Bis, Tris, and Abs - Oh My!

I wanted to share with you what I did to train my triceps last night at the gym, but I never got around to submitting another post on my blog. I showed up at Obie’s after work to train biceps, triceps, abs, and perform HIIT cardio on the Arc Trainer (this time a hill interval). Both my bis and tris are pretty damn sore today (tomorrow will be even worse!), which I LOVE! No pain, no gain!

For biceps, I did a total of 4 exercises for 4 sets each and anywhere from 8 to 12 reps. I started with EZ-bar Curls, followed by Seated Dumbbell Curls, Preacher Curls, and Cable Curls.

Moving on to triceps… I performed my first-ever giant set, which I LOVED! I will definitely do something like this again. I placed a rope attachment on one side of the cable machine and a cambered bar on the other. I started with the following:

20 rope pushdowns (pull apart at the bottom)

20 rope pushdowns (hands together)

20 overhead rope extensions

20 cambered bar pushdowns (hands close together)

20 cambered bar pushdowns (reverse grip and hands further apart)

I repeated this 3 times. My triceps were burning! Of course, I used lighter weight than I normally would because I was going for higher reps and I wasn’t resting between exercises.

After, I performed only one set of 50 reps of Overhead Extensions. Then I did 3 sets of 30 (drop set 10 each – so performed 10 reps with the heaviest weight, then dropped the weight and performed 10 more reps, and dropped the weight once more and did a final 10) V-Bar Pushdowns. I finished tris with 3 sets of 12 reps of Dips.

I did all my ab exercises to failure.

If you’re looking to burn out your triceps, then I definitely suggest trying this workout! Happy lifting!

Getting Out Of That Gym Funk

I think I recently told you about the funk I was in regarding the gym. Well, I’ve finally pulled myself out of it and have gone full force into working out again. I went back to see my trainer, Jamie, yesterday. She offered me a spot that opened up and at first I said thanks, but no thanks (I’m trying to cut back on extra spending so I can focus on saving as much as possible). But as it neared 5pm and I kept thinking about how I had to go to the gym to workout, I slowly started talking myself out of it. I immediately text Jamie and asked her if she had it open still. Actually, what I really said was: “Fuck it… You still have 6:15 open?”

I got to the gym at 6 and did 15 minutes of HIIT cardio on the Arc Trainer. Normally, I would save the cardio for after I workout, but I was a few minutes early and I wasn’t about to just stand there and wait for her. I might as well utilize my time and get to burning some calories! In 15 minutes, I burned more than 150 calories. Not too bad! Beats doing regular cardio for 30 minutes and burning about the same amount.

I told Jamie I wanted to work on my hamstrings – and boy, did we ever! I performed a glute-ham raise (first time I’ve ever done this exercise). She held my feet/ankles down while I fell forward on my hands and picked myself back up using only my hamstrings. I loved that exercise because I really felt my hamstrings working. Next, she had me superset the glute-ham raise with single-legged prone leg curls (aka lying leg curls). Eventually, we moved on to a wide-stance single dumbbell deadlift, two-part lying leg abduction superset with phsyio ball hamstring curls, straight legged deadlifts with my feet on a plate, and good mornings.

It was definitely a great hamstring workout! My hammies are tight today and starting to get sore. I bet tomorrow they will be the sorest. Usually the second day is.

This morning my alarm went off at 5 and I contemplated sleeping and going to the gym after work. I started looking at motivational workout pictures and reading motivational workout quotes. That was enough to get me out of bed. I was at the gym by 6 and completed a full hour of heavy lifting for back and biceps. After, I performed another 15 minutes of HIIT cardio.

For back, I did wide-grip lat pull downs, reverse grip lat pull downs, one-arm row, seated low row, pullovers, and straight-arm pulldowns. For biceps, I did alternating dumbbell curls, preacher curls, hammer curls, and 21s with the E-Z bar. I wanted to get to abs, but I had no time. I drove over to the other gym I train at and showered and headed into work.

It’s such a wonderful feeling working out first thing in the morning for a few reasons: great start to my day, I feel energized throughout the entire day (no 2pm crashing), and when I get out of work at 5pm I don’t have to worry about working out! (Although I wouldn’t mind doing another bout of cardio!) I will definitely stick to the morning gym routine from now on until I get bored with that and need to switch it up and start going at night again.

Already I feel much better having worked out with my trainer and performing HIIT cardio. My diet has been on point, too. On my way to my best body! I can’t wait until I’m there. My goal is to be there within the next eight weeks. We shall see!

Biceps and Triceps Are On Fire!!

I had a killer bicep and tricep workout tonight! I was so excited to get to the gym after work tonight, but I was so tired. I dug deep and reminded myself of what my goals are and where I want to be at and I quickly snapped out of it. As soon as I walked into the gym at Obie's Fitness, my fatigue went completely out of the window as did any negative thoughts I was having. I know what I want; I  know where I want my body to be. I'm going to get it! 

My arms are dead and that's exactly what I like to feel whenever I leave the gym. To me, that's when I know I've given it 110% and I feel satisfied with my workout. 

I knew I wanted to tire myself out and push through it and that's what I did. 

I performed 4 sets of the following:

Biceps

Dumbbell Curls - 10 reps of as heavy as I could go. If I couldn't reach 10, I'd go down in weight and get it. 

Incline Dumbbell Curls - same as above

Barbell Reverse Curls - same as above. I like this move because it also works my forearms. Not like I need to build those muscles, but I also don't want to be disproportionate. 

Triceps

Straight Bar Pushdown - same as above

Close-Grip Bench Press - same as above

Dumbbell Kickbacks - same

Then I performed 2 sets heavy of the following: 

Biceps

Concentration Curls - 10-12 reps

Barbell 21s - These are probably my favorite bicep exercise. You come up from the hip to the waist and do 7 reps, then immediately go from the waist all the way up to your armpits for another 7 reps, then you do the full range of motion from hip to armpits for another 7 reps, totaling 21 reps. Amazing. Feel. The. Burn. 

Triceps

Rope Pulldowns - 10-12 reps

Dips - 12 reps

I actually performed supersets on everything. Dumbbell Curls with Straight Bar Pushdown; Incline DB Curls with Close-Grip Bench; Barbell Reverse Curls with DB Kickbacks; Concentration Curls with Rope Pulldowns; and Barbell 21s with Dips. And I only rested about 30 seconds in between each superset. By the way, a superset incorporates two different exercises, whereas a normal set has only one exercise. 

Needless to say, I left the gym and could barely lift my arms. I GOT SWOLE IN THE GYM AND I FEEL AMAZING!!! What did you do for a workout today?