Exercise Log 10.16.13 (Arm Day + Cardio)

Had a great workout today figured I’d document it before I completely forget, yet again. In the spirit of Halloween I decided to try a new workout I saw from Scott Herman’s fitness channel on Youtube, Tricep Terror! First though I got in and hit biceps, also using some advice I had from Scott Herman’s fitness channel on getting bigger bicep peaks…

So here was the flow of the workout, warmed up biceps and then went straight to curls. First I hoppped on the preacher curl machine and did a set as heavy as I could go, I fluctuated weight up and down a bit after I finished I realized the ideal weight for me now on that machine is around 105lb. Did 4 sets of heavy curl bar curls (a heavy curl bar for me is currently 60lbs), then did concentration curls with 35lbs dumbbells (4 sets, 8 reps with a fifth drop set at 25lbs).

After this I tried the bare barbell curl in the linked video for four sets and found it absolutely killer. Then I did sitting down dumbbell curls like the video linked, but with a personal twist I did a rotation of the dumbbell from a hammer curl position to a fully turned in position at the peak of the rep to properly supinate the wrist and fully contract the bicep, a tip I learned from a Ben Pakulski video that I actually linked in the last long fitness update I did. All that advice comes in handy when you start putting it together. I finished up with some bosu ball overhand grip bicep curls which I personally love and feel like always gives me the best pump.

Okay well once this was done I went straight into the “tricep terror” workout and it was just that. Scott Herman has a series of videos on his fitness channel called “Maximum Growth” which are all great workouts for different parts of the body, I wanted to try one as best I could in line with the suggested routine. I did something bad though and forgot to warm up my triceps before actually starting the exercise, so inbetween the first 4 sets I decided to just do some slow tricep contractions while standing and resting to warm it up inbetween sets a bit… it helped a lot actually. Anyways I’m not quite as strong as Scott Herman so I did not weight my dips, which was fine they were still challenging, and I used a 45lb dumbbell for the overhead tricep raises which is a little more than my usual weight for that exercise. I felt like this part of the workout was very challenging but very time efficient. Then I went to the weight area and nabbed myself a 80 pound curl bar and hopped on a spare bench. I tricep bench pressed the bar like in the workout in the video, and then did some tricep dips off the bench’s side (I didn’t have a second platform to elevate my feet but that is fine I was able to get good range of motion on the bench dips anyways). Kept the same pace and completed all 8 sets.

Gotta say felt like the triceps were really worked after this one and felt like I had to struggle a bit near the end. I don’t like to leave any exercise without some kind of finishing exercise, so I went to the rope machine with the rope handle and did some cable tricep extensions. My form was a little dodgy because I was pulling a little more weight, but I made sure to add a nice drop set in after 4 normal sets to give a nice burn.

So a lot of this is different to how I normally approach my arm workouts, I felt the changeup in routine was great and I learned a lot of new things. I think it really speaks to the hidden benefits of changing your routine frequently. The pump from these various exercises was intense I felt like my arms doubled in size, they definitely doubled in stiffness. This is not the kind of workout you do before brushing your teeth, that’s for sure. You’d be lucky to land the brush in your mouth with biceps and triceps this stiff! A lot of my bicep exercises were definitely forearm intensive too, and even they were pumped and rock solid. Only negative of today’s workout was that my wrists felt a little pain after the exercises so I felt maybe I had to be more careful with how my wrist movement was during the sets.

So after that weight workout I left the gym, but then I came back after work for a run. I definitely ran a very slow pace for me probably averaged 6mph, and only went 3.65 miles on the treadmill, but with two 5K’s coming up in the next few weeks and the half marathon in the spring I’ll take any running workout I can get good or bad! I’m learning a lot about my heart rate and how it relates to my pace, although today I didn’t have my heart rate monitor on, I’m starting to get an idea of what is an acceptable pace for racing. So we’ll see if it pans out in my next few competitive runs. Of course though, I’m #notamarathonrunner