Tom Venuto's BodybuildingSecrets.com - Chest, Biceps & The Six Pack Ab Attack

Chest, Biceps & The Six Pack Ab Attack

Tom Venuto, CSCS, CPT

Wednesday, September 7th, 2005. This workout was almost identical to last week’s chest & biceps workout, including the swiss ball work, and I was able to move up in poundage on the chest exercises this week (despite being carb depleted into a mind and body-numbing fog). I also turned up the abdominal training a notch…

CHEST

A1 Smith Machine Incline Press: 2 warm up sets; Set 1: 185 lbs x 14 reps; Set 2: 195 lbs X 12 reps; Set 3: 205 lbs X 9 reps; Set 4: 175 lbs, 155 lbs, 135 lbs X 8, 6, 6 reps (drop set)
B1 Swiss Ball Dumbbell Press: 3 sets X 70 lbs X 10, 9, 8 reps X 4021 tempo
B2 Push up with feet on swiss ball: 3 sets X bodyweight X 11, 10, 8 reps; no rest between supersetted exercises B1 & B2, 60 seconds rest between supersets
C1 Cable Crossovers: 3 sets X 60 lbs X 20, 18, 17 reps

BICEPS

A1 Standing Dumbbell Curls Up and down the rack: 1 “set” X 45, 50, 55, 50, 45, 40, 35, 30 lbs X 6-8 reps per weight
B1 close grip straight bar “Perfect curls” (lean back at bottom/start, lean forward at finish/top of curl): 3 sets X 75 lbs X 8-12 reps
C1 Dumbbell Concentration Curl: 2 sets X 35 lbs X 8-12 reps
D1 Icarian Curl Machine one arm: 2 sets X 40 lbs X 8-10 reps

ABS

A1 Hanging straight leg raises: 3 sets X bodyweight X 15-20 reps
A2 Hanging Knee Ups: 3 sets X 15-20 reps; No rest between supersetted exercises A1 & A2, 60 seconds rest between supersets
B1 Kneeling Cable Crunch: 3 sets X 60 lbs X 25 reps
B2 standing oblique cable crunch (holding rope): 3 sets X 50 lbs X 25 reps per side; no rest between supersetted exercises B1 & B2, 30 seconds rest between supersets
C1 Incline reverse Crunches: 3 sets X bodyweight X 25 reps

Workout Commentary

I started off with the Incline Smith machine press, doing straight sets again like last week, with about 10 more pounds than last week. Still nothing super heavy, but by doing these really strictly and squeezing and contracting the pecs at the top of each rep, the moderate weights I used were more than enough.

I’m really digging the swiss ball dumbbell presses. You activate your core musculature to stabilize your body on the ball, of course, but I’m not really considering this a “core exercise.” I really like the effect it’s having on my pecs. The superset into the push ups is a nice combination as well. I get a great pump, and I feel a little soreness in the pecs the next day.

The final chest exercise was cable crossovers and this time I went for high reps, as many as 20 per set, every rep with a good squeeze in the contracted position.

Last week I started a new bicep routine including up and down the rack dumbbell curls, barbell “perfect curls”, concentration curls and machine curls. I liked the effect of that routine, so I repeated it again today and once again got a monster pump. (I thought I might be able to get up to the 60 pound dumbbells today, but not a chance… I was whipped by the time hit the 55 pounders today… the bi’s were screaming for mercy!)

I usually only do three exercises for biceps, sometimes even only two, but today I did four. However, on the last two movements, I only did two sets each. The total sets for biceps were only 8, although if you wanted to, you could easily count the up and down the rack “set” as multiple sets in one.

I turned the ab workout up a notch and went back to my favorite abdominal superset: hanging straight leg raises supersetted to hanging knee ups. Hanging leg raises are one of the most difficult ab exercises you can do and most people cant do them with proper form. If you can do them right, it’s absolutely one of the best, especially when you superset the straight leg raises into bent knee ups. I like to perform these hanging from the ab slings on the chin up bar. It’s not the same doing them from the support leg raise (the machine where your elbows are supported on pads and your back is against the pad).

That’s a wrap. Gotta go eat…. Chicken and broccoli… chicken and broccoli… chicken and broccoli… yum!

Posted 07 September, 2005 in Workouts

Comments

jerry said:

was there any rest in between drop sets for chest set # 4?
what about biceps A1 up and down rack?

thanks

Posted on Sep 14, 2005 10:40 PM

Tom Venuto said:

Supersetted exercises that have no rest in between are noted by A1, A2 or B1, B2, etc. Supersets, by definition are two exercises with NO rest in between.

If I list A1, B1, C1, that would indicate no supersets, only regular straight sets, and between these exercises I take a minute or two, or however long it takes me to set up the new exercise station, load the barbell, etc.

On up and down the rack there is no rest between most of the weight changes, except a couple of the weight changes on the way down when the burn became unbearable; then 10 seconds to shake out the arms allowed some of the acid to dissipate.

Posted on Sep 17, 2005 07:23 AM