The perfect way to get rid of those Monday blues, is to go to the gym and bench a few.
Mondays are also called Chest Days as more than half the worlds gym going population has their chest workout to start the week. I am one of those thousands of people who alternates his bench press with 6 other people on Monday.
In my previous article Find your fitness plan , I had discussed the importance of the Fitness Five, and how you should design your workout keeping all these segments in mind. The famous five include Cardiovascular Endurance(CVE), Muscular endurance (ME) , Muscular Strength (MS), Flexibility(F) and Rest(R). You can read about them in the article.
So on Mondays I do a Chest Workout for strength(MS), Triceps for endurance(ME) and a combined cardio and abs(CVE) session followed by some stretching(F).
I do the same in the following way:
Chest Workout for Strength
Some push ups to warm up as I approach the heavy parts of my chest workout.
Barbell Bench Press– 4 heavy sets starting from 8 repetitions to 6 to 4 to 2. The weight should be above 85% of your one rep maximum. ONE REP MAX (ORM) – The maximum weight you can lift on the specific exercise for one time without breaking form. dintip- Try to have a spotter and don’t lift to show others. Be true to yourself.
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press– Similar to the barbell bench press four sets starting from 8 and ending at 2. Again weight is to be above 85% of your one rep max.
dintip- Squeeze your upper chest as you pause at maximum contraction. (when your weight is highest)
Machine Chest Press– 3 sets of 10, 8 and 6 reps respectively. weights should be above 85% of your one rep max.
dintip- There are different machine for the same exercise, remember to move up fast and come down slow.
Pec Deck– 4 sets from 10 to 8 to 6 to 4 reps. The weight should be above 85% of our max.
dintip- Ensure that your elbows don’t bend and that you squeeze all the way through till the rods meet in front of you.
Dumbbell Flyes— 3 sets of 8 to 6 to 4 reps with progressively increasing weight which is at least 85% of your one rep max.
dintip-Don’t bend your elbows and ensure that you squeeze the weight at the very top.
Triceps Workout for Endurance
Since I am training triceps for endurance I usually limit myself to weigh which is 60 to 80% of my one rep max and do sets of each of the following exercise for 12-15 repetitions.
Standing Dumbbell Triceps Extension
Dumbbell One-Arm Triceps Extension
Cardio and ABS workout
I do a simple up down on the stepper with each leg leading 10 times then move in to an abdominal exercise then back to the stepper and a different abdominal exercise. I do this for 5 different abdominal exercises. In total I go up and down on the stepper 100 times sets of 20 and do 5 ab exercise like leg raises, reverse crunches, lying knee to elbows, flutter kicks and plank.
dintip- This has to be done with no break in between the stepper and the exercise and you only have to stop once all ab exercise are finished.
Stretching for Flexibility
I Stretch the core, chest and triceps for 2 mins each after I am done with the workout.
I have covered 4 aspects of the Fitness Five on my chest workout day, the fifth and the most important is rest, so as I get done with this post I set myself the task of accomplishing this fifth aspect by indulging in some passive rest, sleeping.