Evil’s Workout Plan – March 2014

Stalling military presses and pain in the brachioradialis and the front deltoids meant some changes to my new workout plan.

That’s How It Goes!

In November I had a workout plan that was good for two months without changing anything at all. But that is more the exception than the rule.  March marks the third month in a row where I had to adjust.

That’s how it goes: sometimes you get lucky, sometimes not.  You closely monitor your progress and how your body reacts to the exercises, and then make changes accordingly.

Which is why I always say that you shouldn’t blindly copy anyone elses’ plan. Because what works for the Incredible Bulk might work very differently for you.

Evil’s Current Workout Plan (March 2014)

 
Again some links go to ExRx until I get around doing a video on those exercises.

Mondays Explained

On Mondays I had to drop the weighted close-grip push-ups for the triceps, as they started giving me pain in the front deltoids. I’m sure I didn’t use bad form and rotated the shoulder, but the pain was there. So the close-grip bench press is now my main triceps compound, followed by lying triceps extensions and the kickbacks I already did last month.

Wednesdays Explained

Two months I now did barbell rows, and experience taught me that keeping them for a third won’t be a good idea. They’d almost certainly stall.

But what to replace them with? Should I go back to the reverse barbell row? Give the t-bar row a stint? Or do dumbbell rows again, an exercise I stalled on so regularly it gave me nightmares? Nah, I’ll grab a towel and go for the t-bar rows.

And while on Mondays it was my shoulders that gave me trouble, on Wednesdays it was the brachioradialis – the muscle that starts on the middle of your upper arms and then runs down your forearms. The culprit was the preacher curl, that targets the brachialis, but also involves a good bit of the brachioradialis. Let’s see if changing the mechanics via concentration curls does the trick.

Hanging leg raises for the deeper core muscles I did for a very long time and for a change I switched them with lying leg raises.

Fridays Explained

For now it’s goodbye to an old favorite of mine: the military press. They are replaced by front raises.

For months military presses served me well, but in the last weeks my performance with them not only did not increase, it actually decreased. I hate dropping a compound, but if it stopped working, it stopped working. Keeping them would be futile, especially when drop sets to get beyond the plateau didn’t do anything either.

The rear delt rows were an interesting change, but too much of them I can’t stand. So it’s back to the old rear delt raises, although that means I now have three shoulder isolations on Fridays. Two of them are even unilateral, making it a long workout session.