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I get a lot of mail from my fans asking what exercises I do, and when. My workouts are designed to fit my needs, lifting
heavy and sticking to the basics.
I plan my whole workouts around a few important sets. I warm up before I hit the heavies, which I do, and I give my heaviest
set the most energy. I group two muscles together usually for a workout and this gives me my best workouts. This way I am
able to give enough attention to a couple of selected body parts while the other muscles are recuperating. I lift three or
four times a week. I try for four but wrestling two or three times a week sometimes makes it difficult.
From everything I've read, your muscles need at least 48 to 72 hours to recupe after being blasted in the gym but I've
found waiting closer to a week before hitting the paticular muscles again can be okay too, especially if you are trying to
build big muscles. You will hit the same muscles indirectly while working other muscles out. For example, I love to do dips.
Love 'em! Since I can't do them without hitting both chest and triceps, I plan my workouts accordingly. If I am doing chest
and triceps on the same day, great! If not, I may want to do chest on Monday with back (tonight's workout, as a matter of
fact) and later in the week, like Wednesday or Thursday do triceps with biceps. You see, I can't bench without doing triceps
(and I love to bench) and I will be hitting triceps indirectly on chest day and then blasting them a few days later, get it?
Also, my biceps almost always get pumped during a back workout. This is just because of the movements my body makes during
the exercises. I may as well go ahead and finish biceps after back or, if I have another routine in mind, I will let bi's
rest a couple days and blast them directly after adequate time.
I change my workouts every time I am in the gym and always have. I always change the combination of muscles I'm working,
or the exercises I'm doing, or the number of reps. Most exercises are compound, which means they work more than just one muscle.
I also change the weight every set and usually, increasingly, do less reps as I add weight. I find six to twelve sets for
each muscle is plenty, depending on what your goals are. I do about ten sets for each, divided into three exercises. These
are usually a basic heavy lift followed by a couple of lighter lifts. I do the heavy first (after warming up) because that's
when my strength is the greatest. Okay, my whole workout takes about an hour and now you're ready for some examples.
After stretching, I usually pick about three different exercises for each body part I'm going to work.
The following are some of my favorites to choose from:
CHEST- bench press, incline press, dumbell presses, dumbell flyes,pec deck, cable cross flyes
SHOULDERS- Behind neck press, military press, dumbell shoulder press, dumbell side/front lateral raises, uprightrows,
shrugs
TRICEPS- dips, nose busters, reverse grip bench press, over head dumbell tricep extension, cable tricep machines, dumbell
kick backs
BICEPS- standing alternate dumbell curls, barbell curls, concentration curls, one arm curls with cable
BACK- dead lifts, pull ups, t-bar rows, lat pull downs, bent over rows with barbell/dumbells, seated pully rows
LEGS- squats, leg presses, hack squats, leg extension, leg curl,stiff legged dead lifts, any calf machines
Everyday before I hit the weights, I do some cardio to warm up (after stretching). Usually this will be six minutes on
the stair master or running on the treadmill. A little more time is good, too, but this will get my blood flowing. Then I
warm up the muscle I will be working, to tell my blood where to go. Here's an example of what I do in a week:
DAY 1: CHEST & BACK
Exercise
Set
Reps
Weight
Bench Press
1
12-15
135 pounds, very easy
2
10
225 pounds, easy
3
6-8
315 pounds, still no struggle, just starting to slow
4
3-4
405 pounds, very hard, bust it
5
4-6
335 pounds, slow, negative set, intense
Dumbell Bench
6
10
100 pounds, easy
7
8-10
120 pounds, getting tougher
8
6-10
135 pounds, that felt good, love the pump!
Pec Deck/Fly Machine
9
10-12
Whatever, squeeze that bitch!
10
10-12
A little heavier, easy enough to do slow
Lat Pull Downs
11
10-12
Easy
12
10
Add some weight
13
8-10
Heavy set!
T-Bar Rows
14
10
Pretty easy
15
10
Heavier, I add a 45-pound plate each time
16
6-8
I love doing these super heavy
Seated Pulley Rows
17
10-12
Not too easy, almost done, so lift!
18
10
Actually cuss on this one!
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