DAY 3 - CHEST IS BEST

DAY 3 - 16th JUNE 2015

TRAINING - CHEST

WEIGHTS DURATION: 1hr 14mins                    CARDIO DURATION: 30mins

I'll admit, I'm starting to warm to this intense diet and workout! I enjoy the consistent regime it has given me. I'm not sure about you, but chest is by far my favourite muscle group to work out on; you feel the burn straight away, it definitely has the 'manly' element to it. In saying that, I always find people trying to out lift the person next to them, I know I've certainly been subject to it. When I've actually gone a bit lighter and concentrated on perfect form, results come much quicker. 

As always, the day stared off with half an hour on the ab plate - this time watching Top Gear which didn't quite entertain as much as Peter Griffin and his family did the previous morning!

Today I wanted to press.. Alot! So thats exactly what I did. Where a normal chest session for me would have been about 7/8 exercises, I concentrated on just a few different ones, but the bulk of my session came in the 10 sets on the flat bench with the olympic bar. I find its important to have a good spotter when benching, the psychological advantage alone is huge never mind the fact he/she could save you from being crushed!

THE WORKOUT

EXERCISE ONE

FLAT BENCH OLYMPIC PRESS - 10 SETS (ADDITIONAL 3 WARMUP SETS)

As I said before, I was motivated to press so thats exactly what I started on. I have read a couple of articles saying '10 sets of 10' is brilliant and I haven't tried it before, so I wanted to see if how it was, and kind of tailored it as I went along.

Warmup sets x 3 - 15 reps - 50 kg

Set 1 - 10 reps - 70kg

Set 2 - 10 reps - 90kg

Set 3 - 10 reps - 100kg

Set 4 - 8 reps - 110kg

Set 5 - 4 reps - 120kg

Set 6 - 3 reps - 130kg

Set 7 - 15 reps - 60kg

Set 8 - 10 reps - 90kg

Set 9 - 8 reps - 90kg

Set 10 - 6 reps - 90kg

Whilst I tend not to write what weight I did because you should be aiming to do whatever weight you can and replicate the same amount of reps, I think its important to see how the variation in weight that I did so you have a rough gage of how much you should be adding.

EXERCISE TWO

SUPER-SET; HIGH ELBOWS CHEST PRESS MACHINE & BENT OVER CABLE FLIES - 3 SETS

Following the simple format of a 'super set', complete exercise A, followed by B to complete 1 set.

EXERCISE A - HIGH ELBOW CHEST PRESS MACHINE - 15 REPS

 

By keeping the elbows high opposed to a normal height, it focuses more on the top of the chest basically replicating an incline press but in a different way.

EXERCISE B - BENT OVER CABLE FLIES

 



Again, another exercise that you can do on a bench but I think its important to always change up the style of the exercise using a different technique. 

Set 1 - 20 Reps
Set 2 - 30 Reps
Set 3 - 30 Reps

EXERCISE THREE

CIRCULAR BENCH FLIES - 1 SET - 50 REPS

A

B

An exercise that I came across recently in Mens Health. It looks at working the whole area of the chest by using the circular motion and is a good one to end your chest session with as it also doubles up as a stretch.

I tend to only every use a light weight and ensure that each rep is with fully extended arms at a nice and steady pace in order to stimulate all muscles.

Follow the pictures from A-D to complete exercise.

C

D

EXERCISE FOUR

SINGLE HAND TRICEP CABLE PULL DOWN - 3 SETS - 20 REPS

 I wanted to do a little bit of triceps to finish off with - as I'm sure you know, triceps get a good workout whilst working out on chest so I thought it'd be a good time to work them a little harder!

THE CARDIO

A simple 30 mins high intensity on the cross trainer again. As you can see, it says I burnt nearly 500 cals which I find hard to believe, but hey, I'll take it! I did a light stretch so my legs, chest and triceps aren't too bad ahead of tomorrow.

THE DIET

Meal 1

Meal 1

• 4 Egg Whites
• 1 Small bowl of 'Fitness' cereal with skimmed milk
• 1 apple

Meal 2

• 1 Apple
• 1 Protein Shake
• 100g Rice
• 250g White Fish



Meal 2&3

• 100g Veg

Meal 3

• 250g Chicken Breast
• 100g Veg

Snacks

• 1 Mixed Berries pot
• 1 Protein 
• 15 Almonds

CONFESSION

For the eagle-eyed amongst you, you will have noticed that I didn't have meal number four today. This is because after a long day at work and due to the fact I live in the Middle East, with Ramadan coming up it was last chance saloon to get a few beers in. So, I confess, I didn't hold back and had somewhere in the region of 6-8 pints. There, I said it. The aim is to not consume any more alcohol until the challenge is up. Should be easy with all the bars closed for the Holy month, right?

FINAL THOUGHTS

Today was probably the best day I had had in terms of the combination of a great weights workout, a gruelling 30 minutes on the cross trainer and eating incredibly clean until 10pm rolled around and I decided to go out. A lesson to be learnt I guess. Abs and Cardio tomorrow.

Any tips for a great chest session? Whats your biggest problems when you come to do a chest workout?

I'm dying to hear from you, let me know!

Until tomorrow, Ciao!

DAY 3