MC-JayCore
12-09-2003, 11:02 PM
I haven’t posted much for awhile even though I’ve been reading the boards everyday basically (uni holidays) so I thought I’d make a longish post on some of my favourite supersets/shocking methods for each body part. If you have reached a plateau or want to mix it up a little, try some of these. I know most of you have heard about these before, I’m not claiming to have invented any of them, but give them a go.
Chest
This is just a tip here, for those of you lifters who like me seem to have stronger delts and tri’s then your chest, then BB bench press is probably not the most effective exercise you can do. Try parallel bar dips, these are money. Make sure you fully stretch and warm up before hand though, I like to pre-fatigue the chest with 2 sets of flat DB flies first. With the dips, make sure that you use a good range of motion and try to have your body close to 45 degrees at the top of the movement to stress your pecs the most. You can still do a few sets of BB bench later on in your workout, though you will have to sacrifice some weight so if you are someone with a huge ego you may not want to try this.
Good supersets are:
Flies (flat or incline) with DB bench
Flies with straight arm DB pullovers
Pec dec 1 and 2 half reps (from Jacob Wilson's original 8 weeks to bigger pecs, I know its not a superset but if you have problems with your inner chest these are great)
Shoulders
I love working shoulders, here are some chill supersets:
Overhead DB presses with heavy DB upright rows
Military presses with BB upright rows (probs to Jacob for this one)
As you can see I love upright rows, I can’t imagine a shoulder workout without them.
Oh and for bringing out the most detail as possible in your medial delts try leaning cable side raises (dropsets for the hardcore)
Triceps
A killer superset for tri’s that I got from Arnie’s book is:
Skull crushers with Close grip bench press
I also like behind the back dips with overhead DB extensions
Oh and if you’ve never given reverse grip pushdowns a try, do cos they are killer
Forearms
For some reason, forearm workouts are possibly my most painful behind legs of course. These supersets just kill me, after failure it takes maybe 5 seconds before the pain subsides. Great for vascularity though…
Forearm flexors- BB wrist curls with HEAVY behind the back wrist curls
Go super heavy on the behind the back wrist curls, I’d even go so far as to suggest sacrificing ROM for weight.
Forearm extensors- EZ curl reverse wrist curls with EZ curl reverse curls (change it up with hammer curls every now and again)
The first exercise will pre-fatigue your extensors so by the time you get to the second it will be your forearms and not your biceps doing the majority of the work.
Biceps
For excellent bicep supersets I suggest you check out JWilson’s 8 weeks to bigger biceps II as it is chock full of them.
However one thing I will say and this is mainly to newbies, when working biceps CHECK YOUR FORM. I workout at a uni gym so the amount of times I see guys with tiny arms curling massive amounts of weights using terrible form is amazing. And then they wonder why their bi’s never grow… Remember: focus on getting an entire ROM, don’t go ¾’s of the way down only... when I see people doing this on preacher curls I shake my head since the best advantage of preacher curls is the stress is puts on your lower biceps. Second keep your back still, some people look like they are having a full body convulsion when curling. Third BB curls work your biceps not your front delts, don’t raise the bar with your shoulders. Lift with your muscles not your ego. Another thing about working biceps is only use EZ curl bars if you feel these in your bi’s. For most people these work your forearms a lot more than your biceps, which is why you can lift more weight on them. Thus the name, EZ curls…
Back
Not a lot to say about back except stick to heavy basic mass exercises like bent over rows, deadlifts and pull-ups/chin-ups. If you can’t do many pull-ups/chin-ups then do assisted reps with slow negatives whilst also doing pull-downs until you can. And speaking of deadlifts, I’ve got to give props to Old School for continuous grip deadlifts… these are 100% killer, if you haven’t tried them you are missing out people.
A good superset for frying your lats is wide grip, palms facing away pull-downs with close grip, palms facing towards pull-downs.
Quads
Squat. Heavy & often. I know everybody says this but really there is no substitute for heavy squats done with good form for working the entire lower body. Pre-fatigue your quads with leg extensions or finish them off with some dropsets of leg extensions and your quads will grow.
Calves
Okay this might sound simple but believe me it is the epitome of pain afterwards. Choose either standing or seated calf raises, set a weight that you can do 15 reps with, then proceed using rest/pausing to get 100 reps. That’s it. Since calves are used to endurance you should always be able to get 8-12 reps after a 5-10 second pause so this only takes 2-3 minutes, but after doing this the first time I could barely walk for a week, no exaggeration… the day after the day after, when DOMS was at its worst, I had to hobble, could barely walk up or down stairs, and had difficulty driving. I know pain doesn’t = growth but I reckon it’s a pretty good sign something’s working.
Hammies
Superset either lunges or SLDL with hamstring curls.
Cardio
There are lots of schools of thought on cardio, my advice is mix it up between long, endurance type sessions (though don’t do too many of these as it lowers T levels) and short, sharp intense sessions (such as HIIT, boxing, 400m sprints etc). Find what works best for you and stick to it.
I know none of the above is rocket science but hopefully it’ll give you some new ideas for your next workout or refresh some old ones. Comments welcome of course and post all your favourite supersets/shocking techniques/insights onto working each muscle group…
Chest
This is just a tip here, for those of you lifters who like me seem to have stronger delts and tri’s then your chest, then BB bench press is probably not the most effective exercise you can do. Try parallel bar dips, these are money. Make sure you fully stretch and warm up before hand though, I like to pre-fatigue the chest with 2 sets of flat DB flies first. With the dips, make sure that you use a good range of motion and try to have your body close to 45 degrees at the top of the movement to stress your pecs the most. You can still do a few sets of BB bench later on in your workout, though you will have to sacrifice some weight so if you are someone with a huge ego you may not want to try this.
Good supersets are:
Flies (flat or incline) with DB bench
Flies with straight arm DB pullovers
Pec dec 1 and 2 half reps (from Jacob Wilson's original 8 weeks to bigger pecs, I know its not a superset but if you have problems with your inner chest these are great)
Shoulders
I love working shoulders, here are some chill supersets:
Overhead DB presses with heavy DB upright rows
Military presses with BB upright rows (probs to Jacob for this one)
As you can see I love upright rows, I can’t imagine a shoulder workout without them.
Oh and for bringing out the most detail as possible in your medial delts try leaning cable side raises (dropsets for the hardcore)
Triceps
A killer superset for tri’s that I got from Arnie’s book is:
Skull crushers with Close grip bench press
I also like behind the back dips with overhead DB extensions
Oh and if you’ve never given reverse grip pushdowns a try, do cos they are killer
Forearms
For some reason, forearm workouts are possibly my most painful behind legs of course. These supersets just kill me, after failure it takes maybe 5 seconds before the pain subsides. Great for vascularity though…
Forearm flexors- BB wrist curls with HEAVY behind the back wrist curls
Go super heavy on the behind the back wrist curls, I’d even go so far as to suggest sacrificing ROM for weight.
Forearm extensors- EZ curl reverse wrist curls with EZ curl reverse curls (change it up with hammer curls every now and again)
The first exercise will pre-fatigue your extensors so by the time you get to the second it will be your forearms and not your biceps doing the majority of the work.
Biceps
For excellent bicep supersets I suggest you check out JWilson’s 8 weeks to bigger biceps II as it is chock full of them.
However one thing I will say and this is mainly to newbies, when working biceps CHECK YOUR FORM. I workout at a uni gym so the amount of times I see guys with tiny arms curling massive amounts of weights using terrible form is amazing. And then they wonder why their bi’s never grow… Remember: focus on getting an entire ROM, don’t go ¾’s of the way down only... when I see people doing this on preacher curls I shake my head since the best advantage of preacher curls is the stress is puts on your lower biceps. Second keep your back still, some people look like they are having a full body convulsion when curling. Third BB curls work your biceps not your front delts, don’t raise the bar with your shoulders. Lift with your muscles not your ego. Another thing about working biceps is only use EZ curl bars if you feel these in your bi’s. For most people these work your forearms a lot more than your biceps, which is why you can lift more weight on them. Thus the name, EZ curls…
Back
Not a lot to say about back except stick to heavy basic mass exercises like bent over rows, deadlifts and pull-ups/chin-ups. If you can’t do many pull-ups/chin-ups then do assisted reps with slow negatives whilst also doing pull-downs until you can. And speaking of deadlifts, I’ve got to give props to Old School for continuous grip deadlifts… these are 100% killer, if you haven’t tried them you are missing out people.
A good superset for frying your lats is wide grip, palms facing away pull-downs with close grip, palms facing towards pull-downs.
Quads
Squat. Heavy & often. I know everybody says this but really there is no substitute for heavy squats done with good form for working the entire lower body. Pre-fatigue your quads with leg extensions or finish them off with some dropsets of leg extensions and your quads will grow.
Calves
Okay this might sound simple but believe me it is the epitome of pain afterwards. Choose either standing or seated calf raises, set a weight that you can do 15 reps with, then proceed using rest/pausing to get 100 reps. That’s it. Since calves are used to endurance you should always be able to get 8-12 reps after a 5-10 second pause so this only takes 2-3 minutes, but after doing this the first time I could barely walk for a week, no exaggeration… the day after the day after, when DOMS was at its worst, I had to hobble, could barely walk up or down stairs, and had difficulty driving. I know pain doesn’t = growth but I reckon it’s a pretty good sign something’s working.
Hammies
Superset either lunges or SLDL with hamstring curls.
Cardio
There are lots of schools of thought on cardio, my advice is mix it up between long, endurance type sessions (though don’t do too many of these as it lowers T levels) and short, sharp intense sessions (such as HIIT, boxing, 400m sprints etc). Find what works best for you and stick to it.
I know none of the above is rocket science but hopefully it’ll give you some new ideas for your next workout or refresh some old ones. Comments welcome of course and post all your favourite supersets/shocking techniques/insights onto working each muscle group…