Thread: Toning my upper middle chest.

lmao, i seen the title and i was like wtf. so i jumped in this piece to see wtf you were trying to do

First day!

BW: 173.8lb

Squat: 185, 205, 225, 245 then 135x6 to ease off the muscles.
Bench Press: 195, 215, 225, 245 (Personal best!)
Bent Over Rows: 165, 195 (Way too much for my lower back), 185, 185
Lying Leg Curls: 150, 170, 190, 210
Military Press: 85, 95, 105, 105
Chin Ups: BW all the way through
Shrugs: 75, 80, 85
Pec Deck: 140, 160, 180, 200

I am very happy with the bench press and squatting. I think I will try and go up in weight for the BP next week. I may have to adjust the rows and the leg curls. Maybe switch in Deads and a machine row or seated row for them.

Lower back was suffering with 195 on the bent over rows. I think I'll continue on with them with a bit, but at a lower weight. Maybe I'll incorporate SL Deads in there by doing them up to the row position, rowing, then isometrically holding that position so my erectors get a good beating.

Congrats on the P.R's bro

Cardio Day:
We have, at the "fitness complex", a track of sorts on the third floor. It is 1/7km long. My stair laps consists of running one lap around the track, then down 2 flights of stairs, then back up.

Stairs: 7 Laps. My conclusion is that I am very out of shape.
Pushups: 10,15,20,15,10
Abwork: 6 sets of rectus abdominus and oblique work.

Light Day:

Standing Lunges: 50lb each hand x 14; 50lb each hand x 14; 50lb each hand x 12
Incline BB Bench: 155 x 10; 155 x 10; 155 x 8
Hammer Strength Machine Row: 140 x 12; 160 x 12; 170 x 9
Standing Calf Raise: 335 x 10; 355 x 10; 355 x 8;

Don't know what happened here, usually I can do more... I think today was just a bad day.

Incline DB Flyes: 30 x 12; 35 x 10; 40 x 8
Lat Pulldowns: 120 x 12; 130 x 10; 130 x 7
Tricep Pressdowns: 100 x 12; 110 x 8; 110 x 6. Failure! My triceps gave out.
Leg Extensions: 120 x 12; 130 x 12; 150 x 12

Really don't know what happened. I think I need to improve my aerobic abilities; the lactic acid burning sensation sets in really quickly.

Medium Day

Couldn't find time to get to the gym yesterday, so it it was pushed to today

Squat: 165 x 8; 165 x 8; 135 x 12
DB Bench Press: 160 x 8 x 3
Bent over Rows: 135 x 12; 155 x 8; 155 x 8
Cable Flyes: 40 x 12; 50 x 8; 50 x 8
Standing Military Press: 85 x 8; 85 x 8; 75 x 8; 75 x 7
DB Shrugs: 80 x 10; 85 x 10
BB Shrugs: 165 x 8; 165 x 7
BB Curls: 55 x 8 x 3.

Was gonna do some Leg Curls at the end to work the hams, but I was waaaay too tired. Had a very long day.

I am kinda confused. You want to squat what you can bench? 315x6 for both of your goals?

Yeah. Why not? They are both at 245 x 3 right now. I will obviously go for higher if I can.

Well why not would be you ought to be able to squat much more than your bench if you are training both equally as hard. Yeah they maybe at the same place right now, but your squat ought to blow up compared to your bench.

Hmm... I see.

I guess I will shoot for 4 plates on the Squat.

What is your current maxes?

And just be sure to set an attainable goal. Dont want to set something you cant reach within the next 6 months. Good luck.

I haven't ever attempted a 1RM, but I did do 245 x 3 on the Bench and 245 x 3 on the Squat last Monday. Both as a 4th set. The Squat was very difficult, it felt like my quads could not contract any further. but the bench was not too bad.

Heavy Day #2

BW: 175.7

Squat: 135 x 9 for warmup
185 x 4
205 x 4
225 x 4
245 x 4
255 x 3

BB Bench Press: 135 x 10 for warmup
195 x 4
215 x 4
235 x 4
255 x 2. Kinda sloppy. Did a third half-way rep aswell, but discounted it.

Bent over rows: 135 x 8 for warmup
155 x 5
175 x 4
175 x 4
185 x 4. Wierd, my back felt fine today and it is only 10lbs less than what troubled me last week.

Lying Leg Curls:
160 x 5
180 x 4
200 x 4
220 x 3

Standing Military Press:
85 x 6
95 x 4
105 x 4
115 x 3

Chin ups (Varied grip positions): BW x 7, 8, 4

Shrugs: 80 x 10, 85 x 10, 85 x 8

Pec Deck: 158 x 4 (Wierd weight, I know. I wanted 150, but forgot to take off the 8lbs the previous person left on the mini stack)
180 x 4
200 x 3
210 x 3
140 x 5

Lateral Raises (Alternating arms):
20 x 7
25 x 7
30 x 5

I don't know if it because I warmed up or if it simple because this routine is working well, but almost everything went up. +10lbs on BP, Squat and Military Press.

Cardio:

7 or 8 laps of stairs again, I kinda lost count. Followed by 2 short sprints.

Cool down, then core work. 5 sets of crunches, then my plank routine:

Horizontal for 30s, twist to the right so that I'm on one side, hold for 30s, twist back, hold for 30s. Twist to the left, hold for 30s, return to horizontal, hold for 45s.

Repeat.

To finish off, I tried doing this crazy thing. There is a thing at the gym which looks like monkey bars. I grabbed the sides, then tried to pull and stabilise myself horizontally. Only got to about 45 or 50 degress though, after many tries. I found it very tough.

Standing Lunges 45 x 14; 45 x 14; 55 x 12. (Was gonna use 50's but they were taken)
Incline BB Bench: 155 x 10;10;8
Hammer Strength Machine Row: 45 x 10; 75 x 12; 85 x 10; 95 x 8
Calf Raises: 335 x 10; 355 x 8; 355 x 8
DB Incline Flyes: 30 x 12; 35 x 10; 40 x 8
Lat Pulldowns: 120 x 12; 130 x 10; 140 x 8
Back Hyperextensions: BW+35 x 12; +60 x 11; +80 x 10
Dips: BW x 12; +20 x 10; +30 x 8; +20 x 8
Leg Extensions: 120 x 12; 140 x 12; 160 x 12.

It's october, which means there's only 3 or 4 weeks left in this routine. I will then take one week off (while studying for midterms) then start a new routine. The 3 day full body heavy, light medium split will stay, just the exercises and order will change.

Monday's workout. I didn't have time to post.

Heavy day. BW: 177.0

Normally I would have started with squats, but some guy took up the rack for the entire duration of my workout.

BB Bench Press: 135 x 10 as warmup
195 x 4
215 x 4
235 x 4
235 x 3

Bent Rows: 135 x 10 as waemup
165 x 4
175 x 4
175 x 4
175 x 4

Standing Overhead Press
85 x 5
95 x 4
105 x 4
115 x 4

Chin ups
BW x 7, 6, 4

Lying Leg Curls: 60 x 6 warmup
150 x 4
170 x 4
190 x 4
210 x 3. I think I will remove this from my heavy day and insert it into the medium day. Going heavy is hurting the tendon or muscle that lifts my leg.

Pec Deck
150 x 5
170 x 5
190 x 4
210 x 3

Shrugs:
80 x 12
85 x 10
85 x 10

Lateral Raises: weight and reps for each side.
25 x 8
30 x 6
35 x 4

I got so fed up of waiting for the squat rack that I just did one legged BW squats. Boy, those are hard to balance!

Wednesday's workout. It has been a busy week.

Lunges: 55 x 3 x 14

Incline BB Press: 135 x 9 warmup
155 x 10
155 x 10
155 x 9

Hammer Strength Machine Row:
150 x 12
170 x 10
190 x 9

Calf Raises:
335 x 12
355 x 9
355 x 7

DB Incline Flyes:
30 x 12
35 x 12
40 x 10

Lat Pulldowns:
130 x 12
150 x 10
160 x 8
130 x 7

Good Mornings: First time doing these, so I started low and worked my way up.
45 x 8
65 x 8
85 x 8
105 x 8

Tricep Rope Pushdowns
100 x 12
110 x 10
120 x 10

Farmer's Walk holding 35lb DBs
170 steps. I guess 85m?
85 steps, stop, rest, 85 more steps
hold for 40 seconds, rest
hold for 40 more seconds.

Squat: 135 x 10 warmup
185 x 3 x 8. 3 sets of 8.
225 to parallel x 5
255 to parallel x 5

DB Bench Press:
75 x 10
80 x 8
85 x 6

Seated Rows supersetted with Smith Machine Shrugs:
150 x 12; 100 + bar x 10
170 x 12; 150 + bar x 10
190 x 10; 150 + bar x 10
195 x 10; 180 + bar x 10

Dips:
BW + 25 x 12
BW + 35 x 12
BW + 45 x 8
BW + 45 x 6

Front Squats:
45 x 10
95 x 7
145 x 5. Boy these are hard. My front delts still hurt.

Chin Ups
BW x 3 x 6

Cable Flyes
40 x 10
50 x 10
50 x 8

Upper body looks considerablly stronger than lower body. Good upper body however! Have you neglected your lower half for way to long?

Yeah...

I started "working out" in grade 10. As such, I didn't really do much legs at all. I had huge triceps back then though. That was kept up for 2 years. Then I took 2 years off for some odd reason.

I took working out more seriously last year though, but even then it was still shit.

When I first started leg work this summer, I couldn't even squat 135 well. I think alot of the problems with my training is that because I'm in a difficult program at school, I don't get much rest and so my body doesn't recover adequaelty enough. At the same time, I'm almost aways sitting down, so my legs atrophy alot too.

Well I always think that if you eat enough you can make up for anything. I see your legs getting bigger just as long as you do them right and dont slack on them. I mean they have some room to grow into. If your upper body is that big then your lower ought to grow into it.

My legs have definitely gottan bigger and stronger since this summer. Size wise, they are quite proportional, but they have always been relatively weak.

Have you tried any powerlifting for them? Or powerlifting in general?

You mean go for 1RM's on the dead, squat and bench? No.,

Na just more of a powerlifting workout. Like westside?

I just looked into westside, and it looks very interesting. I may have to try it out after this routine is done.

Its fantastic. But talk to me before you do because there are different variations of it. Some say there are bodybuilders variations of it, in which I am doing. And then there of course the natural kind. With speed benching and things like that.