Thursday, February 27, 2014

Hypertrophy Chest Day!

It's been a while since I've blogged. So today I decided to restart up this site and start to blog regularly hopefully. It's been hard to keep track of my training due to school, work, life, etc. I however have told myself that I need to restart the blog because it keeps my mind clear and allows me to really keep track of my overall progression.

Over the last 3 to 4 months I began to 'bulk'. With this bulking phase, I have gain approximately 8 to 10 pounds in approximately 6 months ( the last two months prior to the bulk I was eating very clean high protein diet). People tend to have a misperception of what bulking is. When people think of a bulk, they tend to think of a 'dirty' bulk a.k.a eat everything in your sight. This is what a lot of people tend to do but it's not the most effective way in my opinion to gain size. I would much rather have a slow progression of lean muscle build up vs. packing on weight quickly with a diet not focused on the micronutrients and not even the macronutrients. I have been heavily gauging my diet by counting the macros. I am also making obvious better decisions in my diet (ex. water over soda, salads over burgers, grilled chicken over fried chicken, whole wheat vs , etc.). It's been a fairly simple diet but extremely repetitive with the food.

Today I decided to do a Steve Cook inspired hypertrophy chest workout. Most of my hypertrophy workouts are more related to the total repetition and a slightly higher set count. Cook's hypertrophy training is the 8x8. Only 4 different exercises but a total of 256 reps. Today I decided to start out with cable fly, straight to bench press, threw in some lateral raises, and finished with hammer-strength incline press. Resting was at the bare minimum (30 seconds).

Chest
8 x 8 Cable Fly (45,45,50,50,55,55,60,60)
8 x 8 Bench Press (135)
8 x 8  Lateral Raises (50)
8 x 8 Hammer-Strength Incline (45 plate each side)

I started off with 10 minutes on the elliptical. I need to have a more functional and well rounded body, so I will be throwing in cardio for warm ups. I am looking forward to the weather clearing up and going on runs with Ana. Running is more therapeutical for me then anything. The weight was set about 40% under what I would usually workout with while training. The resting period was at the bare minimum so I really felt the burn half way through the sets. I was well hydrated so the workout was short but effective!

The workout was only a total of 45 minutes but I was dying throughout. The high set range was different but I really felt it. Hope ya'll enjoyed the read!