Hello and welcome back 🙂
I talked here about general things about working out and I thought it’s a good idea
to share with you my training regime. Maybe you can steal some ideas/exercises from it or just give it a try if you feel like it.
Last year I switched my training program from one muscle group per workout to a custom PPL approach (push/pull/legs). My goal is to maintain my size and work on small improvements here and there. In other words, I’m relatively happy with the way I look but I strive to improve in some areas; as a small parentheses, I don’t know of any gym rat who is 100% happy with their physique 😀 - there’s always something that can be further improved/worked on.
In this post I’ll talk about the "Pull" training that I do. The first thing I do, regardless of the specific training day, is a GOOD warm-up; I focus a lot on my shoulders, my elbows and my back. I’ll do a separate post about how to warm up properly, but, for now, just remember that I pay close attention to the upper-body joints and stretch the arms and back muscles before I start the actual workout.
With that out of the way, let’s get started with the actual exercises.
The first exercise I do is …. Pull-ups.
I aim to get 35 to 40 reps in 4 sets. I generally do slow and controlled negatives, focusing a lot on each rep90% of the time, my grip fails before my back muscles 😀
Each set takes around 60 seconds and I usually give myself a minute and a half break between sets.
Long break? Maybe, but, in my case, the forearm muscles need to recover because they are
pushed to the limit.
The second exercise is a superset - standing biceps dumbbell curls and rope face-pulls.
For the curls, the execution form I prefer is starting the exercise with a neutral grip (palms facing your legs/hips) and I turn till my palms are at an 160 degrees angle (with the floor as reference point) as I flex/lift the dumbbell.
I do 4 sets and I increase the weight for the first 3 sets. Set 4 is the same weight as set 3.
The reps I target for each set are 12, 11, 10, 10. I don’t go very crazy with the weights on this superset. But I don’t go light either. Pick a weight that will make it challenging to finish each set, but not that heavy that you fail.
As an example for the bicep curl, if you can curl 25 kg dumbbells for 6 reps, I’d start with 15 kg, increase to 17,5 and then, for sets 3 and 4 go with 20 kg dumbbells.
As a small side-note, I love supersets - doing two or three exercises back to back. It’s a great way to "squeeze" some cardio into your workout.
Now, you may be wondering … why do these exercises together and not separately? Well, because I want to keep my workouts relatively short and intense.
The third exercise is: Chin-ups (with a neutral grip)
I do 4 sets with as many reps as possible - in other words, take every set to failure.
Don’t be surprised if you won’t be able to do as many reps as you did when executing the pull-ups.
This exercise, done in this particular order (after pull-ups, biceps curls and face-pulls) is great for pushing your back and biceps muscles to the limit. As with all compound exercises, I focus a lot on the negative/eccentric part of the movement.
The fourth exercise is a superset. Well, I generally have two supersets that I alternate. The first one is one arm, sitting, biceps curl and reverse shoulder flies. The other superset is cable curls with cable cross pulls.
The idea here, as with the second exercise from the list, is to hit the biceps and the rear-delts and rhomboids.
Regardless of the superset I go for, I do 4 sets, with a weight increase at set #3. The reps I aim for are 12 ,12, 10, 10.
The last exercise I do is another superset - seated machine rows (with a grip that’s not too wide, but not too narrow) and the famous 21’s - with an EZ bar. Here I aim for 3 sets and the weight is medium for the rows and pretty light for the 21’s. This last exercise is for burning every last drop of gas from the tank, so to speak. 😀
Don’t forget to stretch after each workout and, if possible, do 5 to 10 minutes of steady cardio - I generally prefer biking.
Well, that’s pretty much it with the "Pull" workout that I do.
"No deadlifts?! WTH?!"
Yeah, no deadlifts with the "Pull" workout. I train my lumbar muscles during the "legs" day. Why? Because the "Pull" workout, for me, is focusing on my upper back, biceps, rear delts and rhomboids. As you can see, it's a pretty packed and intense workout.
I am also very cautious when deadlifting even modest weights - it’s the exercise that I fear
the most, as I had surgery for a herniated disc; well … the disc not only herniated, it broke in half. I damn near lost my left leg because one part of the disc was pushing hard against my sciatic nerve; but that’s a story for another time.
To conclude, the workouts that I currently do are targeted more for maintaining my current muscle mass, maybe have some small increase but at the same time focusing on losing some fat/muscle definition.
I hope you’ll give the workout a shot and I really hope you like it.
I talked here about general things about working out and I thought it’s a good idea
to share with you my training regime. Maybe you can steal some ideas/exercises from it or just give it a try if you feel like it.
Last year I switched my training program from one muscle group per workout to a custom PPL approach (push/pull/legs). My goal is to maintain my size and work on small improvements here and there. In other words, I’m relatively happy with the way I look but I strive to improve in some areas; as a small parentheses, I don’t know of any gym rat who is 100% happy with their physique 😀 - there’s always something that can be further improved/worked on.
In this post I’ll talk about the "Pull" training that I do. The first thing I do, regardless of the specific training day, is a GOOD warm-up; I focus a lot on my shoulders, my elbows and my back. I’ll do a separate post about how to warm up properly, but, for now, just remember that I pay close attention to the upper-body joints and stretch the arms and back muscles before I start the actual workout.
With that out of the way, let’s get started with the actual exercises.
The first exercise I do is …. Pull-ups.
I aim to get 35 to 40 reps in 4 sets. I generally do slow and controlled negatives, focusing a lot on each rep90% of the time, my grip fails before my back muscles 😀
Each set takes around 60 seconds and I usually give myself a minute and a half break between sets.
Long break? Maybe, but, in my case, the forearm muscles need to recover because they are
pushed to the limit.
The second exercise is a superset - standing biceps dumbbell curls and rope face-pulls.
For the curls, the execution form I prefer is starting the exercise with a neutral grip (palms facing your legs/hips) and I turn till my palms are at an 160 degrees angle (with the floor as reference point) as I flex/lift the dumbbell.
I do 4 sets and I increase the weight for the first 3 sets. Set 4 is the same weight as set 3.
The reps I target for each set are 12, 11, 10, 10. I don’t go very crazy with the weights on this superset. But I don’t go light either. Pick a weight that will make it challenging to finish each set, but not that heavy that you fail.
As an example for the bicep curl, if you can curl 25 kg dumbbells for 6 reps, I’d start with 15 kg, increase to 17,5 and then, for sets 3 and 4 go with 20 kg dumbbells.
As a small side-note, I love supersets - doing two or three exercises back to back. It’s a great way to "squeeze" some cardio into your workout.
Now, you may be wondering … why do these exercises together and not separately? Well, because I want to keep my workouts relatively short and intense.
The third exercise is: Chin-ups (with a neutral grip)
I do 4 sets with as many reps as possible - in other words, take every set to failure.
Don’t be surprised if you won’t be able to do as many reps as you did when executing the pull-ups.
This exercise, done in this particular order (after pull-ups, biceps curls and face-pulls) is great for pushing your back and biceps muscles to the limit. As with all compound exercises, I focus a lot on the negative/eccentric part of the movement.
The fourth exercise is a superset. Well, I generally have two supersets that I alternate. The first one is one arm, sitting, biceps curl and reverse shoulder flies. The other superset is cable curls with cable cross pulls.
The idea here, as with the second exercise from the list, is to hit the biceps and the rear-delts and rhomboids.
Regardless of the superset I go for, I do 4 sets, with a weight increase at set #3. The reps I aim for are 12 ,12, 10, 10.
The last exercise I do is another superset - seated machine rows (with a grip that’s not too wide, but not too narrow) and the famous 21’s - with an EZ bar. Here I aim for 3 sets and the weight is medium for the rows and pretty light for the 21’s. This last exercise is for burning every last drop of gas from the tank, so to speak. 😀
Don’t forget to stretch after each workout and, if possible, do 5 to 10 minutes of steady cardio - I generally prefer biking.
Well, that’s pretty much it with the "Pull" workout that I do.
"No deadlifts?! WTH?!"
Yeah, no deadlifts with the "Pull" workout. I train my lumbar muscles during the "legs" day. Why? Because the "Pull" workout, for me, is focusing on my upper back, biceps, rear delts and rhomboids. As you can see, it's a pretty packed and intense workout.
I am also very cautious when deadlifting even modest weights - it’s the exercise that I fear
the most, as I had surgery for a herniated disc; well … the disc not only herniated, it broke in half. I damn near lost my left leg because one part of the disc was pushing hard against my sciatic nerve; but that’s a story for another time.
To conclude, the workouts that I currently do are targeted more for maintaining my current muscle mass, maybe have some small increase but at the same time focusing on losing some fat/muscle definition.
I hope you’ll give the workout a shot and I really hope you like it.
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