Budman's First Training Journal

[budman2002]

Ok, Easter break is done. My gym has been closed over the weekend, and I've been WAY too busy to work out. Today I got back into it with this arm workout:

Incline bench dumbbell curls: 5 sets of 10,8,6,4,4 reps
Cable curls w/ pulldown bar: 5 sets of 8,6,4,4,4 reps
Seated dumbbell curls: SAME
Preacher bench dumbbell curls: SAME

Close-grip bench press: 5 sets of 10,8,6,6,6 reps
One-handed dumbbell extensions: 4 sets of 8,6,4, reps
Dips between benches (weighted): 5 sets of 12,10,8,6,6 reps
Dumbbell kickbacks: 3 sets of 6,4,3 reps

[budman2002]

Ah, leg day. Since my legs are still fairly underdeveloped, I'm still not putting as many sets into them as I would chest or biceps, but I definitely train as intensely:

Leg press: 10 sets of 12,10,8,6,4,3,2,1,1,1 reps (whew)
Adductor machine: 4 sets of 8,6,4,4 reps
supersetted with:
Abductor machine: 4 sets of 8,6,4,4 reps
Romanian deadlifts: 3 sets of 12,10,8 reps
Seated calf raises: 5 sets of 10 reps (problems with this one, which I'm going to post in the hardcore training forum)
Reverse calf raises: 5 sets of 10,8,6,4,4 reps

Not as many sets as I would do for an arm workout, but I can barely walk now. Also, my arm workout yesterday was successful, as every tricep head and bicep area is sore. It seems that when I implement cable exercises into my routine, I get the best DOMS from those, so I'll stick with 'em. Hmm, oh yeah, I gained a pound since Friday, so I'm happy about that.

I also figured out a new split:

Day 1: Biceps, triceps
Day 2: Quads, hamstrings, calves
Day 3: Chest, forearms
Day 4: Shoulders, traps, back
Day 5: Rest

Abs are done every other day, so one week they'll be on days 1, 3, and 5, while the next week they'll be on days 2 and 4. The reasoning behind this split is that I put a lot of strain on my traps during both back and shoulder days, so I combined all of those in one workout session. Also, I can now do chest without worrying about shoulder or triceps DOMS. That's all for today. Comments welcome!

[budman2002]

So far today I've done chest:

Incline bench barbell press: 5 sets of 8,6,4,3,2 reps
Parallel bar dips: 5 sets of 10,8,6,5,4 reps
Machine flys: 5 sets of 8,6,5,4,4 reps
Dumbbell pullovers: 4 sets of 8,6,4,4 reps
supersetted with:
Dumbbell presses: 4 sets of 10 reps
Cable flys: 4 sets of 8,6,4,4 reps

After this workout my chest was PUMPED like no other. Once again I omitted flat bench presses (except the moderately light ones following pullovers), due to overdevelopment in my middle pectoral regions. After just two workouts cutting out flat bench presses, my entire chest looks much more full and squared. Noticeable improvement after each workout.

[LegendaryWatcher]

Shoulders, Traps, and Back. Now that's what I am talking about Budman. Go get em bro. I throw chest in that mix as well and it takes an hour and a half to get through the workout. I took it straight from the 13 Weeks workout. It is severly killer and will leave DOMS for days. I love it. You have a great split happening and I know you will start to see some serious gains, along with some awesome soreness. Keep it my bro!!

[budman2002]

Hell yes. I did the back/traps/shoulder workout for the first time on Friday. I've been house sitting for my brother all weekend, and without Internet access, so I'm not quite sure exactly how that workout went, but here it is:

Bent over barbell rows:
First set: 10 reps, 10 lb. drop, 4 reps, 10 lb. drop, 4 reps, 10 lb. drop, and one more set of 4 reps.
I performed four more sets like this, with the same weights, so the first set of each cycle had 10,8,6,4,4 reps. After these drop sets my lats were on fire!

Incline bench prone dumbbell rows:
4 sets of 8,6,4,4 reps
High cable rope pulls:
4 sets of 8,6,4,4 reps
Wide-grip pulldowns:
5 sets of 10,8,6,4,4 reps
Close, neutral-grip pulldowns:
5 sets of 10,8,6,4,4 reps

At this point, I only had about an hour until the gym closed, but I got a pretty decent shoulder workout:

Seated dumbbell presses:
4 sets of 8,6,4,4 reps
Upright dumbbell rows:
5 sets of 10,8,6,4,4 reps
Dumbbell shrugs:
5 sets of 10,8,6,4,4 reps
Machine shoulder presses:
3 sets of 10 reps, plus 4 stripped sets of 4 reps after each set

I'm still taking a lot more rest days than I would like, since I have a TON of work to do for school every day, and my gym is only open until 5 on weekends. I still get at least 4 workouts in per week. But, this is my last week of classes, and after that I'll be hitting the gym 6 days a week. Also, I'm soon going to start making the transition from bulk to cut. Today I didn't lift, but managed about 2 hours of basketball. (It got up to 86 in MICHIGAN) Anyway, I'm sunburned and tired. Peace out.

[LegendaryWatcher]

Great workout! It's great that you make time to workout with all of your school work. I am going back to college in August at UNC in Greeley, Co and will juggle 6 days in the gym with full time school and work as well. More power to ya bro and best of luck with all of that. Sounds like all is good though up North so rock on!

[budman2002]

Yeah, school is definitely limiting my gym time, but today I got up early and hit the gym for about 2 hours, before taking a test, and then heading straight to work. NO free time today! Anyway, here we go:

Cable curls: 4 sets of 8,6,4,4 reps
Incline bench dumbbell curls: SAME
Preacher bench EZ-curl bar curls: SAME
Alternating hammer curls: 4 sets of 6,4,3,3 reps
Standing EZ-curl bar curls (glose-grip): 4 sets of 8,6,4,4 reps

Rope pressdowns: 4 sets of 8,6,4,4 reps
Dumbbell triceps extensions: 4 sets of 6,5,4,3 reps
Dumbbell kickbacks: 4 sets of 10,8,6,6 reps
Behing the back weighted dips: SAME

Ah, going to the gym in the morning is WAY BETTER than at night. No high school kids hogging the benches or little kids running around. However, the same thing happened today that ALWAYS peeves me: Between sets of cable curls I lay my towel on the pulley while I get a drink of water. I come back and someone actually threw my towel aside and was setting up for some pressdowns. **** that ticks me off!

[WatchTheHands]

Hey there Budman, got some nice workouts going on! I notice most of your rep schemes are pretty low, are you trying to increase strength mostly or do you have some other goals?

[budman2002]

Yes, right now I'm bulking. I am pretty ectomorphic, so low reps seem to work best for me in terms of gaining mass. My strength is improving as well. In about 6 weeks my barbell curl max has gone up from 110 to about 125 lbs.

[budman2002]

I actually had over an hour of free time today, so I went to the gym and worked out legs:

Squats: 5 sets of 10,8,6,4,3 reps
Leg presses: 5 sets of 12,10,8,6,6 reps
Leg extensions: 4 sets of 10,8,6,4 reps
Adductor machine supersetted with abductor machine: 3 sets of 12,10,8 reps
Calf raises: 5 sets of 8,6,4,4,3 reps
Reverse calf raises: 5 sets of 10,8,6,4,4 reps

First time I've ever done heavy squats. ****, they are amazing. I'm already experiencing DOMS just 5 hours later. That's about it for today. Peace.