The following details my back and biceps workout from Wednesday evening at Kirkland Gold’s Gym. I returned from competing in Seoul, Korea on Monday and was a little jet lagged. I’m also trying to hold back a bit on the intensity for a few weeks as I just wrapped up this year’s competitions, which included 6 in total – Toronto, Anchorage, Chicago, Vancouver, Olympia (Las Vegas) and the Asian Grand Prix (Seoul, Korea). I hope to recap my Olympia and Korea competitions soon – FYI.
I did feel like moving some heavier weight so I did a bunch of drop sets; stopping short of failure on both the heavy first portion and lighter second portion of the drop. Here is the workout…
Lat Pulldowns
Set 1 x 15 reps with 100lbs (warm-up)
Set 2 x 6 reps with 170lbs -> drop to 100lbs x 8 reps
Set 3 x 6 reps with 170lbs -> drop to 100lbs x 8 reps
Set 4 x 6 reps with 170lbs -> drop to 100lbs x 8 reps
*The key is to stop short of failure on the three primary drop sets. Select a heavier weight for the first portion and a much lighter weight for the drop.
Dumbbell Rows
Set 1 x 15 reps with 80lbs (warm-up)
Set 2 x 8 reps with 130lbs -> drop to 80lbs x 12 reps
Set 3 x 8 reps with 130lbs -> drop to 80lbs x 12 reps
Set 4 x 8 reps with 130lbs -> drop to 80lbs x 12 reps
*Follow the same technique as the previous exercise by stopping short of failure while doing a drop set from a heavy to a lighter weight dumbbell.
Here is a video:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vMZFdINrBQ]
Dumbbell Pullovers
Set 1 x 8 reps with 80lbs
Set 2 x 8 reps with 80lbs
Set 3 x 15 reps with 40lbs
*I selected this exercise to give my arms a rest. Rather than doing a drop set I chose to start with two somewhat heavier sets and then finished off with a set of lighter weight and higher reps. Be sure to control the eccentric portion of the movement on all sets, but really accentuate it with a 4 second descent on every rep of your final set.
Hammer Semi-Supinate Pulldowns
Set 1 x 7 reps with 2 plates -> drop to 1 plate x 10 reps
Set 2 x 7 reps with 2 plates -> drop to 1 plate x 10 reps
Set 3 x 7 reps with 2 plates -> drop to 1 plate x 10 reps
*Perform one arm at a time on this exercise. Use perfect form and contract hard for a split second at the bottom on each rep.
Seated Cable Pause Curls
Set 1 x 15 reps with 40lbs
Set 2 x 12 reps with 60lbs
Set 3 x 10 reps with 80lbs
Set 4 x 8 reps with 70lbs
*I’m not exactly sure what weight I was using because it was a double pulley cable and each side had its own weight stack. The important thing is the pyramid up in weight and down in reps for 4 sets. The form technique I used entailed pausing with the weight on my thighs for split second at the bottom before curling the weight up as hard as possible.
Here is a video of my 3rd set for form reference:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdUmeY58Itc]
Elitefts American Grid Iron Bar Curls
Here is the bar I used: https://www.elitefts.com/american-gridiron-bar.html.
Set 1 x 10 reps with widest grip (bar only)
Set 2 x 10 reps with 2nd widest grip (bar only)
Set 3 x 10 reps with 3rd widest grip (bar only)
Set 4 x 10 reps with narrowest grip (bar only)
*Pump these reps out and only curl to 90 degrees at your elbow joint. Work your way from the widest to the narrowest grip using just the bar.
That concluded this back and biceps workout.
Train hard!
Mark