Tuesday 24 August 2010

30-Min Chest and Shoulders Blitz

Location: Woodcock Sports Centre, Aston University
Day: 6.45am - Tuesday - 24th August

5 x 5 Dumbbell Chest Press (30kg, 30kg, 30kg, 30kg, 28kg)
3 x 10 Hanging Leg Raise
4 x 5 Clean and Press (strict - no jerking - 35kg, 35kg, 30kg, 30kg)
1 x 12 Upright Rows with barbell (EZ bar - 30kg)
3 x 10 Pec Deck (can't remember the weight)

Performed in the traditional way - my partner, then me. Not much rest other than waiting our turn.

Total Time: 31 minutes

Nutrition (higher carb, lower fat on workout day, based on my Leangains experiment):

20 minutes before: 10g BCAA
1 hour after: 10g BCAA
3 hours after: 10g BCAA

Lunch (12:00pm) - 2 tins of tuna, 1 tin of sardines, a sweet potato, beetroot, lemon juice (+ a banana to finish)

Dinner (7:15pm) - 2 hare front legs, cod fillet, sweet potato, fried onions, mushrooms & tomatoes, broccoli

The rogue set of upright rows were instead of a fifth set of clean and press. We'd toasted our shoulders with the dumbbell chest press, so the weight we could use for clean and press was not challenging our rear and side delts.

I'm really getting to like using the EZ bar for upright rows. I hold it with a narrow grip, hands only about 6 inches apart. This allows me to keep my elbows high and execute the last few reps slowly with a good squeeze - much better than the wider grip with a flat bar that seems to necessitate cheating for the final few reps.

As you can see, we also did some pec deck. I started doing flies, then remembered why I hated them and switched to the machine. They seem to aggravate my shoulders and the most effort is required at wrong part of the range of movement.

In any case, I am not sure why we bothered with either. As we well know, we should be concentrating on the big, compound movements, and ideally bodyweight. I guess we are just taking a trip down memory lane since we are having a push to get a bit bigger and stronger.

I have been feeling tired in the last 48 hours. I need to be careful to balance the running with the weights.

I think I got the eating right today. Lots of Paleo carbs, pretty low fat and lots of protein. Looking forward to a fast and some fatty steak tomorrow.

2 comments:

river rance said...

Did that workout, had to add close push ups (no pec dec)…completely gassed and the 30-min was quick.
When you say 10g of BCAA's would you kindly post the break down of the :L-leucine, L-isoleucine and L-valine. Thanks in advance
River

Methuselah said...

Hi - here is a link to the BCAA product I use. Hope you enjoyed the workout - good call with the close-grip push ups - wish I had thought of that.