Berkhan Workout A1
Posted: April 29th, 2010 | Author: ERIC | Filed under: Body | Tags: bench, flat, hammer, horizontal, incline, Martin Berkhan, muscle nostalgia, pulldown, pushdown | 1 Comment »I have an irritating preference to writing my most recent workout the day before the next scheduled one.
Well, my next workout SHOULD be Friday, but I’m going to go with Saturday so I can knock that out on the same day as HeroClix tourney. Plus I’m still feeling pretty sore today. I doubt this will change after a night of rest. Maybe it will, but, uh, I have phone calls to make all day tomorrow that I was supposed to make today that I instead slept-through and then bummed around with my bro. So I’ll get my clerical nonsense out of the way tomorrow (still trying to get a job, you see) with a workout on Saturday prefacing an afternoon of superheroic clicking.
It’s not the routine in the actual post, but one that he posted in the comments section; that I am now running myself. Or starting to.
Monday I did rep-max tests with the higher end of the rep range for each movement I wasn’t already doing (so, everything but incline presses and pulldowns.) This was so that I could inherently increase the poundage the next time I made it around to this workout (which is labeled as A1 in Martin’s post.)
The only thing I’m not directly ripping off from Martin is the fact that I’m very willing to use machines when I’m doing sets-to-failure. I don’t have a workout partner, and few people (though admittedly SOME) at my gym are reliable/useful spotters. I’m just here to stimulate muscles, not to wave my dick around.
Waving my dick around is for a much lower bodyfat percentage, anyway.
Workout for Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Flat Bench 8RM
- 45lbs x 8
- 55 x 8
- 65 x 8 (arms feel tired, didn’t rest much)
- 75 x 6 (slowing down, shoulders flushed)
- 80 x 8
- 80 x 7
I screwed up a bit here. I forgot the second working set was supposed to be a drop-set. There has been one less bench available for the past couple weeks and I ducked out to use the bathroom. When I came back I had to shoo someone away, and I guess I was just distracted by him. He moved to a decline chest press machine-for-barbell-plates thing and seemed to be working fine. But I dunno. Being a dick to people at the gym throws me off.
So rather than de-loading and getting an extra rep, I did a straight second set and lost a rep. Ah well!
Incline Press Machine (typical setup)
- 45lbs. x 5
- 75 x 3
- 90 x 2
- 105 x 5
I’m still annoyed that this machine can only go in 15lbs. jumps, but it’s really the best place for me from a form perspective. When I reverse the order of pressing (doing two sets of incline and then one set of flat on May 5th’s workout) I’ll be doing the incline presses with free-weights because the jumps are obviously much smaller there. But for to-failure stuff? Here it is.
Horizontal Hammer Press 8RM
- 45lbs x 8
- 55 x 8 (starting to feel nauseous)
- 60 x 4
I use this machine as a substitute for close-grip benching, hahaha… I realized during this exercise that I was pressing too much with my shoulders on the flat bench, though, when my shoulders came forward on the first set here. Fixed that quickly without incident. I had my wrists in a bad position for this machine, I think. The weight wound up behind my forearms rather than in line with it, and I think my poundages suffered as a result.
Pushdown 12RM
- 12.5lbs x 12
- 17.5 x 12
- 22.5 x 12 (loooong rest)
- 27.5 x 12 (damn close!)
- 32.5 x 10
- 37.5 x 6
This was exhausting. I haven’t actually done the two-handed triceps pushdown since I first trained with my dad back in 2004. I kind of didn’t want to stop doing them because of the nostalgia… MUSCLE NOSTALGIA… So after I got my 12RM, I decided to bump it and try for 12. Missed it, but it was still in my rep range, so I took another 5-minute rest and got the six reps with 37. I almost wanted to do these unilaterally, but at the same time the siren song of workouts long past made me want to try.
I remember not getting past 25lbs. so many years ago. I’m not that much stronger, but it felt really good.
Pulldown
- 40lbs x 5
- 60 x 3
- 80 x 2
- 100 x 12 (actually failed here too)
- 105 x 7 (lost focus, got a headache instead of muscular contraction)
I rarely work this high of a rep range on pulldowns anymore, so I wasn’t REALLY sure where I’d be. I conservatively estimated based upon projected 1-rep-max, and it turned out to be spot-on. I was on a bit of a kick after I got my top-12 set on pushdowns so I decided to bump the weight a little and try for 10. I didn’t even lick it! I should have just walked away, I felt ‘done’ but at the same time ‘well, just ONE MORE set…’
The latter won, obviously.
Body Weight: 163lbs.
Body Fat %: 16.9%
Condition: C.
Felt okay overall, though my left hamstring was still TIGHT/clenched for some reason, probably as a result of my fail-y attempt to shed some water before the session… I wasn’t facially watered-up, though, so I’m probably just fatter.
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