Chest and Bi's

Last update for a week.

I have spent all afternoon cooking up food, packing stuff for next week to make sure I can eat as clean as possible whilst away.

Chest with Andy this morning. I could of been training by myself as he completely blanked me not recognizing me as I wandered over to him when he arrived! I love chest day as I get to train with a partner which means a) I can push myself harder b) he will push me harder. Win win. I highly recommend anybody trains with a partner where possible, provided that you get on with each other, want to follow similar routines and lift similar weights.

After some warming up of the shoulders and chest workout was:

Chest:

Flat DB Bench Press

Incline H1 BB Bench Press
Seated Hammer Strength Press

Cable Flyes at various angles

Cable X-Overs

Biceps:
EZ Bar Preacher Curls

DB Standing Hammer Curls

Wide Grip BB Curls
Reverse Grip BB Curls

Commentary:

No numbers as my book is sat in my bag and I can't be bothered to go fish it out! Plus, I have stopped recording weights and reps for cable flyes and x-overs and anything arm related opting to just concentrate on getting a good squeeze and going to failure at whatever the weight.

Don't normally do much of a warm up, but really wanted to warm up my shoulders and chest today. 2 reasons for this: My left shoulder has been giving me serious jip the last 2 months, predominantly from heavy pressing so I need to start being sensible and looking after it a bit better. The other is that I wanted to get some good squeezes in my chest to get the mind muscle connection going into pressing. Interestingly it seemed to work so something I'll keep doing.

We worked up to the heaviest dumbbells on offer in the gym on the flat presses. 3 sets at no less than 8 reps concentrating on squeezing at the of the movement. Having started my lifting life in a gym with no bars this is an old staple for me. Could really do with some 55kg or 60kg dumbbells to make it more challenging though!

Incline Bench is something I used to suffer on but have made good progress on this in 2013. Again nothing lower than 8 reps on this today. I don't touch the bar to my chest, nor do i on any heavy pressing sets. I find this really aggravates my shoulder taking my arms past parallel in relation to the floor. My personal thought on this is that you have to treat it like a squat and only go as low as is safe and comfortable. 

Hammer Strength Pressing is a good finisher to the compound lifts. I really concentrate on squeezing at the top - imagining there is a banana between my pec muscles and I am trying to squeeze it to pulp.

Cable Flyes and Cable X-Overs are good isolation moves to finish with. The cables provide constant tension on the muscle so no let up at any point. On flyes we worked from an incline into a decline.

On a closing note I sat down after training today and reflected on where I think my strengths and weakness lay in terms of physique. I think my shoulders, calves and overall "thickness" should serve me well as I lean out helping me to look big. My weakness will be my abs, quads and waist.  I'll probably start hitting quads twice a week, once on leg day, one day as an isolated bodypart. I lost a lot of size in my right quad due to atrophy after the double rupture last year.