If you missed my #1 post, these are a series of five exercise routines to be done each week, one/day. I followed these routines prior to competing in the National Senior Basketball Championships this June in Houston and found them to be invaluable in getting me conditioned to compete against the best in the country.
The links to videos that show proper form often times have strong guys/gals pulling/pushing more weight than you and I can/should try to handle. My recommendation is to start each exercise with almost no weight. Get the feel of the exercise and increase your weight until you can do the exercise without losing your form and hit the recommended number of reps.
-
Strengthen your Arms...well proportioned to his chest!
These workouts, I refer to as my Colorado Workouts, were developed by my nephew, Robbie and his Dad, Bob. The key to the Colorado workouts is that one can use as light a weight as they need to achieve the number of reps recommended. Form and reps are the key to success.
Robbie provided me with five workouts to be done each week. One per day with two days off or for a good cardio burn…run, basketball, elliptical, or my favorite…the old-fashioned stair master…the one with the treads. This routine works five separate muscle groups once/week. The groups are: shoulders, back, arms, chest, legs.
I’ll post each workout separately, this week being “arms”. Each will have some links to videos that show proper form. A great website that should provide good tutorials if you are unsure of an exercise is Link to Exercise Guide
Before starting, I also have found that it is advisable to invest in a good protein shake and if older like I, a drink with some L-Glutamine for muscle recovery. Again, my nephew, who studies this as his major in college, recommended Max Muscle’s IsoExtreme. It is mixed with water, tastes like a gatorade product, and helps to provide some energy during the workout and really helps with post-workout crashing. I purchase mine from a distributor in Connecticut who doesn’t charge for shipping and gives you the second tub at 50% off. If you are working out 5 x’s per week, this is a very attractive price structure. Robbie recommended I take one scoop with 8-10 oz. of water 1 hour before a workout and 2 scoops with water immediately after a workout. Link to Connecticut Max Muscle Dealer Website
Arms-15 reps each set:
- 5 sets close grip tricep bench presses on the smith machine; super set with straight bar bicep curls (a “superset” is done immediately after the first exerecise without any break in between. It’s really like a double set. You take a 15-30 second break in between the second or “superset”.)
- 4 sets over the head triceps extensions with dumb bells (can do laying on a bench or sitting); super set with seated dumb bell bicep curls (suggest using an inclined bench): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yyQobXWDIo&feature=related
- 4 sets triceps extensions on cable machine with close grip or with rope (Utilize the cable machine that most people use to do extensions facing the weight stack. Turn away from the stack, with the rope on top of your head, and take one giant step away from the stack. Now, perform an isolated tricep extension from overhead. Start with a very light weight to get the feel of this; super set with hammer curls (No rest in between extensions and hammer curls!)
- 4 sets tricep kick backs: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.myfit.ca/cache/images/kickbacks.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.myfit.ca/exercisedatabase/viewanexercise.asp%3Fexercise%3DTricep%2BKickbacks%26table%3Dexercises%26ID%3D26&h=287&w=270&sz=24&tbnid=fN_3JCZycznfsM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=85&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dtricep%2Bkickbacks%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=tricep+kickbacks&hl=en&usg=__kGqump88jkKAbZ5Ux9bxOoUSvtQ=&sa=X&ei=CsIMTorcL-uw0AH4xJ3IDg&ved=0CDkQ9QEwBA ; super set with 21’s bicep curls (either bar or dumb bells) A “21’s routine is where you break your range of motion into three parts. The first 7 reps in the curl, you curl the barbell or dumb bells from full exesntion to parallel to the ground; the next 7 reps are done from parallel to the ground up to your chest; the final 7 reps are full range of motion. These really get the blood into your muscles and burn!
- Tricep machine – FT 7’s (7 sets, 15 reps, 15 sec rest) “FT 7’s” are a burn out routine where you simply set the weight on any tricep machine in this case, to the level that allows you to do l15 reps; count to 15 seconds…not longer…and do another 15 reps; if you can’t quite get the 15th rep, lower the weights for your next set, wait 15 seconds, and do another 15. Repeat until you’ve done 7 sets of 15 reps. This will really burn if done correctly!
- Bicep machine – FT 7’s I don’t wait long in between these two machines…maybe 30 seconds at the most. The same routine…your biceps will be screaming at the end, no matter what your weight is. Just set it so that you can to 15 reps and do 7 sets with 15 seconds in between each.
Once again, one great feature of these routines is that you can start with as little weight as you need to hit the desired number of repetitions. Each of the above sets should hit 15 reps each set. Arms are the toughest workout for me because of all the supersets and the end “FT-7’s”. These really burn one’s muscles out.
Refer to Intense Workouts #1 for other tips on protein shakes that you might find helpful. This routine burns a lot of calories if done properly. There is no need to feel run down after working out.
Have fun!
Regards,
Vinnie Rua- Founder, Christopher’s Custom
Good call, Vinnie, on stressing proper technique before increasing the load. Poor technique shifts the load from the target muscles onto substituting muscles.
Just a quick note, a superset is where target a muscle first and then target its antagonist – triceps then biceps.
Also, to increase performance and hasten recovery, not to mention staving off the dreaded Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS, that happens a couple of days afterwards, you may wish to supplement with beta alanine.
Finally, if you want to maximize your bang for the buck, you should try Resistance Stretching. Your calorie burn is directly related to two things, intensity of the exercise and amount of muscle mass utilized. Isolating – more or less – the arms leaves lots of muscle mass unused. Resistance Stretching, where you tense a muscle and then force it to elongate through its full range of motion, not only generates both strength and a stretch through that full range, it also produces the primary stimulus for muscle growth (tendon and ligament strength, too) – the eccentric contraction.
All the exercises are set up in superset circuit training fashion, which also allows you to identify the muscle imbalances that are weakening and misaligning you. The college sports teams I’ve worked with noticed improvements in pain and restrictions, as well as in performance. This is why elite athletes like Olympic champions Dara Torres and Nastia Liukin, as well as MLB, NHL and NBA players use the system. Check out my website for more info.
Thank you Peter. Your comments are well-noted. I am interested in resistance stretching. I’ll be in touch. Presently, I’m getting fitted for new orthotics by Tim Maggs and trying some new treatment on my knee…no ACL/medial meniscus…for 37 years…but I still play hoops…so perhaps you can suggest some exercises that would assist with continuing to stabilize my left knee. I’ll be in touch in a month or so.
I also have no meniscus in my right knee, Vinnie. I rotated my tibia several years ago, for reasons that were a mystery to the medical profession. My orthopedic surgeon wanted to do surgery (duh, that’s what they do!) but instead I started doing Resistance Stretching and am now pain free. Interestingly, I found out in the course of my certification that muscles have 3 modes of action: flex or extend, adduct or abduct, and internally or externally rotate. I had a muscle imbalance – my quad was stronger than my medial hamstring, and the quad is an external rotator. The Resistance Stretching system uses 16 different stretches that target all the major muscle groups, allowing the user to identify and dismantle his muscle imbalances, which are the result of repetitive motions or bad posture, and which cause a large number of issues. Anyway, talk to you soon, and you’ll be thrilled with the effectiveness of the program.
Well, that is interesting!
My treatments with Tim Maggs seem to be helping considerably with inflammation after I play basketball. Once we see where that leaves us, I’d like to set up an appointment to further discuss any imbalance in my legs and possibly using Resistance Stretching. Thanks for the comments.