I won't be posting too many of these because they are John Meadows' workouts which he gets paid to put together. If anyone is interested in working with John, check out his website here:
www.mountaindogdiet.com

Tell him Shelby sent you.

Chest and Shoulders

I wanted to really pre-exhaust this week, much more so than usual, because I really want to push the basic movements hard…as you know I'm a big believer in pre-exhaustion to keep your joints healthy, and to keep your tendons and ligaments healthy, but to also push the basic movements with perfect form…

So with that in mind I started with this superset…

Cable crossovers with a one second flex at the bottom and a real deep stretch with a modified dumbbell fly. For the crossover, pull the handles across the middle of your torso, not real low. I want you to activate the middle part of your chest too, not just lower and outer. Then on to the dumbbells. On the dumbells, it's like you're doing a flye, but when you come up, you only let your arms get to the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock position. Then right back down. It's constant tension on lower pecs and really emphasize the arch in your chest while doing these.

The reps are 12 crossovers and 7 reps on the modified flyes. Do four supersets total - it will burn like hell, your pecs will be tired, but your joints will be fresh headed into next two exercises.

Incline barbell bench press - Three seconds on the way down, drive up 3/4 of way, then right back down. Do a few sets to get to a weight you might normally do for eight, then hit four sets of six. The three seconds down is the key. Make your pecs work hard during lowering.

Barbell bench press - Rest pauses - four sets of five. The goal here is to explode; to train fast twitch muscle fiber. The pause is for two seconds. Lower the weight, count to two, then "bam" drive up hard. You're going to pyramid up and just keep going up with like 30-40 pound jumps until you get to a weight where you struggle with the fifth rep.

If you feel a little nervous about any of these exercises and your pec, don’t hesitate to substitute something else, like the neutral grip machine press. Just mimic what I'm trying to do, whether it is rest/pause, continuous tension, etc.

Side laterals - One set I did eight reps, set the weight down and counted to 10. Then, I did another eight reps, set the weight down and counted to 10. Then tried another eight - I had to have a spot, because I couldn't quite get the weight up at that point, so I got some assistance from partner. It was a hard set.

Machine shoulder press - One set. Find a weight that's hard to do 10 times. Do 10 reps with a two second flex at the top. After you've done 10 reps in this style, do 10 more half reps out of the bottom.

Rear delts on peck deck/flye machine - Two sets of 40 reps. Try to hold every rep and squeeze at the flexed part. Your rear delts might be sticking out a little after these two sets.

All of the heavy barbell pressing works your delts to, hence the lower number of sets.