LeeB

After what I feel has been a very successful second year of competing (one didn’t place, one first and a third… and a wedding lol), Im now ready to start planning my next years assault on the u80kgs.. I don’t have any shows in mind as yet but I know I want to be coming in toward the top end of the under 80kg weight limit.

Ill put all my plans into this training journal – maybe even some of my PB lifts if I get any along the way. Ill not be updating it too regularly as I think it can get a little anal… but hopefully keeping a rough journal like this will help me think more about my training over the coming year and be more objective about when and where I make changes!! Wish me luck! J

Ive done a little work on my bulking diet but I haven’t got it fully sorted yet (keep your eyes peeled over next couple of weeks). After my last shows I made a note of where I feel I need to improve physique wise and what bodyparts I need to bring up etc. these were:

1 - ab conditioning - especially lower abs, still a little watery. can be tighter!
2 - chunkier bigger abs!
3 - outer triceps are excellent.. rear triceps need bringing in line to balance out and fill out my arms!
4 - biceps still need to come up some more to balance out my to front delt size (i want GUNS not kermit frog arms!!)
5 - lower/side chest by nipple needs thickening/filling out
6 - back thickness (front to back)
7 - find a decent set of lower lats to complete the taper!
8 - higher traps/thicker traps - had an injury for last 2 month so been unable to train them at all!
9 - thicker fuller hamstrings - legs from front are just where i need them pretty much for upper body development at moment - but from behind my legs look skinny so (in my opinion) i think my hams obviously play a big part in this but also my inner thigh is very lacking compared to outer quad sweep which for me is what causes that overall skinny look from the rear! so this will be worked on for next year i promise that my rear leg shots will look like a different person!
10 - more calves to compliment next years legs mark II
11 - another 10kg of not muscle - but QUALITY!

Any further suggestions from the above are much appreciated from anyone who may have seen me!!

I hope to accomplish the above changes with the training routines and split below. This is a very basic layout and does not include sets and reps as I feel this is a very instinctive thing and I want to aim for good form, intensity and progression and not just numbers. Any suggestions from anyone on exercises to improve my above weaknesses are always appreciated. Also any questions on why I have chosen the specific exercises are always welcome too.

Training Routine

Chest
Flat Bench Dumbell Press
Flat Bench Dumbell Flyes
Incline Smith Press or Incline Free Barbell or Incline Machine Press
(above depends on which gym im training in that day)

Back
Seated Close Grip Pull down
(pulling all way through to hit middle lower lats)
Partial Deadlifts
(for mass and also hit lower lats hard)
Bent Over Dumbell Row
Wide Grip Pulldowns
(I like to do 4 exercises for back – even worse ill be training chest & back together.. ouch)

Biceps
Dumbell Preacher Curls
Seated Dumbell Curls
(The above 2 exercises may regularly be swapped for either EZ bar curls or standing dumbbell curls for variety and to hit the muscle slightly differently)
Cable Rope Curls (hammer grip)
Cable Bar Curls (two handed medium grip with straight bar)
(above 2 exercises are supersetted and done with reps of 12-25 for 2-3 sets.. basically until I feel they’ve worked hard enough!!)

Triceps
Cable Pushdowns
EZ Bar overhead presses
One arm reverse grip cable extensions
(ill occasionally add in close grip bench pressing too for power and mass, maybe once every 3 weeks or so!)

Shoulders
One arm bent over dumbbell side raises
Behind neck smiths press
Seated bent over dumbbell side raises
Seated dumbbell pressing
Standing dumbbell side raises
One arm cable side raises
One arm cable front raises
(the above two exercises will be supersetted)

Traps
Dumbell shrugs
Barbell shrugs (sometimes front sometimes rear)

Quads
Leg extensions (warm up)
Squats
Leg Press (toes outward foot position to hit inner thigh)
(will sometimes swap the above for a few weeks with either hack squats or will alter foot position to hit outer thigh)

Hamstrings
Seated Leg Curls
Lying Leg Curls
Dumbell stiff leg deadlift (light for reps and stretch)

Calves
Standing Calf Press
Seated Calf Press
Calf Press on Leg Press Machine

Abdominals
(will always vary but will be done weighted where possible in attempt to thicken up my abs - exercises I will do are: – only 2-3 exercises per session)
Leg Raises
Cable Crunches
Crunches
Bench Situps
Weighted Abdominal Crunch Machine


Training Split
My training split will be as follows. Unfortunately although I aim to train on set days it sometimes doesn’t work out that way due to work and home commitments. The aim is to train as follows:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Biceps & Triceps
Wednesday: Chest & Back
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Quads
Saturday: Hamstrings, Calves & Abs
Sunday: Shoulders & Traps

I like to separate out quads from hamstrings and calves and train 5 days a week – for now my bicep & triceps session will be in the mornings before work (about 7am) and ill have a protein/carb shake about half an hour before this session and another immediately after training! Then my breakfast meal after this.


Now all I need to do is eat well train hard, graft my nadgers off and get plenty of sleep!! Look out for me on stage next year!!