I bought a 500g pack from the chemists. £1.29

Its not funny its ****ing killing. Right at the middle the spine where if you from an arch. Garden doesnt look to healthy after hehehehehe.

Really ****ed off about it actually [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Since this is the bb thread of the week....:D

We have pnematic (sp?) machines at the gym and I use these to build negative resistance and would appreciate comment on whether this is a good thing? Basically I'll sit in the dip machine, buckle myself in and slowly increase the pressure until I can't resist no more and my arms are slowly pushed back. I can't see ANY other way of getting more resistance as by the end I'm burning and giving it all I've got. Good idea/bad idea?

Also how the heck to I get the valley in my chest :( I've tried incline benches but it just refuses to develop up by my clavicals :confused: And finally any tips on monster tri's :D

P.S. Yes.......I can come up with a new question every week ;):D

How long does it actually take to get a well developed body? Am going on hols in 2 weeks - have I left it too late? :D

Little off topic but....

I've got to say my rotator cuffs are absolutley battered.
I was pruning a tree in our garden for the whole afternoon yesterday with my arms held high above my head. I'm so sore today I've had to take pain killers which I never do no matter what I put myself through at the gym.
The funny thing is I look forward to 'deltoid day' as I call it, at the gym. It's my favourite series of excercises.
I've really got to add something to my regime to make them stronger. I know deep down I'vew been ignoring this issue for a while and I guess this is the first warning sign to do something abvout it.

you'd be better off doing negatives with free weights. tho personally i don't rate negatives at all.

as you probably know, you cannot change the shape of your muscles - that's down to genetics. you can only make them bigger. if you have poor chest genetics, that's a bummer.. but you can work around by basing your chest routine around heavy incline benches.. this will target your upper pecs (or rather it will take your lower chest out of the equation, forcing your upper pecs to do more of the work). if you take a look at the bodybuilders with the better chests, they tend to start with incline benches (or inline db press), and often don't even have flat bench in their routine.

don't neglect the rest of your chest tho.. keep in weighted dips for this (lean forward to target the chest).

you just need more time and patience.. exactly how long have you been doing incline bench to come to the conclusion that it's not working for you?


yes... any of the following

- close grip bench
- weighted dips
- skullcrushers
- jm press

and to a lesser extent, tricep pushdowns.

avoid pointless exercises like tricep kickbacks which only work two of the three muscles in the tricep, and in my opinion serve only to injure your shoulder :eek:

you don't need to do a lot of sets for tris. work on making them stronger as well as bigger, and you'll build a mega bench too.

This isn't always easy without an assistant - sometimes impossible!

You are probably correct that I've not given the upper chest much time. Its just that I've seen the lower part start to go and want the upper to go with it.

What the heck is a skullcrusher? Sounds like cocktail :eek:

- skullcrushers
- jm press

Milo, can you explain the excersise for the above ? ta. :)

I just did a search on the net for skull crushers and think I have a fair idea how to do them but I couldn't find any pictures though :(

ah ha those, not heard them called that before. :D

Skull crushers

you probably know the answer to your second question already :)

as for how long it takes, the simple answer is "many years"... depending on your genetics, bodytype and what exactly you consider a "well developed body" of course. it doesn't happen overnight, or in the last 2 weeks before a holiday ;)

re: explanations of exercises... look at a video online... that'll show it best. go to google and type in "jm press video" and you should find a few :) the skullcrusher one has been posted - that's exactly how i do it - with an ez curl bar.. although it can be done with dumbells.

post your entire chest workout routine here and i'll tell you what you need to change (if anything). chances are you're doing things right and it's just a case of being patient. but if you want some opinions on your routine, post it up here (along with your split).

ok.. see a doctor.. no question about it. it's not worth risking a torn rotator cuff. that's about the best advice you'll get about this!

what's your deltoid day like at the moment? what's your routine? are you sure you're not doing exercises which are just damaging your rotator cuffs? case in point, front raises.

with regards to strengthening.. look at the exercises on http://aafp.org/afp/980215ap/980215a.html

these should strengthen your rotator cuffs.. dont do them heavy though... go light, high reps, and gradually increase the weight. but don't do these until you've seen a doctor first!

I change what exercises and in what order I do every week. I figure that by keeping it random and by chucking in something completely different now and again my muscles won’t adapt. What I do ensure is that the muscles I’m working are worked hard and heavy!

Last night was chest and tris and I did:

Warm up and some press-ups
Flat Bench Press (pyramid to max of 1 rep 80kg)
Leg stretching to allow recovery
Chest flys (pyramid to max)
Triceps pull downs (pyramid to max)
Leg stretching to allow recovery
Inclined bench press (pyramid to max then strip to burn)
Weight assisted dips (busted clavicle can’t support my full weight yet :()
Negative pressure reps on the incline machine (pneumatic)
Negative pressure reps on the triceps press-down machine (pneumatic)
Press-ups to total failure and then micro press-ups until I couldn’t move another mm :D

Last night was a particularly long and hard work out as I was in the mood :) When I pyramid I usually start with a weight that I can do about 8-10 reps off and bring the reps down and put the weight up until I’m at my 1-2 rep max weight. I quite often strip it after this until I can’t move :D

Not massively scientific but I try my best to keep good form and work hard. Incidentally having pressed 80kg for the first time in my life I got cocky and went for a second rep……I failed :rolleyes: Thank feck some other bloke noticed my resting the weight on my abs till I figured out how to sit up and roll it off :rolleyes:

don't be too proud to ask somebody to spot you!

ok.. that is much too much volume... and putting any tricep work (such as your pulldowns) before the incline presses means that your tris are probably what's causing you to fail on your inlines... meaning your upper chest isn't getting the workout it should be. your negative work is too much... and you'd be better off just lifting heavy then eating. i would suggest trying this, in this order, to hit your goals:

warm-up with some light benching with varying grip
incline bench press (3 sets)
dips (lean forward to hit the chest) (3 sets)
flat bench (3 sets)
close-grip bench (3 sets)
skullcrushers (3 sets)

i.e. keep it simple. even that's what i would consider quite a lot of volume (15 work sets).

changing things around is good.. but i do that over several weeks.

for what it's worth, i only do around 9 or 10 heavy sets on chest day (i do train tris seperately tho), and only about 5 of them are to failure (i'm doing a 5x5 based routine right now).

:rolleyes: I think I've learned that one now! I just don't like being a pain.

Cheers for the advice Milo but what exactly do you mean by too much volume? I thought you couldn't do too much in any given workout session? For what its worth I do the really hard hitting stuff first generally and then the lighter (just to kill the muscles) stuff towards the end.

By the way, I've set myself a goal of flat benching 3 full reps of 100kg by xmas. On the basis that I can do 1 rep of 80kg (just!) just now is that realistic?

Off to see the doc. Ive done something quite back to my spine :(

I think ive torn something on the left side, i cant stand up straight or lift anything from shoulder heigh upwards :(

Kenny I'd say that's realistic considering I'm at a similar stage to you. I can just manage to do a couple of set of 6 at 90Kg. 100Kg is my next goal also.

I wasn;t being flipant about the spotting. The thing is that if nobody is there to spot you you aren't fully focused on lifting the weight. You have in the back of your mind " can I lift one more rep?" With somebody spotting you this is not an issue. You can even get a couple more assited reps out as well which can only help your progress.

milo or anybody else please step in if I'm talking bollox!

You dont need a spotter for 1 lift in the gym.......... i dont have a spotter............dont need one improvise

Si

"dont need one improvise" you've just put your back out probably improvising. ;)

I mean in general Si. I'd still want somebody there to spot me if I was attempting to lift heavier than I'd ever done before.... even for one lift! I must be a bit of a wimp though :rolleyes:

bit of a silly thing to say imho !! if you have as much experience as it sounds like surely you should know that it was a silly thing to say ??

you seriously dont need a spotter. Im doing fine dead lift 180, squat 160 now and thats with no spotter if i fail? so what. It drops on to the pins im fine!

As for the doing my back in incident, ive got long limbs noone could taken the log off anyway, also im pretty sure no-one could catch an 75-80kg log lol

Si

You tell me what you need a spotter for then??

Kenny was talking about the flat bench.

Bench in the power rack then???

Problem solved

for sprayin deo around when you fart under pressure !! :D :D lol

course u need a spotter for bench!!! benching in the power racks that we have wouldnt let u get any depth whatsoever on the movement.

i have no hesistation in getting someone to watch me benching and squatting.

ok on squats u can hit the rack but if u can ge that bit extra out of the rep (if u want to) by having sum1 doing *just* enuf to finish a very heavy rep plus if uve got 200+kgs on ure back relying on u hitting the rack isnt very safe imho.

also asking for a spotter can also help break the ice with other gym goers.