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.
Thursday. Arm day.
Tricep extensions with comfort grip and chains.
8 sets of 10-15 reps with my elbows behind my head. With a normal extension, if I'm using a barbell or even a dumbbell, I'm going to have my elbows a little bit more forward. At the bottom, my hands are going to be at nose, mouth, or chin level. If I'm doing extensions with chains and handles I want to get my arms back more because it's not as hard on my shoulders and I'm able to get a better range of motion because I have more freedom for where the motion is going and also because the chains are de-loading on the floor as they're going back. I have a pretty deep angle. There's a real strong tricep stretch at the bottom. With this exercise I did 8 sets of between 10 and 15 repetitions. After the first couple sets every set was failure.
JM press type of extension with handles and chains.
I brought the handles down to my upper chest, maybe throat level, keeping the palms and thumbs close together and then pressing in a straight line back up. Still an extension, but a completely different angle, and actually a completely different movement that feels totally different. 4 sets of 10-15 reps all to failure.
KB cross body extensions
With this extension it's a cross body extension. It's still a one arm extension, obviously. With the arm straight I bring my hand down across my body so the kettlebell finishes right beside the opposite ear, keeping the elbow in the same position throughout the movement, extending back up again. This I did 5 sets of 10 to 12 sets. All sets were failure.
Muscle mace.
It took two or three sets to figure out what weight I was going to use. I did these in an up and down ladder style, so figuring out the weight was pretty important because there were going to be a lot of repetitions on the first set. The first set I did 6 repetitions with the bottom grenade balls, and then immediately 6 repetitions with the middle one, and then 6 repetitions with the top, and then 6 repetitions in the middle again, and then 6 more to finish with the bottoms. Rest three or four minutes. Do the same exercise in the same sequence again, except for this time 5 repetitions with each step of the ladder. The next set, after another three or four minutes rest, same thing except this time with four repetitions with each stage of the ladder. Because I took the time to find the right weight, and I've done this many times in the past, I had to drop the repetition of on each one of the sets otherwise I would not have been able to get the reps. Every single one of these reps was right to failure.
Loaded stretch using the TRX straps.
They're just attached to the table machine's top. They're always on there. Grab them, hold them so my arm is folded back like it's in an extension for a tricep stretch. My hands are behind my head and I'm leaning forward using my body weight to create the loaded stretch on the triceps, and held for a 60 count.
Preacher curl machine.
Three warm up sets of 8 reps. With this I didn't use the outer-handle. I used the inner-handle, which is more of a hammer grip style, or a hammer curl style. Then I did 4 work sets of 12 to 15 reps, all of those sets were to failure.
Seated dumbbell curls.
No warm up sets. I pretty knew how much weight I was going to be able to handle which was about 35 pounds. 6 sets of 6 to 8 reps, all sets to failure. If it felt like I was going to be able to get more than 8 reps I just lowered and slowed down the tempo, so I would fail between the 6 to 8 repetitions.
TRX straps - face curls.
I just grab them and lean back and then curl my body up as I would a face curl and try to get my hands as far back behind my head as I possibly can at the top. Then lower in a 6 to 8 count so there's a really slow eccentric. I did four work sets of those, each to failure; failing between 4 and 6 reps. After those work sets were done took three or four minute rest then I did one set which was only eccentric for ... My goal was to get to 30 count, but it actually ended up being about a 22 count. It's really hard to gauge, and I did not want to stop and have an ISO hold on it.