Krabs works the claws

[Mr_Krabs]

Right two days to report today so here goes:

Saturday: Arms

Warm up: 10mins on the bike (couple of 1 min sprints thrown in)

Ezy BB curls:

(Bar+10kg) x 12 ss with 6 close grip

(Bar+15kg) x 10 ss with 5 close grip

(Bar+15kg) x 10 ss with 3 close grip

Hammer curls (cable rope):

15kg x 10,

17.5kg x 10,

15kg x 10

Concentration curls:

12.5kg x 5 + 5 forced negs per side

10kg x 9 + 4, 9 + 3, 8 + 4

Dips (rack): BW x 10, 9, 8, 5

Skull crushers:

(Ezy bar) x 15

(Ezy bar+5kg) x 12

(Ezy bar+10kg) x 10, 9F, 8F

DB kickbacks:

5kg x 10, 10, 8 per side

Hadn’t done skulls before and really enjoyed them so theyre definitely getting added to the routine. Puts a new spin on the term failure when youre staring at your blurry reflection on the bar as your triceps begin to shake/give way.

Sunday was a rest day

[Mr_Krabs]

Monday: Back

Warm up: 10 mins on the bike

Pull-ups:

BW x 3,3,3,2 Normal grip,

3, 3 chin-up grip

Deadlifts:

Bar x 8,

60kg x 7,

70kg x 8

80kg x 5

90kg x 5

BB bent over row:

40kg x 15

50kg x 10, 10, 10

DB one arm row:

17.5kg x 10, 10, 10 per side

Well this work out was beginning of my quest to do full sets of unassisted pull ups, went a lot better than expected, 3 seemed to be the magic number though for some weird reason. First of each set was easy shot up with power feeling strong no probs then from there got harder and harder. Hopefully looks like this will follow the pattern my tricep dips did, now I can do sets of 10. Im going to try do at least 15 every back workout and eventually the plan is to have them all in one set.

.

Beginning to get the hang of deadlifts now, a few more weeks practice at 80kg and I should be able to beat my squat weights. It was surprising the difference 10kg makes between 80kg and 90kg, when it didn’t feel like much going from 70 to 80.

[rose]

Pull-ups:

BW x 3,3,3,2 Normal grip,

3, 3 chin-up grip

Crack open the Krabby Patties, you're the man for making the switch Mr Krabs :salute:

[Mr_Krabs]

Aww cheers :pfft:

Im never using the the assisted machine again, it was a totally different feel doing them unassisted, felt it alot more in the lats and less in the bis

[rose]

Im never using the the assisted machine again

Heh, my work here is done 8)

[Mr_Krabs]

Tuesday: Chest

Warm up: 10mins on the bike (1 x 1min sprint)

Wasn’t really feeling the “king ‘o’ the jungle” vibe this morn  have been having a week off the superpump 250

Bench press:

Bar x 20,

60kg x 10,

70kg x 4F,

65kg x 6,

60kg x 6

Incline DB press:

15kgs x 10, 10

20kgs x 8, 10

Incline flys:

12.5kgs x 8F, 8, 8

Machine cable flys:

20kg per side x 10, 6, 8

Cable cross:

10kg per side x 8, 7, 8 (all slow with squeeze/holds at the bottom)

Cable cross felt awesome today could really feel the chest fibres pulling (gunna be sore tomorrow)

I think Im going to drop the weight on bench for a few weeks and do high reps cos Ive been stuck on this 70kg plateau for about 6 weeks and its getting frustrating. Maybe concentrating on DB work might help also, just seem to be burning out on the old BB bench. It might even just be a mental plateau since it just happens to be the same weight as my starting body weight and Ive been working towards the bench mark of benching my own body weight for so long that my brain thinks Ive made it already when in actual fact it needs to go another 10kg at least now.

[rose]

Wasn’t really feeling the "king 'o' the jungle" vibe this morn  have been having a week off the superpump 250

Heh, mojo in a bottle? You junkie :pfft:

my brain thinks Ive made it

Set a new goal to trick it? But yeah deload and/or mix it up. Change and variety ensures success

[Mr_Krabs]

Wednesday: Arms

Today was supposed to be legs but Ive got a little niggle in my hip (maybe from mondays deads) that I didn’t want to aggravate with squats, hopefully itll be all good by tomorrow.

So was a little worried at the beginning of this workout because my arms weren’t feeling the freshest having just done mon:back and tues:chest. But once I warmed up it felt good and got one of the biggest pumps Ive ever felt in my arms, felt like my arms were squeezed into the wrong skin size or something (weird feeling).

Warm up: 10mins on the bike (felt good, Im really getting into this weird cartoon that’s on in the mornings about this lil pirate who chases candy plunder all over the seas in his adoptive whale mother, pretty screwed up really.)

Ezy BB curls:

(Bar+12.5kg) x 12 ss with 5 close grip, 10 + 5CG, 10 + 5CG

BB 21s:

Bar+5kg one set 21 style (never tried these, ouch!, always embarrassing when someone walks in and youre struggling on the last set with 2.5kg plates on the bar, I swear they felt like 10kg plates by the last 7 full reps)

Incline DB hammers:

12.5kg x 3F so lame I went straight into 10kg x 4

8kg x 10

10kg x 7F, 5F

Concentration curls:

10 kg x 10 + 5 forced negatives, 7 + 5, 8 + 5

Dip rack:

BW x 12, 9F, 6F (Going to have to start doing these with added weight soon)

Skull crushers: Loving these

(Ezy bar+10kg) x 10, 10, 8F

Anyone hazard a guess at what the Ezy bars weigh (~1m long) my guess is about 10kg? Just so I can write proper weights instead of Bar + Y. :-s

[teamfatboy]

Wednesday: Arms

BB 21s:

Bar+5kg one set 21 style (never tried these, ouch!, always embarrassing when someone walks in and youre struggling on the last set with 2.5kg plates on the bar, I swear they felt like 10kg plates by the last 7 full reps)

Anyone hazard a guess at what the Ezy bars weigh (~1m long) my guess is about 10kg? Just so I can write proper weights instead of Bar + Y. :-s

Ah - 21's - gotta love 'em, they're just so damn brutal :grin: I've got a set of BB 21s in my workout too...I try to pick a time where no-one's around :oops:

The EZ bar at my gym's 7kg...I hauled it over to the scales to check. Yep, it's about 1m long, with Olympic-size collars for the plates.

[Mr_Krabs]

Yeah thats the one, Hmmm sounds better when you call it 10kg though :pfft:

makes me wonder if the full size olympic bars are actually 20kg? I guess it doesnt really matter cos its all relative as long as theyre all the same

[rose]

Both Ezy bars at the gym I go to weigh 9kg. These apparently can vary as well, just like any bars, so it pays to check if you have scales available.

I've weighed the full size olympic bar at the gym I go to and it's 19.8kg.

The bench press bar there is 18kg. No one else has ever noticed the bench bar is shorter and 2kg lighter. So they're lifting 2kg less, suckers :pfft:

felt like my arms were squeezed into the wrong skin size or something

:shock:

[teamfatboy]

It's all the "new maths" eh. :grin: .. besides, who knows if the plates are exactly 20kg... some I've seen are marked "45lg/ 20.4kg"...and by the time you've got three plates each side, are you squatting 140kg or 19.8 + 6x20.4 = 142.2kg...

Nah, doesn't matter...just lift as hard as you can with the best form you can :nod: :grin:

[Mr_Krabs]

Thursday:

Well I jumped out of bed this morning and my hip felt good (like 95%) so the decision was made: LEG DAY!!!

Quick warm up: 5min bike

Squats: A2G (low as I could go)

Bar x 25

40kg x 10

60kg x 10, 10

90kg x 5, 5

Stiff legged deads:

Bar x 10

30kg x 10

40kg x 10

50kg x 10

Leg extensions:

50kg x 20, 19F, 17F

Calves:

235 x 12

Mixed work out today, went into it planning to do all low weight high rep work through-out but as I warmed up I decided Id throw in some 80-90% max effort squats. Squats felt really good was going all the way down till my hams/glutes were pressed to my calfs and for the first 4 sets I paused at the bottom before powering up. The pauses really helped me think about which muscles I was powering out of the hole with which is going to be really good for my technique once I get over 100kg.

This was only the second time Ive done stiff legged deads so Im still feeling out what my working weight should be, Im guessing at least 70-80kg from how it felt today. While I was doing my sets at the end of each one I was thinking “hmmm that’s nice, a warm fuzzy feeling in my hams, but surely they should be more wrecked than this?” then about 30 mins later I realised that yeah they had been working and will be nice and sore tomorrow.

The high reps on the leg extension were a killer, when I got to about 10-12 reps on each set I was thinking this is too easy then BAM! the burn set in and I realised I still had to push out at least another 5 reps. Totally different from high weight low rep where pain is measured in failure rather than an inferno in the muscle belly.

Calves were a bit of a non-event this morning unfortunately, I usually throw them in with shoulders but today I tried them after all the leg work BAD IDEA, as I stepped up onto the machine and attempted to raise it by straightening my legs, nothing happend... so I climbed off and shook them out and tried again, this time I got the weights up but through the whole set I felt so unstable on my pegs I decided to call it a day there :?

[Mr_Krabs]

Friday: Shoulders/abs/calves

Warm up: 10mins on the bike (high pace, feeling good)

Seated DB shoulder press:

15kg x 12

20kg x 8

22.5kg x 6 (PB for DB press :grin: )

22.5kg x 5F

Triple super set 'o' death :twisted: (front raise-lat raise-rear fly):

Front: 10kg plate x 10, 10, 10, 10

Lat: 15kg DBs x 10, 6 + 3 cheated, 12.5kg DBs x 8 + 2, 6 + 2

Rear: 6kg DBs x 10, 8, 6, 6

Calves press machine:

235 x 12 normal width, 10 close, 9 close

Ab chair machine:

Dropset from 35kg 6 reps at each 5kg increment

DB shrugs:

25kg x 10

32.5kg x 10, 10

Always a fun one on shoulders day, got a PB on the DB presses which is always good. Was probably my triceps that failed on the press as I got them most of the way up past 45 degrees where most of the weight is sitting on your tris anyway.

The triple super set was a killer again, its almost as much cardio as a it is a weights workout the sweat was pouring and the heart was trying to jump out of my chest at the end of each set. Again these are really helping me isolate the rears on the fly as by the time I get to that all the other delts are dead so cant assist the movement.

I need to do more of these close stance calf presses to bring up my outer calf, its quite a bit smaller than the inner, probably from years of spinning pedals.

Anyone got any other ideas of how to bring up the outer calf? :-s

Had some time left over at the end so I decided to throw in some DB shrugs. I don’t usually work my taps in isolation, they already dominate my shoulders so the indirect work they get from the compound movements are good enough at the moment. Could have gone much heavier on these but if Id gone any heavier I don’t know if I could have got them back up onto the rack at the end of the set. Next time Ill just do BB shrugs, much easier to handle the high weights, maybe even smith machine.

[rose]

Anyone got any other ideas of how to bring up the outer calf?

Pointy zee toes inwards? http://www.nzbodybuilding.co.nz/file.php?id=5570&mode=view

[Mr_Krabs]

Anyone got any other ideas of how to bring up the outer calf?

Pointy zee toes inwards? http://www.nzbodybuilding.co.nz/file.php?id=5570&mode=view

Great stuff! perfect answer in there, had the narrow stance bit right just need to play with where the toes are pointing now :nod:

[ramy]

this discussion has been going on for a long time...you gotta point your toes this way and that way. the only way to change how the muscle is targetted and where is by the distance of your footplacement. you cant expect to target that portion of the calf 100% from a close stance because thats like trying to target the longhead of your bicep only or the shorthead of your tricep only with close grips its not gunna happen but for maximum load onto those muscles the one and only way is foot stance/hand grip.

remember your body is always strongest when its square. the only thing i recommend toes out or any sort of variation for is squats or deadlifts just ever so slightly just for the added stability. and another thing to remember if it doenst feel natural dont do it. all these new modern techniques half of them are just trying to test the laws of bio-mechanics, which you cant.

[Mr_Krabs]

Monday: Arms (with PT)

See my PT every second Monday so I’ve been mixing up which day of my routine I get him to train me on.

BB curls (to normal height, ~ collar bone):

20kg x 10

30kg x 10, 10, 8

BB curl (to face/eye level):

30kg x 6

25kg x 8, 6, 8

Incline hammers (right up to 90deg elbows):

10kg x 10,10,10

High cable curl to face:

20kg x 10,10,10

Reverse grip tricep pull down:

17.5kg x 10

21kg x 10

24.5kg x 10,10

Bench dips (feet on swiss ball):

BW x 10,10,10,10

Skulls:

20kg plate x 10,10,10

Well since my arms are by far my most lacking body parts I thought Id see if the PT could sort me out. Started off with a quick re-measure and well the result was very disappointing as far as my arms go, the tape measure hasn’t budged at all this year! :cry: . A little better was that I’ve put 2cm on both my glutes and quads in the last 6 weeks. In the mirror my arms have definitely changed but the problem is there has been no growth in the “peak”(can hardly see any from behind), they have thickened and grown mostly at the head nearest my arm pit.

I’m not too worried because big arms were never one of my training goals but as everybody says who doesn’t want cannons for arms so I always thought of them as a nice side effect of training.

So with all that in mind, I’ve decided my sport specific training is going so well at the moment (legs/shoulders/back continually growing) that I want to put a lot more focus on my arms. If I pluck up the courage Ill post up a pic later of my noodly arms as a “before” pic to compare any future growth to :shock: .

I haven’t decided exactly how I’m going to structure this into my routine yet but any tips on frequency or good bicep peak exercises from anybody would be great. 8)

[Mr_Krabs]

On a different note I decided to try a new pre-workout supplement this week to replace superpump 250.

Superpump was just getting too expensive and I was feeling as if I was developing a wee dependence/addiction to the stuff :shifty: .

So the interwebby shopping began and I settled on RPM from applied nutriceuticals. Why?: well this stuff has got good reviews and was cheap $65 for 110caps, also promised to mess with my hormone levels as well as give me a kick.

Tried it for the first time this morning with 2 caps 30min pre-workout (630am), the average dose is 3 caps but I’m pretty stimulant sensitive so 2 should be enough.

Very subtle stimulant to be honest, there was definitely something kicking me along but not the sort of fast paced jitteriness of superpump or adipoX maybe on 3 caps there would have been?. As for the pump I would say comparable/on par with superpump. Vascularity though; now this blew superpump out of the water, nice squiggly veins popping out of my bis while doing concentration curls. But the biggest difference between this stuff and superpump is the aggression levels, if you naturally have a short fuse Id steer clear of these, Im a pretty laid back passive guy but these things turned me into an alpha baboon! :twisted: On two occasions I almost totally lost my rag at my trainer for no reason. Once I got used to the added aggression and directed it at the weights it was pretty useful I must say.

Its almost 1pm now and I haven’t experienced any crash at all which is a good sign (not that superpump had a crash but many stims do).

Maybe tomorrow Ill try 3 caps, a little frightened of the aggression effect at 3 caps though so might stick to 2 a workout until next week.

[rose]

developing a wee dependence/addiction to the stuff :shifty:

LOL, zomg, I knew it, you junkie :pfft:

good bicep peak exercises

Slooow weighted chin ups :grin: (you knew it was coming aye? :pfft: )

When I got sick of loading up barbells/waiting my turn etc I gave two arm high gayble curls a go. Slow and controlled with a squeeze and pause at mid-point is awesome.

http://www.shapefit.com/biceps-exercises-overhead-cable-curls.html

Also doing them with the low pulleys works the bicep from a different angle.

I have details/pics at home. Will try to scan them for you tomorrow, if you're keen to try?

[rose]

good bicep peak exercises

Slooow weighted chin ups :grin: (sorry you knew it was coming aye? :pfft: )

developing a wee dependence/addiction to the stuff :shifty:

LOL, zomg I knew it, you junkie :poked:

(Sorry re last post, I saw afterwards you're already doing high gayble curls.)

[Mr_Krabs]

(Sorry re last post, I saw afterwards you're already doing high gayble curls.)

Ah ha so thats what those things are called...

Yeah today showed me that all the high movements (high elbows) hold the tension right in the belly of the bi where I want the mass

[Mr_Krabs]

I realised that I haven’t posted up of my diet/nutrition info in my journal. So here goes; this is what the krab eats on an average day

6.30am 2xVogels/Honey (cant stomach oats this early)

Protein shake, multi vit, pre-workout supp

7-8.00am Workout

8.00am Protein shake

9.00am ½ cup oats (made with 1 cup milk)

11.30am 200g meat + 1 cup cooked rice

~2.30pm Apple + Protein shake with 500ml milk

~5.00pm 1 cup oats (made up with 2 cups milk)

~7.30pm 200g meat + 1 cup cooked rice

It’s far from perfect but it’s the culmination of about 10 months experimentation and learning about what works with my metabolism and what doesn’t. This diet now has me growing muscle (for now) while keeping body fat static around 12-13 %. Probably could add something more in before bed.

I just got some dextrose in the weekend so Im going to be trialling 30g pre and 50g post workout for a couple of weeks and see what that does to my stats.

[Mr_Krabs]

Tuesday: Legs

Quick warm up: 5 min on the bike

Squats:

Bar x 25

40kg x 15

60kg x 10 (2 second pauses at bottom)

80kg x 6 (A2G)

90kg x 5 (just below parallel)

95kg x 3 (just below parallel)

Bar x 12, 10 (10 second reps)

Stiff legged deads: Light and slow today still a lil stiff from last week…

20kg x 15, 15, 15

Single legged leg press:

No plates x 10 per leg

20kg x 8, 8 per leg, 8L + 6R (right leg = fail)

Abs (weighted chair thing):

Dropset from 35kg x 8 reps at each 5kg increment (56 rep set total)

Hanging leg raise chin up grip (keeping knees to chest level) + twist:

Don’t know the proper name but did 8 reps

Decided to keep today’s workout as much in the realm of compound movements as I could. Squats with different variations in depth/stance/rep range/weight are making me really comfortable with my technique in general which is a bonus, plus it keeps the pegs guessing. Was really getting the shakes on by the last 6-10 reps on the 10 second rep sets. Would have been embarrassing to actually get to absolute failure on just the bar! Could have gone heavier on the squats but that wasn’t the focus of this workout I just really wanted to mix it up and try and exhaust the whole of my legs with compounds. Stiff legged deads are a strange one, they don’t seem to hurt any less at low weights than the higher ones (was going super low for max stretch though).

Haven’t done single leg press in quite a while really shows up any weak points between legs though. It always surprises be how little weight you can do with one leg as opposed to two. Fist time I did them I rocked up loaded the plates thinking “sweet I can do over 2 hundy with 2 legs so should be half that for one right?” jeeze way off! :shock:

Don’t know the name of that last ab/oblique exercise I was doing but I saw it ages ago and Ive been wanted to give it a go since, basically I did a chin up to raise my body then brought my knees up to chest level and held them from there I twisted them from left to right in a kind of rainbow movement I guess. Will definitely be doing these again felt them all over, maybe a few sets next time. Gota be good for the bis as well having to hold the tension the whole time. :nod:

[Mr_Krabs]

Wednesday: Back (seems there’s no longer a set order in my weekly routine at the mo)

Warm up: Bike 10mins, moderate pace (lvl 11, 110-115 rpm)

Pull ups:

BW x 4, 4, 3, 2 Normal wide grip

BW x 4, 3, 3 Chins (well halfway between chin and pull grip)

Inverted rows:

BW x 10, 8, 7

Deadlift:

40kg x 12

60kg x 10, 12, 10

Cable pullovers:

12.5kg x 10, 12, 15

Im kind of liking the lack of order at the moment theres only two rules: one day per muscle group per week still and the only things I dont put together is arms the day before back or chest other than that its free for all

My quest to do full sets of pull ups is coming along nicely, last week was 3 per set now 4 bring on next week and 5! :twisted:

Decided to continue with the BW themed destruction of my lats and went straight into inverted rows, hadn’t done these before but they’re a good way to finish off/kill the lats or warm them up if you did them first I guess.

Today was deadlift technique day so I chose 60kg as a good weight where I could feel there was weight there but it wasn’t too heavy that I couldn’t experiment and tweak things to get it pumping in all the right spots. The third and forth sets were where I really got it perfect and felt it nicely in my upper back. My problem the other week was that I wasn’t keeping my shoulder blades pinned back in the second half of the pull once I remedied that I could feel all 60kgs being held by my upper back (as opposed to just “hanging” off my traps). Next week the plan is to put the deads earlier in the workout and crack a 100kg lift out. Should be well within my grasp if the anecdotal rule that your dead should be higher than your squat is true.

Ill see how my tris feel in the morning before I decide between shoulders or chest, still feeling the tris from monday so chest will be a no go if they still feel this way tomorrow…