Fadi
...
Ask anyone about an exercise to help you build some serious mass on your lower body, and inevitably the squat would be highly recommended. Well, if your wish is to add some serious muscles on your upper torso, then one of the old favourites of bodybuilders is the D/bell pullovers across a bench.
Some may say that they don’t really feel a direct muscle burn the next day. Others may object that they don’t really know which muscles this powerhouse of an exercise really targets. Here’s the good news: I belonged to both of these groups when I was treating this exercise just like any other. However things took a drastic turn for the best when I decided to inject some real life into this beast. Here’s what I did and I was at my heaviest best (90kg at 165cm tall) at the time of training in such a way.
You pick a d/bell you can do 20 reps with and you aim to do 8x8. Ah, but there’s two ways you can do this and I do prefer one over the other. But before we get to that, l want to stress that the rest intervals between these eight sets is going to be no longer than exactly 30 seconds, period! We’re going to fry our muscles so deep that you’re going to feel muscles that you didn’t know you had within the following 36 hours post training. To say that the long head (the meaty part) of your triceps would be screaming with pain or your teres major making you feel as if you’ve stuffed a book under your armpits would be an understatement indeed.
Now to the way I prefer to blast these combination of muscles and to the way I found best in stimulating them deep within.
Okay, 8x8 is what is required. 30 seconds break is maximum time taken between sets. What I like to do here is to actually perform the full 20 reps on my first set, that’s right. All the way to 20 reps (which is = to 20RM), i.e. 100% effort!
Post the first set of 20, your reps would take a sharp dive south which is predictable and understandable. As long as you don’t go below 8 reps irrespective of come what may then all would be fine. That means if you have to introduce some rest-pause reps in order to finish the set then so be it. However I don’t think it should get to that though, not with a weight you could manage 20 reps with.
The 30 seconds rest intervals are going to give you about a 73%-75% recovery in peak power output, which is just enough to get the job done while simultaneously placing your muscle fibers under enough stress to cause some serious and new adaptation to occur. http://www.brianmac.co.uk/energy.htm That in bodybuilding language = more muscle mass!
What should you feel after the 8 sets are done and dusted? You should feel as if someone has just hit you with a 4x2 across both your back and chest areas.
So here’s the plan. Walk into the gym and do nothing but these 8 sets for your upper body, then perform squats if you wish for your lower body and get the hell out of that iron dungeon. You’re well and truly done for that day with only these two exercises!
Give it a go and let me know how you do. All the best and thank you for reading.
PS: Nearly forgot, here's what's going to get hammered!
1. Lats
2. Chest
3. Triceps (long head)
4. Teres major
5. Serratus anterior
6. Parts of your shoulders
7. Obliques
8. Abs
9. And possibly some other muscles not listed above.
Fadi.
Some may say that they don’t really feel a direct muscle burn the next day. Others may object that they don’t really know which muscles this powerhouse of an exercise really targets. Here’s the good news: I belonged to both of these groups when I was treating this exercise just like any other. However things took a drastic turn for the best when I decided to inject some real life into this beast. Here’s what I did and I was at my heaviest best (90kg at 165cm tall) at the time of training in such a way.
You pick a d/bell you can do 20 reps with and you aim to do 8x8. Ah, but there’s two ways you can do this and I do prefer one over the other. But before we get to that, l want to stress that the rest intervals between these eight sets is going to be no longer than exactly 30 seconds, period! We’re going to fry our muscles so deep that you’re going to feel muscles that you didn’t know you had within the following 36 hours post training. To say that the long head (the meaty part) of your triceps would be screaming with pain or your teres major making you feel as if you’ve stuffed a book under your armpits would be an understatement indeed.
Now to the way I prefer to blast these combination of muscles and to the way I found best in stimulating them deep within.
Okay, 8x8 is what is required. 30 seconds break is maximum time taken between sets. What I like to do here is to actually perform the full 20 reps on my first set, that’s right. All the way to 20 reps (which is = to 20RM), i.e. 100% effort!
Post the first set of 20, your reps would take a sharp dive south which is predictable and understandable. As long as you don’t go below 8 reps irrespective of come what may then all would be fine. That means if you have to introduce some rest-pause reps in order to finish the set then so be it. However I don’t think it should get to that though, not with a weight you could manage 20 reps with.
The 30 seconds rest intervals are going to give you about a 73%-75% recovery in peak power output, which is just enough to get the job done while simultaneously placing your muscle fibers under enough stress to cause some serious and new adaptation to occur. http://www.brianmac.co.uk/energy.htm That in bodybuilding language = more muscle mass!
What should you feel after the 8 sets are done and dusted? You should feel as if someone has just hit you with a 4x2 across both your back and chest areas.
So here’s the plan. Walk into the gym and do nothing but these 8 sets for your upper body, then perform squats if you wish for your lower body and get the hell out of that iron dungeon. You’re well and truly done for that day with only these two exercises!
Give it a go and let me know how you do. All the best and thank you for reading.
PS: Nearly forgot, here's what's going to get hammered!
1. Lats
2. Chest
3. Triceps (long head)
4. Teres major
5. Serratus anterior
6. Parts of your shoulders
7. Obliques
8. Abs
9. And possibly some other muscles not listed above.
Fadi.
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Man I haven't seen that before mate. Thank you kindly for that input Sir.