DAY 9 - KEY TO THE TREASURE CHEST

DAY 9 - 22nd JUNE 2015

TRAINING - CHEST

WEIGHTS DURATION: 54mins                    CARDIO DURATION: 30mins

Yesterday was inspiring, no two ways about it. By the end of the day, I felt that I had had a clean day diet wise and a great session. Then, I wake up this morning and I feel so tired that I could have just jumped into bed with sleeping beauty herself and slept for the rest of time. The one thing that managed to drag me through was the fact that todays workout was chest and I figured that at these points of weakness, the thing that will define good from great results are these moments. 10 points for the motivation.

Today started with a the biggest breakfast I've probably had so far, which was amazing but if anything I felt  bit heavy going into the weights. Maybe I should look at that ahead of tomorrow. I managed to get in 30 mins on the ab plate which was decent, whilst watching Fast and the furious 2, old school! It was a good laugh and a real blast from the past.

THE WORKOUT

As I said before my first chest session of this program, Chest is easily my favourite muscle group to work out on in the gym. Everything I did in that session was flatbench, so today I was looking to try and focus much more on my incline game which I find much harder. 

EXERCISE ONE

INCLINE BENCH BAR PRESS  - 7 SETS - 8-15 REPS

I know, I know. I said I wouldn't do the same as last week. Unfortunately, the normal benches were occupied for AGESSSS before I could get on one and with time against me, I had no choice but to get on the bench with the olympic bar. I promise next week will be pretty much just free weights.

 

Same for when doing a normal bench with the bar; nice and controlled coming down. I like to mix the tempo up too; explode up or come up slow, give it a go. 

3 Sets Warmup

Set 1 - 15 reps - 40kg

Set 2 - 15 reps - 50kg

Set 3 - 15 reps - 70kg

Set 4 - 15 reps - 80kg

Set 5 - 8 reps -100kg

Set 6 - 15 reps - 70kg

Set 7 - 12 reps - 70kg

EXERCISE TWO

FLAT BENCH DUMBBELL PRESS  - 4 SETS - 12 REPS

Apologies for the rubbish pictures. The one on the right should come down way further; I'll be having a stern word with my gym partner about his photography skills! This bloody filter is doing nothing for anyone!

Again, I didn't want to go from one press to another but due to other apparatus being busy I had no choice. About as standard as they come as an exercise; just make sure you're not doing too heavy a weight and subsequently not coming down far enough. All in the technique. 

Even though I didn't want to go from and incline press to a flat press, the second one was extremely hard so perhaps it was more beneficial?









EXERCISE THREE

INCLINE FLIES  - 4 SETS - 20 REPS

Normally, I would do flies on cables as there are so many different ways to do them but I stand by that bench flies are bloody excellent and I think I really ought to do them more. 

I find that a lot of people tend to keep their arms too straight when flying, a bend is better for me and I always feel the burn in the edge of the chest a lot more than if I keep my arms dead straight when at the middle of a rep.









EXERCISE FOUR

SUPER-SET; STOOD UP CABLE FLIES & PUSH-UPS - 3 SETS

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

EXERCISE A - STOOD UP CABLE FLIES - 30 REPS

 Now when I said earlier when flying on a bench people keep their arms too straight; I meant that for when doing them on a bench. I still use a small bend in the arms but notice how much straighter they are when on cables opposed to a bench. 

I like to squeeze the chest in and hold for 2 seconds in the mid of every rep (as seen in --> pic)










EXERCISE B - PUSH-UPS - KEEP GOING UNTIL FAILURE


I'll level with you, I may have over done it when doing the incline press; the rest of the session has been very hard since. I aimed to do around 10 pushups when supersetting with the Stood up Cable Flies, but most sets started off with the pics in order below; 

'great start, feeling good Ali'
'down we go... SHIT!'
'Okay. lets try that again.'

In the end I did manage to get 6, 8 and then 7 reps out in that order. Tough going but something to aim for next time and I guess if its a struggle to do a few push-ups then I've probably worked the chest well.

THE CARDIO

After yesterdays 60 minute cycle, I only wanted to do a light cardio session. That was all very well until I got about 15 mins into my cross trainer stint and my legs felt pretty good. So, I decided to do another intense 15 mins. When you get a second wind when doing cardio, always try and push for that little bit more. Not sure about you, but it doesn't happen that often for me and felt I should take full advantage.

Not the fastest ever, but still just shy of another 500 cals burnt.

THE DIET

Meal 1

• 4 Eggs with only 2 yolks in scrambled form
• 1 Small bowl of 'Fitness' cereal with skimmed milk
• 1 Apple
• 100g Chicken
• 2 Rice cakes (1 with Organic Peanut Butter)
• 1 Glass Baby Orange (half water half organic orange)
• 1 Coffee

Meal 2

• 200g Chicken
• 1 Nature valley bar
• 20 Almonds
• 1 Apple

Meal 3

Cheat snack!

Meal 3

• 4 Chicken skewers
• 3 beef skewers
• Green beans
• Salad

Meal 4

• 2 slices toast with organic peanut butter
• 2 oreo biscuits

FINAL THOUGHTS

A tired one for today but none the less good so far! I feel that I ran out of a bit of steam in the session, not sure if thats due to the huge breakfast, general fatigue, or because I did too much in the first exercise? What do you think? I'll have to explore before the next chest session

All in all I do feel that it was a better session than last weeks despite feeling a bit tired. 

Which session do you prefer? The first session we did or this one? Did I do too much in the first exercise? Do you tend to mix both incline and decline in your chest session?

Adios.

WEEK 1 DAY 2 - DAY 2 OVERALL 

WEEK 2 DAY 2. - DAY 9 OVERALL