Two days late and a dollar short? I know, I know. I said a couple days ago. My bad. Unrelated note, this site went over a 1,000 views this past week. That kinda feels like something. So yay, I guess.
Push – start with a big multi-joint move. I rotate among flat dumbbell press, decline barbell press and this thing I call half-bench. I always prefer dumbbell to barbell as it gives your joints more freedom to move in an ideal manner while supporting weight. Not locked in place by a straight bar. Still gotta work the barbell in, but I just try to keep it to a minimum.
You probably know how to do flat dumbbell and decline barbell press, so I’ll go over this half-bench thing I’ve been doing. One thing I like to note for any chest press motion is that I find you get a much better stretch of the muscle and fuller movement when you feel your shoulders roll back behind you on the downstroke. Said another way, to really open your chest up you have to roll or rotate your shoulders back. While laying on your back, you may not naturally do this because the bench or floor is in the way. But focus on it – feel them rotate back as your chest opens up.
I watched this Westside vs. the World documentary-type thing on Netfilx like a 1000 times while exercising. Seems not to be available anymore (maybe because I watched it so many times), but it is about this powerlifting legend, Louie Simmons, and his merry band of meathead (I use the term endearingly) followers, most of whom also became powerlifting legends and set tons of World records.
Anyway, they lift insane amounts of weight, and were doing a bunch of exercises I wasn’t so familiar with to train for the task. Box squat is one, and another was the half-bench concept. They would train chest with a block of wood between their chest and the bar, keeping the bar from getting to the chest.
I have also seen many people in the gym set up on a power rack or Smith Machine in a manner that they seemed to be doing only the top of the press move. I figured I’ll give it a shot. Worst case scenario, they seem to move a lot of weight that way, so I should get a good ego set or two out of it.
I set up a rack so that the bar is supported at a height where when I’m laying on a flat bench and gripping the bar, my elbows are even with or slightly below my shoulders. The movement is a simple press from that resting position to extension, and then controlling the weight slowly back down onto the support. Full stop. Repeat. I had some pics but couldn’t get them to upload, and I just want to post already. Maybe another time.
As you can imagine, it’s a shorter move so you can get some more weight than usual on the bar. I have been doing it for a little while and I’m feeling stronger from it on my press moves. And it’s fun moving more weight than usual.
After pre-wo and a stretch, I start with a lot of warm up sets. Might seem like a waste of time, but gotta get the body used to the motion before you load it up. When you’re up to working weight, do three to five sets. I stay lower in the rep range with these – 5 to 8 per set, with two to three and a half minutes between sets. You can absolutely go higher reps, but I get a little caught up in the more weight thing on this exercise. So I go heavier with less reps per set.
It’s all about feel. Don’t get hung up on numbers. You don’t have to increase weight every exercise session, or from set to set, or whatever. Listen to your body. If it’s sayin’, “hey bruh, we feelin’ good today,” then by all means go heavier and do an extra set or two. But if it’s sayin’, “buddy, buddy, let’s chill a bit today,” you have to listen to it and take it easy. If you don’t, you’ll be sorry.
Next exercise I like to do a fly move. I rotate among flat dumbbell flies, incline dumbbell flies and cable flies. Warm up, like with every other move. Then at working weight (which should be a decent amount less than for press moves – remember this is just one joint – the shoulder – whereas press involves both the shoulder and elbow) do three sets and stay in the 8-12 rep range.
Go slow on the flies. They should burn like a motha, if you’re doing ’em right. I’ve read studies that show slow fly motions activate and build a ton of pec muscle.
Now we’re done with chest, onto a shoulder push move. I used to do only bodybuilding-type exercises like seated behind the neck or dumbbell press for this leg of the trip. But after watching a ton of CrossFit and Strongman stuff on Netflix while exercising, I’ve been getting into stuff like barbell push press, one-armed dumbbell push press and clean and jerk (come on – get your mind out of the gutter – this is an actual exercise).
Let’s stick with barbell and one-armed push press unless you are an advanced lifter. Clean and jerk has a lot to it. So much so that I’m not really sure when to do it my rotation. Suggestions?
Yesterday, for instance, I did it with legs. But it involves aspects of deadlift, the clean (which is basically snapping the bar from around your thighs to high on your chest) and shoulder press, as you jerk it up over your head. It crushes calories – uses the whole body. Exhausting.
Barbell push press. Set the bar up on a rack where it is top of the chest/shoulder height. I grip with my pinkies on the middle ring of the Olympic bar, but you put yours where ever comfortable – I’d go no closer than shoulder width though.
Take the bar off the rack and with elbows bent control it resting on or near your clavicles. Then, bend your knees and stick your butt out a little, and then while pushing up through your knees and hips push the bar up over your head to full extension and hold for a second. Let the bar come back down to the resting clavicle position, and then do it all over again.
Lots of warm up sets. Once you have a good feel for it, start adding weight. Like the half-bench move, I tend to try to go heavier with these and thus stay in a lower rep range – 5 to 8. But again, feel free to go high reps, if you prefer – it’s probably better for you.
Get at least three sets of this unless you’re feeling it in which case get a fourth or fifth done. I take at least two and a half minutes between sets on this. More time if I’m getting heavier.
Shoulders get hit by a ton of moves (almost all really) so this is the only push move I do for them. Next push move is for triceps. I like to rotate among laying dumbbell extensions, seated or standing double arm extensions and pushdowns. I also like kneeling overhead cable extensions.
Let’s run through laying dumbbell extensions. Lay on a bench with a dumbbell in each hand. Extend you arms up straight toward the ceiling. This is your starting position. Bend at the elbow to lower the weights slowly until the end of each dumbbell touches the top of each shoulder. Your elbows will push out a little, but try to keep them close to your sides. Following the same path, extend the arms up straight again – focus on bending only at the elbows. These will get heavy in a hurry, so be careful because the weights will be above your pretty face. Don’t wanna mess with that.
Three sets of 8 to 12 reps. 90 seconds or so between sets. Feel free to burn them out with kickbacks afterwards, or bench dips.
Alright y’all, enjoy that wo, and the cocktail of the day is the Heavyweight – because we like lifting heavy weights, baby! The base liquor for this drink is Mezcal, which is one of my favorites, especially in the Summer. Mezcal and Summer go together like peanut butter and chocolate!
All Tequila is within the Mezcal family, but not all Mezcal is Tequila. It has an awesome smoky flavor because unlike Tequila, for Mezcal, they put the agave leaves in a pit and smoke them early in the process. Anyway, it’s clear and smoky, which makes me think of it as a Summer Scotch. Eet’s good! Oh, and the Dolin is a very nice white vermouth.
Exercise song of the day is Why Don’t We Do It In The Road by the Beatles. For you youngsters out there who haven’t heard of them, they are only the most famous rock band of all time. But seriously – Why Don’t We Do It In The Road? More often at least.