Exercise Made Simple (Chest + Triceps: Pushing)
Hey everyone! My name is Trevor Hardy, a guy who loves lifting weights and doing everything in between workouts to enhance and ensure an amazing next session.
I passed the Personal Trainer Certification through the company National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), worked at a commercial gym for about 8 months before burning myself out trying to be available around the clock. I didn’t have a good system in place to manage my time. Working on that still. But I did get great reviews on my ability to train people! Never give up on the things you love (unless they are harmful to yourself and others)..
My brother Benjamin Hardy has been blogging about personal development for over a year now. The spark finally hit me to make a proper blog post, at least once, to see how it feels and if it’s something I enjoy and people enjoy from me!
My Current Method
Short — and — Sweet
I’m lifting weights for an average of 40 minutes. I will do a quick joint/motion warm up to put some lubricating synovial fluid into the connection points of my muscles, which consists of some active stretching (holding a stretch for 3–5 seconds, releasing, then repeating 5–10x), and a very light set of my first move.
I will do 3–4 different exercises, the first move is where the heaviest lifting should take place when you have the most strength. Today I did 3 moves:
Smith Machine — Incline Bench Chest Press.
Why?
Because Planet Fitness doesn’t have free weight chest press barbells :/
On the optimistic side of the coin I can still stack weight plates onto the guided bar and test my strength limits. I did my one warmup set with light/easy weight, 5 reps, slowly moving through all muscle actions (pushing, holding, resisting).
So that my body can get used to the full Range Of Motion (ROM), I do every rep IN the full range, touching the bar to almost the highest possible point of my chest to develop the upper portion, then pushing to the top with fully extended arms keeping the pressure OFF my elbows & shoulders, and ON my chest, and holding at the top for a few seconds.
Then I load the most weight that I can being able to do 3 full ROM repetitions for each set, for a total of 7 sets at this weight. A key trick to being able to lift your heaviest, I learned from a Mike O’hearn video, is to take and hold a deep breath right before you push, exhaling at the top so you may begin to claim another big breath as you lower for the next rep.
I will rest for at least 90 seconds (which can feel like a long time in those moments) between each set, our body’s have different types of energy storage and the stores that are used for immediate energy that do not require oxygen (anaerobic) can take up to 5 minutes to fully recover, but only offer you up to 30–60 seconds of sustained energy before other stores (aerobic) kick in. Keeping that in mind having a timer set at 90sec will keep your rests consistent and accurate.
Dumbbell — Flat Bench Chest Press.
Why?
Because at this point having the free motion aspect of the Dumbbells will allow you to stretch out your chest muscles that have puffed up and tightened at least a little bit from all that heavy lifting from the first move.
Also because training with free weights allows your joints to develop, if you are exclusively using machines and cables I would recommend some good, old fashioned push ups or anything that requires some balancing and stabilization, otherwise your joints don’t have to do much work and won’t get stronger as your muscles progress.
Plus it just feels so good!! ^_^ I did 2 sets of 5 reps but at the bottom where I’m stretching my chest I take 3–5 deep breaths and isolate that stretched feeling, embracing the sensation as I feel my muscles tearing and breaking down (you must be torn apart before you can rebuild yourself stronger!).
Then I did one last set (only 3 total for this move) for as many reps as I could at a medium challenged weight (I chose 50lb bells) and got a clean 20reps which felt solid! I still rest for 90 seconds here because resting longer allows more blood flow into the muscles and since the first two sets I’m mainly focused on stretching and tearing muscle fibers, resting will allow them to fill up with blood and water and give a very nice pump :)
Cable w/ Rope — Seated (kinda) Overhead Triceps Extension.
Why?
For me, this feels great after all that chest pressing. Triceps are a synergist to the Pectoral muscles when pushing (pressing), so they’ve already been turned on and need some isolated attention (in my opinion).
To keep the chest involved choosing this overhead triceps move continues to stretch the chest and creates great sensation through the whole upper body, I may be seated but as you can see in the photo I still require a lot of stabilizing support.
3 sets of as many reps as you want, keep the weight challenging, but you don’t have to max out at this point in heaviness, I like to be able to do around 10 reps each set in the last movement(s) of the workout to create that final ‘burnout’.
Another amazing technique is to do ‘drop sets’ where you go until you fatigue, immediately lighten the weight approximately 25%, and continue until you fatigue again. Continuing from there is considered a ‘strip set’ and can continue until you run out of weight to remove.
This will always leave you walking away tingling with muscles burning! Rest time can shorten to 60 seconds since the goal now is to try and fully exhaust the muscles being used. I’ll be doing a chest fly type of exercise in my next chest workout. Short and sweet baby! #essentialism
Post Workout Stretching
My post weight lifting stretching cool down is very simple, do ordinary things extraordinarily well, don’t try and complicate things that don’t need complication :)
My favorite total body combo stretches are 3 yoga moves.
- Downward Facing Dog. It pretty much hits everywhere. Focus on your breathing, take 10–15 deep breaths, pushing the stretch deeper with each exhale.
2. Upward Facing Dog. They go hand in hand I mean come on haha. Same breathing concept.
3. Childs Pose. Curl up into that ball and just relax and decompress your thoughts and feelings. Focus on nothing but counting 20 deep breaths. Get up slowly and smile your way through the rest of your day!
DRINK WATER!
Dehydration will cripple your progress so ALWAYS BE HYDRATING, also not eating the right things at the right time.
An hour before a workout it’s smart to preload your body with some nutrient dense carbs (potatoes, rice, oatmeal), proteins (meat, eggs) AND healthy fats (avocado, fish, nuts) AND veggies (anything green, carrots)..
Food is fuel, when better to fuel up then before you physically CHALLENGE your body? After the workout is finished, fast digesting protein is recommended to replenish and rebuild broken down muscles, complex carbs like the ones listed above are suggested to sustain your body for an extended period to prevent further breakdown and to help keep your body full while it is in its current fuel burning state.
CONCLUSION
Workouts can be very simple and uncomplicated, they don’t have to take up very much time, you can see a lot of progress as long as you get enough sleep, you eat enough of the right food at the right time and you are ALWAYS HYDRATING! The rest of your day will be enhanced with endorphins and extra confidence and sense of accomplishment!!
Still feel unsure if you would be able to successfully create a workout or if you would find any enjoyment out of the process? Send me an email, tell me what’s going on. Maybe I could further explain any confusing aspects to you. I’m willing to help. Are you willing to learn with me? Cause I’m always a student and I choose to learn from every moment of life.
I hope you gained a lot from this, or at least SOMEthing! If not. Maybe you could teach me something?!
Let me know your thoughts and feedback, if you think I should write more blogs, or if I should go back to poetry! Haha if you made it this far, thanks! You finished!
Have a wonderful day! Slip a workout into it!
Respectfully,
Trev
