big

...and I quite liked it

No, get your mind out of the gutter, Winger, it wasn't THAT! ;)

It was arm day and I figured I'd try out a new routine, incorporating a lot of the ideas that I read from my recent posts about rest periods and DC training. My new routine is a mixture of strength, traditional hypertrophy and endurance. My main goal is hypertrophy, but I've always believed you need strength-based moves in there for optimal hypertrophy. Also I have never done any endurance-based work before (well, nothing endurance-based that can't be posted outside of the Male Animal forum ;) ) so I figure that there's some hypertrophy to be had in that region. As a result, for each body part I'm doing one compound strength movement, one hypertrophy movement and one endurance movement. Today was arms - I hit bis and tris together on one day, and here's how it looked:

Standing Barbell Curl (bi strength): 3 progressive warm-ups, then 3 work sets of 5 reps. Explosive positive, slow (2-3 sec) negative. 4 minutes rest between sets. My idea is to increase the weight if I hit the 3x5.

Close-Grip Bench (tri strength): 3 progressive warm-ups, then 3 work sets of 5 reps. Scheme as above.

Seated DB Hammer Curls (bi hypertrophy): 3 sets of 8 with 90 seconds rest between sets. I will be switching weekly between 3x8, 12/8/6 pyramid and 3 sets of rest-pause. All done slow and under control (2 secs positive, 3 secs negative).

Weighted Dips (tri hypertrophy): 3 sets of 8. Schema as above.

Seated Curls (bi endurance): 6 sets of 12 with only 5 deep breaths between sets. Done OSC style (thanks Cookie)!! Minimal rest, focus on form. 2 secs positive, 3 secs negative.

Tri pushdowns (tri endurance): 6 sets of 12 with schema as above.


So how did it go? The strength exercises I'm used to, so they went as normal. The hypertrophy exercises I'm used to as well in that rep range, but usually have 2-3 mins rest between sets, so cutting down to 90 secs was more intense. The endurance exercises were a killer!! I went REALLY light (like around half what I'd normally lift), and hit the first 2 sets of 12 easy, but the last 4 sets I could only get 5-8 reps. It wasn't muscular failure, but rather the fact that I'm not used to the pump and the endurance! I also have a cold right now, so that made it even harder to be intense. I think there's a lot of work and gains to be had in the endurance work.

I intend to do this style of training for all body parts and see how it goes.

Any comments or discussions are welcome of course!

Shib

Standing Barbell Curl (bi strength): 3 progressive warm-ups, then 3 work sets of 5 reps. Explosive positive, slow (2-3 sec) negative. 4 minutes rest between sets. My idea is to increase the weight if I hit the 3x5.

Close-Grip Bench (tri strength): 3 progressive warm-ups, then 3 work sets of 5 reps. Scheme as above.
Mebbe try skull crushers with stright bar

Seated DB Hammer Curls (bi hypertrophy): 3 sets of 8 with 90 seconds rest between sets. I will be switching weekly between 3x8, 12/8/6 pyramid and 3 sets of rest-pause. All done slow and under control (2 secs positive, 3 secs negative).
Swap for seated Curls

Weighted Dips (tri hypertrophy): 3 sets of 8. Schema as above.

Seated Curls (bi endurance): 6 sets of 12 with only 5 deep breaths between sets. Done OSC style (thanks Cookie)!! Minimal rest, focus on form. 2 secs positive, 3 secs negative.
Try swapping those for hammer curls. This will benefit your forearms more becasue of the high reps.

Tri pushdowns (tri endurance): 6 sets of 12 with schema as above.


I get intense pumps even when I'm carb depleted from doing High intensity workouts, I dont rest more then 30 secs.
By the 3rd set on arm day I have to kinda "reverse the blood flow" almost in my arms by raising my arms above my head and kinda shake em to reduce the pump or else it gets painful by the 5th rep.

Shib

btw good job

I'm fiending to go to the gym after reading that but I think ive got a trapped nerve in my shoulder:(.....carbing out on fruit lol

hackskii

Sounds like a bit of overtraining to me.
12 sets of bicep.
12 sets for triceps.

I would have stuck with the dips and close grip bench.
The pushdowns are very similar to the dips so this is too much overlap here.
Standing tricep extensions I feel might be better slotted in here instead of the pushdowns for hitting the inner/upper head.

I would keep chest and or shoulders 2 days out from this tricep workout.

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Scott

DB

not too keen on the 4 minute gap inbetween the first sets???

i prefer skull crushers to close grip presses also...
weighted dips are the nuts!!!!!

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winger

I kinda train like that. I do a heavy basic excercise for strenght and mass. After that I try and flow some extra blood in the muscle and do a lighter isolation excercise to failure. I like that Big.

ONE SMART COOKIE

Glad you liked them.

I`m more inclined to train heavy one workout then do a lighter or more isolated one later in the week.

big

Yes - it looks like that on paper, but to me the endurance exercise, which makes up half of those sets, feels like once single set. It's 6 sets of 12 with only 5 deep breaths between sets.


Agree there is overlap, but they're done in a very very different way. How I feel after 3 sets of 8 with 90 secs rest is very very different to how I feel after 6 sets of 12 with absolute minimal rest.


Yes - I will change to this when I stall. I think frequent changing of exercises is vital.


That's the plan:

Sun - Legs
Mon - Chest, Abs
Wed - Delts, Back
Fri - Arms

I've been doing that split (although with a very different routine to the above arm one) for the last 2-3 months and I love it.

big

Thanks mate!

Yes - I had that in mind too - hitting each body part twice a week, but more body parts on each workout. I'm going to see how things go hitting heavy and light in a single workout for a few weeks, then try it the way you suggest and see which I prefer. Not certain how I'll split it up for that though.

big

They're strength-based exercises which is why I rest long. I could drop the rest period, but if I do that it compromises the weight I can use. The idea is to keep things heavy at the start, then intense at the end.

big

Yes - I'm liking it too. This is actually much less volume than I'm used to, but I love it so far. It gives me the chance to move the big weights at the start, and then go intense at the end.

big

Thanks mate! And sorry to hear of your shoulder. My forearms got fried on the 6x12 endurance work with regular curls so I dread to think what will happen to them with hammer curls. I'll give it a go though. I will swap exercises regularly so will swap around curls and hammer curls like you suggest when things stall.

I do love the close-grip benches for tris though - they seem to kill my tris more than anything else!

big

Thanks everyone! I appreciate your thoughts and comments.

winger

No, thank-you!