Monday:-
A.m
H.I.I.T Spinning bike
P.m
Legs
Squats 3x10
Leg Extensions 3x15
Laying Leg Curls 3x8-12
Smith Machine Lunges 3x8-12
Single leg curls 3x20
Tuesday:-
A.m
L.I.S.S Stairmaster
P.m
Shoulders
Dumbbell shoulder press
Superset with
Dumbbell lateral raises 3x8-12
Single Arm Cable Laterals 3x8-12
Dumbbell rear raises Dropset
Rear delt fly 3x8-12
Wednesday:-
A.m
H.I.I.T Spinning bike
P.m
Back
Weighted chin ups 3x8-12
T-Bar row 3x8-12
Seated row Dropset
Latt Pull down 3x8-12
Abs
Thursday:-
A.m
L.I.S.S Stairmaster
P.m
Chest & Calves
Incline Dumbbell Fly
Superset with
Incline Dumbbell press 3x8-12
Chest press machine Dropset
Machine Fly 3x8-12
Seated calf press Dropset x2
Standing calf press Dropset x2
Friday:-
A.m
H.I.I.T Spinning bike
P.m
Biceps & Triceps
Cable straight bar push down 3x8-12
Tricep extension machine 3x8-12
Weighted Dips 3x8-12
Hammer curls 3x8-12
Barbell curls 3x10
Concentration curls3x8-12
Saturday:-
Rest day
Sunday:-
Rest day
H.I.I.T Cardio = High Intensity Interval Training
L.I.S.S Cardio = Low Intensity Steady State
My cardio is something I'm still trying to figure out what works best for me, the amount of times I've altered the type and frequency is ridiculous. I believe it's because if I don't see results by the end of that week I get frustrated, throw my dumbbells out the gym and come up with a new cardio split for the following week; pathetic I know. I WILL be doing this cardio split for the next two weeks and be patient like a good boy.
Most favoured techniques which work for me
- Drop Sets
- Negative Reps
- Supersets
Drop sets:- This is a technique which allows your muscles to continue working even after you've failed on that exercise. All you do is lower the weight and continue with the exercise. I begin with a weight that I'll fail between 8-10 reps, rep out until failure, lower the weight, rep out until failure again then lower the weight and rep out until failure one final time. "Triple Dropsets" possibly the most intense technique of them all!
Negative Reps:- Two parts to an exercise, when you lift the weight and contract the muscle (concentric/positive) and when you lower it returning to the starting position stretching the muscle (eccentric/negative). This is beneficial for tendon strength alongside muscular. I'll cheat the weight up as fast as possible concentrically (0.5 seconds), then lower it as slow as I can (3 seconds)
Your muscles can lower a weight under control that they couldn't lift in the first place so negatives are always very heavy!
Supersets:- Two exercises performed back to back without stopping. People use supersets for opposite muscles for example a barbell bicep curl into a tricep extension. However I always like to keep my supersets based on the same muscle group for example a dumbbell shoulder press into alternating dumbbell front raises, 8-12 reps on each exercise within the superset. If I really want to turn it up I'll perform a Tri-set. 3 exercises back to back all based on the same muscle. For example a dumbbell shoulder press into alternating dumbbell front raises into rear delt dumbbell raises.
Abs:-
I've always trained abs with the same principle, high reps, high volume, high intensity. I believe the best way to achieve this is from performing circuits. I randomly pick one upper abs exercise, 1 oblique exercise and one lower abs exercise 20-30 reps each, no rest between. For example:
- Cable crunches 20-30 reps
- Russian twists with 10kg medicine ball 20-30 reps
- Hanging knee raises 20-30 reps
Perform all 3 exercises with no rest in between until final exercise is complete. That makes one circuit, rest for 2 minutes then repeat two more times. The difficulty can easily be altered if you wish to try this yourself. Just lower the reps, maybe 10-15? Give yourself more resting time between each circuit, I'd say exercise but you really want to try and keep the intensity high. Also if those exercises are too difficult, chose your own that work the same area.
My rule of the thumb, always increase weight. (With reference to health and safety of course) literally anything I can do to present my body with a new stimulus to instigate change, I'm doing it.
My rep rage is 8-12. Ideally I'd pick a weight which I fail around the 9th rep. However 8-12 reps is the hypertrophy range so as long as I choose a weight which I'm failing within that range, I'm still hitting my target. Nevertheless like I said, ideally I'd fail on the 9th rep, and just to make sure I know I'm pushing myself to the max, anytime I can get more than 8 reps out, I increase the weight. This is a great way of pushing myself to absolute failure and knowing I'm giving it all I've got. I once read "muscle only knows failure". You train by that analogy, I guarantee you see change.
I alter my training splits approximately once a month, never letting my body become accustom to them. I used to be the complete opposite, I had my splits, stubborn as hell and you couldn't pay me to put even the smallest variation in my training. That's the quickest way to get yourself a one way ticket to a plateau and from personal experience you won't enjoy your stay. I'm glad I learnt my lesson. Now if I see a training program I like the look of and see where I could benefit from it (Y3T, DTP & FST7) I'm not afraid to give it a go! Also in my next off-season I'm going to periodize my training into 3 week cycles. Strength week (3-5 reps each exercise), Hypertrophy/Endurance week (8-20 reps each exercise) and a recovery week (10-20 reps each exercise) where I'll train upper body and lower body on two separate days.
Last thing, this training split is what I've been following for the past week and will continue to for the reminder of my competition prep. As I mentioned earlier my splits change quite regularly so by the time I'm off-season they'll look nothing like they do now. However if I were to change this training split to an off-season one, all I'd do is reduce abs to twice a week and take out all the cardio. My reason? Simple; I hate cardio.
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