TeenBodybuilding.com - Ben C. - Ben's Online Training Journal!

Printable page

Did you know?
Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.

Training Journal Online! See the improvements and development! Week 3!

Ben's Online Training Journal!

By: Ben C.

(For Ben's Old Training Journal Click Here.)

Week: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

<< Previous Entry

Next Entry >>

12-11-00 | 12-12-00 | 12-13-00 | 12-14-00 | 12-15-00

Monday, 11th December Back Training
Back in the gym today for my Back workout so rather than write an article i thought for today's journal entry I'd tell you all about it. Thought that'd bring a smile to your face! hehe. In fact for this week I'll probably just go through my whole week's workouts (Monday-Friday) For some reason I really enjoy back days which is quite unusual but there you go. I guess it's because I enjoy a lot of the exercises that I do.

Back:
Pullover Machine 4x10/9/7/6
T-Bar Rows 3x6/5/4
Pull-ups 50 in 3-5sets (wide grip)
Lat-Pull downs 4x8/8/7/6
Seated Rows 3x8
Hyperextensions 3x12 (weighted)

Today's workout was satisfactory. I didn't feel in the mood to drag myself to the gym and when I began with my wide grip pull-ups I just knew this was certainly not going to be one of my better workouts as it took me 5 and a bit sets to get them done and sometimes I manage to squeeze the 50 reps into 3 sets but I've only done that a few times. Nevertheless I made the best of the rest of my workout. Straight after doing my pull ups I went for the lat pull downs which was a great decision because this just destroyed my lats totally! Fortunately for my that was it for my lats for today and I was damn happy about that! I always enjoy doing t-bar rows because I can really feel the burn when I squeeze my shoulders together at the top of each rep. I do the same with dumbbell rows. There's lots of different ways of doing dumbbell rows but my preference is the most common way of standing with one foot on the ground and a knee on a bench one going from there - know it's not as effective as the t-bar rows in my opinion but it's good for symmetry because you can keep it even on both sides where sometimes in t-bar rows your stronger side does tend to take over for the last couple of reps. Seated Rows are always fun to do, once again squeeze the shoulder blades together at the end of each rep and throwing your chest forward to meet the bar. I use either small bar or a sort of V shaped thing with a handle for each hand. Hyperextensions I just use to make sure my lower back isn't left out and to keep it strong so I can avoid injury.

So there you have it, that's my Back workout - nice, simple and so far very effective but most importantly highly intense.

My supplements arrived today - of course it turns out that customs took there time with them again but it'll be good to start them again tomorrow. I'm not sure if I've already mentioned it but with the huge help of Beverly International I've got myself a new diet and a slightly modified supplementation program and *sigh* WITHOUT my beloved L-Carnitine (but that'll be brought in down the track). I'll give you guys the details tomorrow.

Till then,
C-Ya!
Ben

Tuesday, December 12th Chest Training
First of all sorry that it's been so long in getting this and the following entries to you - I've been quite busy but of course not too busy to miss more than one workout.

My Chest workouts have and always have been simple, and consist of 3 exercises ONLY. Flat Bench, Incline Bench and Decline Bench - Absolutely NOTHING else! My personal view is that the chest I a very very easy muscle to stimulate and make grow and these 3 exercises certainly do their job very well. What really shows a great looking chest is tight skin which shows the striation and separation between the upper and lower chest - one really good example of this is Light Heavyweight Jeff Willet. Today's chest training was quick and easy.

Flat Bench Press 3x10,8,7
Incline Bench 3x10,8,7
Decline Bench 3x10,8,7

And that was it - absolutely nothing to it. After training I did 30 minutes on the treadmill at a moderate pace making sure I kept my HR at around 133-136 in order to take energy from my fat stores.

Wednesday, 13th December Legs Training
Legs day is always the most intense day of the week and because i didn't eat before I trained left me feeling very faint, dizzy and generally unwell after my workout until I could get home and drink the best protein shake - VP2 with some Creatine - unfortunately it's also one of the worst tasting powders out there also - in fact I'd probably rather chew on some Amino Acid caps all day than drink VP2 (for those who don't know Amino Acids are disgusting tasting tablets!). No, I must admit I'm going a little overboard but you must remember it's not the taste, it's the quality and VP2 is certainly a market leader in quality. I've decided to search for a workout partner because I feel that I'm just not getting what I should be out of my workouts because I can't lift heavy enough weights for fear of me dropping them during my last reps. Although spotters are of no help on machines today when for some reason I thought I'd use the Hack Squat machine (as my last exercise) I loaded it up with about 6 plates and jumped on, forgetting that I'd already done three exercises for my quads. My legs were like jelly and as soon as I unlocked the machine from the grooves it sits on my legs half collapsed and the weight kept on falling until while pushing on the handles to lock the weight back into the grooves it finally caught a groove before i was crushed :P That sounds dramatic doesn't it? OK well it wasn't that bad....

Warm-up: 2 sets of Leg Extensions with 3/4 of the stack just to get my legs pumping.
Squats 3x8,8,6
Leg Press 4x8,8,7,6
Leg Extensions 3x8,8,7
Standing Leg Curls 3x8
Lying Leg Curls 3x8

I supersetted today because I only had a short time to workout so I supersetted Squats and Lying Leg Curls and I then supersetted Leg Press and Standing Leg Curls and just to totally ruin my quads I did Leg Extensions (separate from the ones I did to warm-up). Usually I wouldn't do this (even though I'd love to) but I was the ONLY person in the weights area of my gym today (there's always several women on the treadmills and stair masters in the cardio room). But it was good because I spent the time chatting to this huge dude that works as a personal trainer at the gym. I swear he's double me - it's amazing when a 6'4" guy fills out his body with muscle!

Thursday,14th December Arms Training Everyone loves arms because they love showing them off to their mates and the girls. I guess I'm no exception. I was happy with my triceps today but my biceps just didn't get the pump they usually get, even after doing 3 exercises for them - it was quite worrying especially since I usually get a pump in my biceps even when I'm working my back.

Arms Workout:
Barbell Curl 3x10,9,8
Dumbell Curl 3x9,8,7
Preacher Curl 4x8,7,6
Tricep Extension 3x6
Cable Pushdown 3x9,7,6

Last workout of the week tomorrow - Shoulders and Traps,
C-ya then.

Friday, 15th December Shoulders Training
Rather than say I love Shoulders and Traps day I'm just going to concede (like Al Gore finally did) that I like all workouts because they are all challenging and fun. For those of you reading this journal and have never ever trained with weights before, grab a mate or go alone down to your local gym, sign up and get into it! Weight training is better than any other sport imaginable. The physical changes and the challenge and discipline of the sport is unsurpassable whether you're 14 or 80 you'll enjoy it if you are patient!

Anyway back to Shoulders and Traps training that I did today - my workout was really good and my shoulders seem to be making great progress of late. One exercise which I've begun to use for both muscles is Upright Rows. You can do them to primarily hit either your shoulders or traps whilst still working the other muscle. Wide-grip upright rows target your shoulders but also hit your traps and close-grip upright rows target your traps whilst still hitting your shoulders to some degree.