Solo

I am the type of person who really loves to train solo.  I always go to the gym with Tara, but we usually end up doing our own workouts, even if we are on the same split and meet up whenever either of us needs a spotter.  Its a great stress relief for me since I am around people all day for my job and I can just plug in my headphones and go to work.  Which is great so I can just focus on moving some weight and feed of my own internal motivation.  Don't get me wrong, I love training with a partner and I have with a few great friends over the years, but I usually only meet up for one or two workouts a week, so other than that solo is the way I roll.  

Had some great workouts the last few days!  I was able to meet up with my friend Eric on Thursday for some a great back workout and then today I went solo and trained some Chest.  Here's how it went.....

*Warm-ups excluded

Smithmachine Incline Press- 1x10@275 / 2x6@315
Hammer Stregnth Decline Press- 4x12
Flat DB Flyes- 4x10@60's
Low Pulley Flyes- 4x10

-Luke

Tempo

Tempo is definitely one of the most overlooked parts of a workout routine. Many people are usually more concerned with how much they are lifting rather than how they are lifting it.  When you slow down and focus on your tempo you will not be able to lift as much weight, but the quality of the lift will be much improved.  It also increases the TUT (Time under tension) of the working muscle.  Tempo is usually shown as counts that you do in your head or with a partner to time. An exercise with the tempo of 2/1/2 is preformed with a count of 2 on the eccentric, or lowering phase.  Then a 1 second pause at the bottom of the exercise leading to a count of 2 during the concentric, or raising of the weight.  Next time try mixing up your routine with a change in tempo to help progress and push your physique to the next level.

Today was Chest and calves, so I decided to slow things down.  Here's how it went.....

*Warm-ups excluded

DB Incline press (Slow Tempo) - 2x8@120's / 1x6@120's
Hammer Strength Flat press- 4x10
Machine Flyes- 4x8

Standing Calf press- 4x10
Seated Calf press (Knees bent)- 3x12

-Luke

Changing it up

One of the things I try and do is keep changing the order of my split to help keep things fresh and intense.  I still stick to lifting each body part one time per week, but I like to change the order to place more of an emphasis on lagging body parts.  On this rotation I am placing an emphasis on my shoulder and trap development.  I am still following a 5-6 day split with my off days placed by how I am feeling and I also skip one workout per week, for added recovery.  Here's how it looks....

Shoulders and Traps
Bis, Tris and Calves
Deadlifts,hamstrings and glutes
Chest and abs
Back
Legs with a quad focus


Today started the week off right, with shoulders and traps.  Tara and I really flew through it and overall really happy with how it went!

*Warm-ups excluded

Standing BB Press- 1x12@185 / 2x6@225 / 1x10@185*1x10@135

Seated DB Lateral raise- 1x15@45's / 3x12@45's
-Superset-
Smith machine upright row- 4x8@185

Single arm cable rear Delt- 4x10
-Superset-
DB Shrugs- 4x10@140's (Slow tempo)

-Luke