The quest for immortality

[Adam1125]

This is my first attempt at a workout journal and I'll update it as often as I can. A quick overview of what I want to achieve; I want to live forever. I want to do that by leaving a legacy and a lasting mark on the fitness industry that I love so much. The greater picture is to inspire others to better themselves and reach their goals. I will achieve this by reaching two smaller goals; achieve IFBB pro status, land a magazine cover.

Currently I am training for a National NPC (date/show to be determined) Men's Physique show after placing 3rd at the New England Championships in Boston last year. I am also in negotiations with Silver Model Management in NYC. I am in a mass building phase right now. I know to have a shot at earning pro status or to get any major opportunities in fitness modeling, I will need to be bigger. So the following is a routine that I came up with this week. It's a six day split, alternating push days and pull days with some HIIT cardio thrown in. I have workout ADD so expect this to change constantly.

Monday - Chest.
I gave chest it's own day, and of course Monday is international chest day. My upper chest is a weak point and I need drastically add more width to my chest, so it get's lots of love.
Incline bench press - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with a drop-set at the end for 20 reps.
Incline dumbbell flys - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10 reps
Flat bench press - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with a drop-set at the end for 20 reps
Flat dumbbell flys - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10 reps
Dips (weighted if possible) - 4 sets of 15

Tuesday - Back / Biceps
Wide pull ups - 5 sets to failure
Bent over barbell rows - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with a drop-set at the end for 20 reps
T-bar rows - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with a drop-set at the end for 20 reps
Seated incline dumbbell biceps curl - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10 reps each arm
Dumbbell concentration curls - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10 reps each arm

Wednesday - HIIT cardio / abs
20 minutes of HIIT cardio. I like to do weight training here.
Abs - one exercise per ab region. 4 sets of 12-15 reps. I train abs with heavy resistance to build the deep cuts and valleys.

Thursday - Shoulders / Triceps
Barbell military press (behind neck) - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with a drop-set at the end for 20 reps
Arnold dumbbell press - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with a drop-set at the end for 20 reps
Dumbbell lateral raise - 4 sets, 20 , 15, 12, 10 reps
Skull crushers - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with a drop-set at the end for 20 reps
Dumbbell kickbacks - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10 reps each arm

Friday - Legs
Barbell squats - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10 reps with a drop-set for 20 reps at the end
Seated leg extensions - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10
Stiff leg dead lift - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10 with a drop-set for 20 reps at the end
Lying leg curls - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10
Walking barbell lunges - 4 sets of 12 reps each leg

Saturday - Abs / weak-point training
Abs - one exercise per ab region. 4 sets of 12-15 reps. Same format as Weds.
Weak-point training - any body part that needs some extra love. Forearms, calves, traps, etc.

Sunday - rest / active rest
I never really rest. Between my wife and kids, I am always out doing some sort of activity.

[Adam1125]

Today is Wednesday, and I have completed the first three days of this routine. So far I really enjoy it. I have really plateaued as far as my size gains are concerned lately and I really think I was just training too hard. For months I have been super setting everything and attacking my workouts with such ferocity that I think they turned into cardio lifts rather than hypertrophy. I am taking in 3900-4200 cals a day and should certainly be gaining, but my progress has been stale. I think this style of training will restart my gains. I will breakdown my feedback below.

Mondays chest routine was good. I always concentrate on full range of motion, with slow and controlled reps. The drop-sets at the end of my heavy lifts really give a great pump. I kept rest times around 1.5 minutes for the bench presses, around 1 minute for the flys and dips. I performed the dips as Steve Cook demonstrated in his Big Man on Campus trainer and they worked really well to blast the chest. I felt like I still had some gas in the tank at the end, so I threw in 3 sets of dumbbell pullovers. For next week I think I will add weight to the dips since I didnt do it this week.

Tuesdays back and biceps routine was excellent. I was able to stick right around 12 reps each set of wide pull-ups and threw in some extra negatives at the end to smoke the lats. I really need to widen my back so I push hard during these pull ups. Both the bent over and T-bar rows I performed with slow and controlled motion, holding the contraction at the top of the lift before lowering the weight. I can really feel the DOMS all through my back. I performed the bent over rows with a wide grip so I can get my elbows up as high as possible. T-bar rows I performed with a shoulder width, pronated grip. I really emphasize the stretch on these to elongate the lats and they were screaming by the end! Great burn in the lower back just from the isolation of these exercises. I have never grouped bi's and back before and it was a pleasant surprise at how pumped they got so quickly. It took very little weight to smoke them out at the end. I can really feel the DOMS in my bi's today, something that I have been missing for a while.

Today was HIIT cardio and abs. I like to use weight training to do my HIIT, so I chose to do barbell squats and barbell clean and presses. This was very light weight, only a dime on each end of the bar. I performed 30 squats, immediately after performed 20 clean/press then rested 45 seconds. I repeated that 10 times. I was done in just about 18 minutes and felt pretty gassed. After a five minute rest, I hit abs. I did 4 sets of floor wipers, 4 sets of weight crunches and 4 sets of ab rollers using a barbell.

Note: I do not track the pounds that I lift. I used to but found that I become consumed with just beating last weeks numbers and would cheat out reps with poor form just to beat it. Now I just listen to my body. Also, I constantly vary exercises/equipment so the chances of this weeks workouts being the same as next weeks are slim to none.

[Adam1125]

Today was shoulders and triceps. I have been very careful with my shoulders since I dislocated my right shoulder on New Years Eve opening the lid of a dumpster (WTF). Today was the first day since then that it has felt near 100% and I could complete a military press with pain free, full ROM. I am learning to love barbell military press behind the neck, the burn is just fantastic. The arnold dumbbell presses were just the icing on the cake. Once I finished those two exercises, it was painful just letting my arms hang at my sides!

Surprisingly, I was able to do a considerable amount of weight during the skull crushers. I thought my tri's would be more burnt out from the shoulder presses, but they had plenty of gas. I performed the dumbbell kickbacks by lying face down on an incline bench and kicking the DB's back like ski poles. I find this saves time since you can hit both arms at the same time and it isolates the triceps more by keeping your upper body immobilized on the bench.

[Penile_Dementia]

I like it.

You're not afraid of hard work.

Best of luck with the show and the negotiations

[Adam1125]

Thank you! I Love hard work, but love the rewards more. Best of luck to you as well in your own battle

[Adam1125]

I'm in week 2 now and really enjoying this routine. My back routine today ran long, so I will be hitting arms later this week. My weight is still hovering around the same 195 lbs, but I am already seeing visible changes in my physique. Mostly in my chest, back and legs. With the extra focus on the incline press and incline flys, my chest is literally changing shape, becoming much wider with much more of a sweep along the bottom outer portion rather than a squared off block appearance. This is exactly what I wanted to accomplish.

I was concerned that my lats would not grow as much as I wanted with only one set of pull ups, but the extra width is noticeable. It goes to show that using maximum intensity with good form can grow muscle even with only a handful of exercises. Strength is also increasing, I felt like a machine today.

Utilizing front squats seems to really make my quads pop. It also is much easier on my knees than traditional squats. I am guessing this is because of the reduced weight. I raced motocross for 7+ years when I was younger and it did a number on my knees and ankles. I have always struggled with squatting any amount of heavy weight due to knee pain, but the front squats dont seem to aggravate them.

I am considering changing Wednesday to just shoulders and Thursday to arms alone to give some extra love to those body parts. With only doing two triceps exercises on day four, I just didnt feel my tri's got enough of a pump. Shoulders and Arms dont seem to be progressing as much as the rest of my physique, so I am hoping that giving them more focused attention will wake them up. Also with my weight still stagnate, I am going to do away with the mid week cardio day. Saturday I will devote to abs, calves and forearms.

I started logging my heavy lifts so I can really concentrate on progressive overload. It will take a lot of will power to keep my ego in check and not become obsessed with the pounds/reps. I will post these after a full week of training.

[envier]

Today was shoulders and triceps. I have been very careful with my shoulders since I dislocated my right shoulder on New Years Eve opening the lid of a dumpster (WTF). Today was the first day since then that it has felt near 100% and I could complete a military press with pain free, full ROM. I am learning to love barbell military press behind the neck, the burn is just fantastic. The arnold dumbbell presses were just the icing on the cake. Once I finished those two exercises, it was painful just letting my arms hang at my sides!

Surprisingly, I was able to do a considerable amount of weight during the skull crushers. I thought my tri's would be more burnt out from the shoulder presses, but they had plenty of gas. I performed the dumbbell kickbacks by lying face down on an incline bench and kicking the DB's back like ski poles. I find this saves time since you can hit both arms at the same time and it isolates the triceps more by keeping your upper body immobilized on the bench.

I had a shoulder dislocation as well ... When I did get back to heavy training behind the neck press seems to the most comforatable excerzise ..in the last six monts I rotated my side laterals Before my presses... U would not believe the difference that made in my shoulder development will be posting up some pics of that soon ... The. Combonation of the 2 excerzise are unbeatable .. I would encourage U to try it out sometime... Keep up the good work

[Retoaded]

workout journal section ---------------------------------->


(may want to ask mods to move it!)



(good luck!)

[Adam1125]

Thanks man, I will definitely have to try it out. I did shoulders today so maybe I will give it a shot next week!

[Adam1125]

Sorry, I meant to start it in the Journal section. Thanks for the heads up