The following details my secondary chest, shoulder and triceps workout from Thursday morning at 5am at Kirkland Gold’s Gym. My coach, John Meadows, doesn’t program my secondary days; however I typically don’t push the limits in terms of intensity techniques or going to failure. The goal is a massive pump for the muscle group I am targeting without taxing the CNS. Here is what I did…
Machine Chest Press 5-4-3’s
Set 1 x 5-4-3 reps with 60lbs
Set 2 x 5-4-3 reps with 60lbs
Set 3 x 5-4-3 reps with 60lbs
Set 4 x 5-4-3 reps with 60lbs
*I used a Hammer Strength, weight selectorized machine for this movement. The idea is to press one side to ¾ lockout and hold the contraction while you perform 5 reps with the opposite arm. Immediately switch and hold the pressing arm at ¾ lockout while doing 5 reps with the other. Then do 4 reps, 3 reps, etc. By the time you are finished you’ve done a total of 5+4+3=12 reps on each side while holding the contraction on the other in an alternating fashion. These really pump my chest and burn by the end.
Here is a sample video from a previous workout on a similar type of machine where I went all the way down from 5-4-3-2-1 reps:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppoV8yjCIbg]
Fly & Hex Press Combo
I set these up on a slight incline bench today – FYI.
Set 1 x 6 reps with 45lbs
Set 2 x 6 reps with 45lbs
Set 3 x 6 reps with 45lbs
Set 4 x 6 reps with 45lbs
*The key here is to perform a fly and as you bring the dumbbells together at the top smash them together, flexing your pecs and lowering the dumbbells down to your chest before pressing them back up (hex press portion). The fly and the hex press combined count as 1 rep so do this 6 times on each set.
Here is a video of just the hex press portion of the fly hex press combo:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRoy1AzoKwI]
Tri-set: Dips->Cable Rear Laterals->Face Pulls
Dips x 12-15 reps with bodyweight
Immediately followed by…
Cable Rear Laterals x 10 full + 10 partials with 20lbs
Immediately followed by…
Face Pulls x 10 reps with 100lbs
*The dips were to finish off my pecs so I just pumped them out stopping a rep or two short of failure. I also wanted to really hit my rear delts today so I did rear laterals with cables in a cross-over for 10 full and then 10 small pulse/partial reps out of the stretched position. I finished off the tri-set with face pulls with a rope on an upper cable pulley holding the contraction for a 1 second count on each rep. Perform the tri-set for 4 rounds.
Dumbbell Side Laterals
Set 1 x 20 reps with 20lbs
Set 2 x 20 reps with 20lbs
Set 3 x 20 reps with 20lbs
Set 4 x 20 reps with 20lbs
*Nothing special here aside from pumping these non-stop on every set even if your range of motion suffers towards the end. Just don’t rest at the bottom.
Rope Pushdowns
Set 1 x 10 reps with 110lbs
Set 2 x 10 reps with 110lbs
Set 3 x 10 reps with 110lbs
Set 4 x 10 reps with 110lbs
*The key here is to keep the rope and your hands separated the entire set and hold the contraction at the bottom for a 1 second count.
Overhead Rope Extensions
Set 1 x 10 reps with 120lbs
Set 2 x 8 reps with 120lbs
Set 3 x 6 reps with 120lbs
Set 4 x 6 reps with 120lbs
*Same as on the pushdowns, keep the rope and your hands separated the entire time. Work the bottom ¾ of the range of motion on these. My reps dropped rather quickly as my triceps were fried. It’s ok at to go to failure as you really want to maximally work the stretch.
That concluded this secondary chest, shoulder and triceps workout.
Train hard!
Mark