Tom Venuto's BodybuildingSecrets.com - “Evil, Sadistic Trainer” or “Masochistic, Sucker For Punishment Client?”… You Decide…

“Evil, Sadistic Trainer” or “Masochistic, Sucker For Punishment Client?”… You Decide…

Tom Venuto, CSCS, CPT

Thursday, September 15th, 2005. Today is Shoulders, Triceps, Abs and enough cardio to strip the fat off an overbloated Hippo. I’ve only been hitting one session a week with Richie over the last couple of months (taking the rest of the workouts on my own, or with my weekend training partner Kostas), but when I do work with Richie, I schedule shoulders with him more often than any other body part. It’s workouts like this one that have helped me make substantial improvement in what used to be a weak body part… but geez, you should see the crazy s**t he puts me through!!! check out this workout!

DELTOIDS/TRAPS

A1 Smith Machine Military Press: 1 set X 95 lbs, 115 lbs, 125 lbs X 6, 6, 5 reps (ascending set)
A2 Incline Bench dumbbell Lateral raise: 1 set X 20 lbs X 12 reps; No rest between supersetted exercises A1 & A2, 60 seconds rest between supersets
B1 Smith Machine Military Press: 1 set X 155 lbs, 135 lbs, 115 lbs, 95 lbs X 6, 6, 5, 5 reps (descending set)
B2 Incline Bench dumbbell Lateral raise: 1 set X 20 lbs X 5 reps at vertical bench angle, then 5 reps X 70 degree bench angle, then 5 reps X 50 degrees bench angle, then 5 reps X 30 degree bench angle; No rest between supersetted exercises B1 & B2, 60 seconds rest between supersets
C1 Smith Machine Military Press: 1 set X 155 lbs, 135 lbs, 115 lbs, 95 lbs X 6, 6, 5, 5 reps (descending set)
C2 Incline Bench Lateral raise: 1 set X 20 lbs X 5 reps at 30 degree bench angle, then 5 reps X 50 degrees bench angle, then 5 reps X 70 degree bench angle, then 5 reps X bench vertical; No rest between supersetted exercises C1 & C2, 60 seconds rest between supersets
D1 One arm cable upright row
: Set 1: 50 lbs X 12 reps; Set 2: 50, 60, 70 lbs X 7, 7, 7 reps (ascending set); Set 3: 60 lbs X 10 reps, hold at top of each rep 3 seconds
D2 Bent Over cable lateral – straight arm (locked elbow): 3 sets X 40 lbs X 8-12 reps (to failure); No rest between supersetted exercises D1 & D2, 60 seconds rest between supersets
E Seated rope Rows to neck: Set 1: 70, 60, 50 lbs X 8, 6, 6 reps (descending set); Set 2: 60 lbs X 15 reps; Set 3: 60 lbs X 12 reps

TRICEPS

A1 One Arm bent over rope pushdown: 2 warm up sets; 3 Sets X 70 lbs X 12 reps
B1 Lying Tricep Extension – multi angle technique: 3 sets X 75 lbs X 7 reps to chin, 7 reps to forehead, 7 reps behind head, rest 10 seconds between each 7 rep round
C1 Seated Dumbbell Extension behind head (all drop sets): 3 sets X 90 lbs X 6, 6, 6 reps, drop to 45 lbs X 20, 18, 15 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, 60 seconds rest between supersets
C1 Incline reverse Crunches: 3 sets X bodyweight X 25 reps

Workout Commentary

Once again, I trained shoulders with Richie today. It was one of my goals this year to bring up my deltoids so I would look wider and command more attention from the judges standing relaxed in the symmetry round.

I don’t know how Richie keeps inventing this crazy S**t, (although I’m not complaining… it keeps me growing… and it sure aint “boring!”), but he just keeps turning up the heat and pushing me to higher levels… Every time I think we’ve reached the maximum level, Richie always pulls out another level of intensity and keeps creating new workouts I have never done before.

We started on the smith machine with military presses supersetted to lateral raises on the incline bench. For the first set of Military presses, we did our old standby, the ascending set (aka “add set”), then quickly rushed over to the incline bench lateral raises for 12 reps with 20 lbs.

The form on the lateral raises was quite particular (which necessitated using only 20 lbs). My elbows were completely locked (Straight arms), and I lowered the dumbbells ALL the way down for a full stretch. On the concentric part of the movement (lifting the weight), I went a little bit beyond parallel to the floor, so this was a very full range movement.

On round two of this “EVIL” superset, we did a drop set on the military presses, and then it got REALLY interesting. I rushed over to the lateral raises and richie had me do 5 reps with the bench set at vertical, then he lowered the angle to about 70 degrees (steep incline) for 5 more, then he lowered it again to about 50 degrees for 5 more reps, then finally to a low incline of about 30 degrees for 5 more reps (20 reps total). I got only about 3-5 seconds rest between each 5 rep phase when he was moving the bench angle.

On round three (after I was finished cursing Richie and all his descendants for the punishment of round two), we did the same thing, only in reverse (increasing the angle from low to vertical for the lateral raises).

Man, my delts were toast, and this was just the first frickin exercise! Oh well… I guess I signed up for this, eh?

Next, we went over to the cable crossover machine where richie attached a single pulley handle to the low pulley and set the pin at a light 50 lbs. “Upright rows,” he commanded.

One arm upright rows with a cable… very interesting… I thought I had done these every which way, but I guess I was wrong: I had done barbell (of course), dumbbell, cable with a bar and even cable with a rope, but it never dawned on me to do one arm cable upright rows.

Once again, the form was particular. I raised all the way up and held every single rep for a count of two at the top, and then lowered the weight very slowly under control. Without resting at all, richie lowered the weight to 40 lbs and commanded me to do one arm bent over lateral raises for rear delts. Here’s the kicker: 100% straight armed (locked elbow). Man, that makes this exercise a bitch! Most people bend the elbow on these, and in fact, a slight bend in the elbow is the generally “correct way” to do the cable lateral. But when you do it with TOTALLY locked arm/ straight arm, it is about 10 times more difficult (leave it to the “master of pain” to find the hardest way to do everything… of course it’s worth it, because that’s the way that gives you the most results).

Three rounds of that deltoid blasting superset, then it was on to the grand finale: seated cable rope rows to the chin. This of course, brings some of the upper back musculature into the picture (and I sometimes do this movement on back day), but after pre-exhausting my delts from front to back, I felt it primarily in the rear delts Did I say my delts were toast? Yeah, they were toast after the first exercise! Now they were BURNT toast! Is he an evil, sadistic trainer, or am I a “masochist-sucker-for-punishment” client? Not sure. Maybe a bit of both?

That was it. We blew the first 20 minutes of our hour talking contest strategy and talking about the videos we want to shoot of these kickass workout methods, so delts was all we had time for today. Another victim was waiting (would hate to delay someone else’s pain!)

I came back in the late afternoon for triceps and abs on my own.

My tricep and ab workout was a repeat of the last one, only with slightly more weight on the tricep exercises. GREAT routine! The one arm bent over rope pushdowns are such a great exercise for polishing up the triceps in the pre contest phase. Three sets there, and I moved on to lying tricep extensions using the multi angle method again: 7 reps to chin, 7 reps to forehead, 7 reps behind head, 10 seconds between each 7 reps (did not put bar down). Ouch! Hey! I’m pretty good on inflicting pain on myself, even when the “master of pain isn’t around”, heh heh.

Last but not least for triceps: dumbbell extensions behind the head. 90 lbs didn’t feel too bad for less than 2 weeks out from a show. After 6 reps, I did drop sets for 45 lbs for 15-20 reps (6-20 heavy-light superset method).

After tri’s, I gave my abs a good working over (same routine as last week) and that was all she wrote for today… uhhh… except for cardio.

You know, I just realized something. I worked out FOUR TIMES today! I must be crazy! 5:30 am; 30 minutes of cardio. 8 am; shoulders with richie. 4 pm triceps and abs. Then I did 45 minutes on the bike at home at 9:00 pm. Yup… I’m definitely crazy.

Actually, I train more or less like a “normal human being” most of the year; lift 4 days a week - ONCE A DAY! – and do cardio only about 3X per week. But before contests, when I’m “dialing it in”, I occasionally double split my lifting, and sometimes separate my cardio from my lifting. Training is my “JOB” right now. Whatever it takes in the quest for shredded condition!

Posted 15 September, 2005 in Workouts