. In most cases, if I did the set with normal temp what I fail at with 8-10 reps in training I could do for 20 reps with a normal tempo. This is to keep the joint stress down while increase the stress on the muscle. I have found this to work best for me provided the conditions listed in my training history above.
Wednesday, arm day.
Comfort grip ladder tricep push downs.
Six warm ups sets in the middle position of 12-15 reps. Three work sets of 8 repetitions using each step of the ladder starting at the bottom and working up so each set was a total of 24 repetitions. After those sets we did one set starting from the top and working down and then back up again of 6 repetitions per position.
Fat rope push downs chest supported on incline bench.
The way that this is set up is you take the incline bench and face it away from the cable machines, so the cable machine is behind the incline bench. Kind of positioned the same way as if you're going to do a behind the head tricep extension except what you're going to do is lie with your chest facing the ... or on the pad, straddling the bench. This way your upper body is going to be completely taken out of the movement because it's locked down into the pad. The rope is on the other side of the pad so you have to set the bench up so the rope is still going to be pushed down in a straight line. Three warm ups sets to figure out what weight we were going to be able to use and then we did 5 sets of 10 repetitions back to back so there was maybe 25-30 seconds between sets.
Med ball chin machine push downs.
The way you do this one is you take about a 15 or 20 pound medicine ball, something about the size of a small head and you put it on the pad where you would put your knees to do assisted dips or chins. Then you stand in front of the machine, grab the ball and push it down and then bend at a 90 degree angle at your waist with your arms straight down. At this point you bend your arms like your doing a tricep extension, let the ball hit your forehead and then tricep extend back down to the starting position. Essentially, a bent over tricep extension using the med ball instead of the cable attachment. While you're using the ball, you want to squeeze the shit out of it the whole time you're pushing down. Two warm ups sets and then 6 work sets of 12-15 reps each set to failure.
Kettle bell tricep extensions using a kettle bell in each arm
bring the bell down to your ears, keeping your elbow as high as you possibly can, and straight. The way we we did this exercise is we did it one arm at a time. We kept the kettle bell in the other hand the whole time. So both arms are extended from the beginning, 8 repetitions was done with the right arm, with the left arm extended. Then we switched arms with the right arm extended. We did a triple set where you go back and forth, three times. The first round I was able to get 8 reps per set. The second round of 3 ... So there was 3 sets of this ... I was able to get 8 and then 6 and then it dropped off hard, 3. The last round I was able to get 8 like ... and then 2 and couldn't even do anything. I was done.
Incline dumb bell curls.
The way we did this one was keeping the shoulder blades against the pad during the entire movement. So you do want to angle the seat up a little bit so you do have the levers to be able to lay back into the bench to keep your shoulder blades there. This allows for greater stretch in the biceps. Palms were held forward throughout the entire set. Both arms were done at the same time. Five sets of ten reps. The way I grabbed for the first set was supposed to be a warm up set but it wasn't. I failed at about 9 reps, so I stayed with that weight. That weight was thirty pounds. These were done with a slow tempo, two seconds in traction and maybe a one second stretch.
Preacher curls with a preacher curl machine
Two warm up sets and then four work sets of 8-12 each set to failure.
Fat V bar 4-inch grenade ball handle.
On the cable unit set it nose level. Space curls doing 8 repetitions with the hand on the grenades and then immediately following with 8 repetitions with the hands on the pipe. So a total of 16 repetitions per set, 5 work sets were completed.