Spring Bulk Day 136 - Chest
Summary
TLDRIn this workout vlog, the speaker shares his experience with a chest day workout, detailing his exercises, gym preferences, and fitness philosophy. He starts with heavy incline Smith presses, emphasizing the importance of lifting heavy early in the workout. The speaker discusses alternatives for equipment, his use of the pec deck and cable flies, and the importance of a mind-muscle connection. He touches on forearm training, workout adaptability, and the value of learning from fitness content online. The session ends with reflections on personal progress and fitness motivation.
Takeaways
- 💪 The speaker is discussing a chest workout, mentioning different gyms and their opening hours, which affect their gym choices.
- 🏋️♂️ They emphasize starting workouts with heavy compound movements like incline bench press to maximize effort when muscles are fresh.
- 🗣 The speaker prefers doing heavy incline Smith presses at Planet Fitness as it's the best option available for a serious chest workout, despite preferring other gyms.
- ⚖️ They explain their philosophy of training by starting with heavy weights and lowering weight as fatigue sets in, rather than increasing the weight later in the workout.
- 👨🏫 They highlight the importance of muscle tension in workouts, focusing on the upper pecs during exercises like pec deck and cable flies for better mind-muscle connection.
- 🎯 The speaker encourages completing a workout with fewer isolation exercises like cable flies and pec deck after heavy compound lifts for maximum muscle activation.
- ⏱ They emphasize workout efficiency, suggesting 8-12 sets of hard, focused work per body part to optimize muscle growth and avoid overtraining.
- 😅 The speaker mentions getting a chest and slight arm pump during the workout, feeling satisfied with the results despite simpler exercises.
- 🤝 They stress that workouts should be fun and adaptable, allowing for changes based on how they feel in the gym, to maintain long-term motivation.
- 📚 The speaker advises beginners to educate themselves by watching workout videos and learning about exercises, noting how it leads to long-term improvement and gains.
Q & A
What challenges does the speaker face with the gyms in his area?
-The speaker finds that the gyms around him have inconvenient weekend hours, with some closing early on weekends. For example, the YMCA closes at 6 PM on weekends, which he finds limiting. Metro Gym is open later, but due to time constraints, he had to settle for Planet Fitness, which lacks some of the equipment he prefers.
Why does the speaker prefer to start with heavy exercises like the incline Smith machine?
-The speaker believes in starting his workout with a movement that allows him to lift the heaviest weight while fresh. This approach aligns with his philosophy of maximizing tension and load at the beginning of the workout for better strength and muscle growth.
What are the advantages of starting with a heavy exercise versus a lighter one, according to the speaker?
-Starting with a heavy exercise allows the speaker to lift the most weight while fresh, which maximizes strength gains. If he were to start with lighter sets, such as chest flies, he would be fatigued by the time he reached heavier movements like the incline Smith machine, leading to reduced performance and less weight moved.
What does the speaker's typical chest day routine consist of?
-His typical chest day includes heavy sets on the incline Smith machine, followed by isolation movements like the pec deck and cable flies. He aims for a mix of heavy compound lifts and targeted isolation exercises to fully stimulate the chest.
How does the speaker adjust his training based on available equipment?
-When certain machines or equipment are unavailable, like when the cables are taken, the speaker adapts by using alternatives, such as moving to the pec deck. He emphasizes the importance of flexibility in training and going by feel based on what’s available.
What is the speaker's approach to ensuring a full chest pump?
-The speaker continues a set even after he can no longer fully complete reps, focusing on partial reps to keep tension on the muscle and achieve a full pump. He aims for maximum fatigue and muscle engagement rather than stopping the set once he can't perform full repetitions.
Why does the speaker feel silly doing certain poses like the 'most muscular' in front of a mirror?
-The speaker feels that some bodybuilding poses, such as the 'most muscular,' feel cheesy and make him feel like a 'lunkhead.' Despite this, he still enjoys seeing the results of his hard work, like the pump in his chest and arms after a workout.
What specific advice does the speaker give about forearm training?
-The speaker recommends training forearms directly by incorporating exercises like forearm curls at the end of an arm workout. He suggests doing forearm curls both with palms up and palms down to target different parts of the forearm.
How does the speaker feel about assisted reps during a workout?
-The speaker enjoys getting assisted reps from a spotter as it allows him to push beyond his normal limits and achieve greater fatigue. However, he finds it can be complicated when working with multiple spotters at the same time.
What is the speaker's overall philosophy on gym routines and workout structure?
-The speaker believes in keeping his workout flexible and not planning exercises in advance. He focuses on going by feel, selecting exercises based on how his body feels that day, and adjusting if needed to avoid injury or discomfort. He emphasizes hard work over strict adherence to a preset plan.
Outlines
💪 Balancing Gym Choices and Time Constraints
The narrator discusses their gym choices for the day, mentioning a preference for a hardcore gym, Metro, which is closed on weekends, leaving them with Planet Fitness. They emphasize their goal of starting chest workouts with heavy exercises, like the incline Smith machine, following a philosophy of maximizing weight at the beginning to ensure progressive fatigue. The narrator explains the importance of beginning with compound lifts to lift the heaviest before fatigue sets in, rather than starting with lighter isolation movements.
🏋️♂️ Assisted Reps and Isolation Work
The narrator details their workout, emphasizing the importance of heavy incline presses to properly stimulate the chest. After completing a heavy incline set with spotters, they transition to more isolation movements, such as pec deck and cable flies, aiming to squeeze and target specific areas of the chest. They also share an advanced tip about biasing the upper pec during flies, describing the feeling and techniques they’ve developed over time, like squeezing hands together for a better pump even after reaching muscle failure.
🔥 Three-Movement Chest Day and the Pump
The narrator wraps up their chest workout, which included three main movements: incline Smith press, pec deck, and cable flies. They comment on the significant pump they achieved, which makes it difficult to remove their shirt due to their chest and arms feeling tight and swollen. They humorously reflect on feeling like a 'meathead' while flexing in front of the mirror and note how the chest workout inadvertently activated their biceps and triceps as well.
🏋️ Focus on Forearm Training
The narrator shifts the conversation to forearm training, explaining the importance of direct forearm exercises for growth. They describe how they used to incorporate forearm curls and reverse forearm curls into their routine, particularly at the end of arm workouts. They provide tips on how to perform these exercises effectively, sharing their personal experience with the Smith machine at Planet Fitness and how it felt better than expected that day.
🥤 Reflecting on Workout Volume and Progress
The narrator discusses their philosophy on workout volume, noting that around 8-12 hard sets per body part are sufficient to stimulate growth. They caution against overdoing volume, as they believe excessive workout time doesn't necessarily equate to better progress. They emphasize that it's important to know when to stop and move on, sharing their personal satisfaction with their chest day and a hint at the next day’s back workout.
🤔 Flexible Workout Planning and Motivation
The narrator talks about the importance of flexible workout planning, advocating for adapting exercises based on how the body feels on any given day. They mention how not sticking rigidly to a workout plan allows them to enjoy their workouts more and prevents burnout. Reflecting on their early days in the gym, they discuss the value of learning from YouTube tutorials and fitness influencers, noting how this knowledge led to gradual progress. They encourage viewers to prioritize enjoyment in their fitness journey to ensure consistency and growth.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Chest Day
💡Incline Smith Press
💡Training Philosophy
💡Pec Deck
💡Mind-Muscle Connection
💡Pump
💡Heavy Sets
💡Isolation Movements
💡Progressive Overload
💡Recovery
Highlights
It's a chest day, and despite gym closures, I head to Planet Fitness to get a solid workout.
My training philosophy is to start with the heaviest movement, like the incline Smith machine, to activate as much muscle as possible when fresh.
I explain why it's better to start with compound, heavy movements instead of lighter isolation exercises, as it allows for lifting the most weight.
The workout begins with incline Smith machine presses, focusing on pushing heavy weight for fewer reps.
I discuss how assisted reps can be helpful, especially when working with a spotter on heavy sets.
Once the heavy movements are completed, I transition to isolation exercises like the pec deck and cable flies.
A key tip for advanced lifters: focusing on the upper chest during pec deck fly movements can maximize the muscle activation.
When doing flies, even if you can’t fully complete the movement after fatigue, partial reps can still add value to the set.
I explain the importance of adding forearm exercises at the end of arm workouts for those looking to grow bigger forearms.
The workout ends with three key movements: incline Smith press, pec deck, and cable flies, which are basic but effective exercises for chest development.
I emphasize that overcomplicating workouts is unnecessary; focus on solid, fundamental exercises with maximum effort.
Doing just 8-12 hard sets per body part is generally enough for growth; doing more might not bring additional benefit.
I discuss the importance of listening to your body and adjusting exercises in real-time based on how you feel that day.
I stress the importance of enjoying workouts; if a routine isn’t enjoyable, it’s unlikely that a person will stick with it.
I share my early learning experience, including watching fitness YouTubers like Jeff Nippard and Athlean-X, which helped build my foundational knowledge of lifting.
Transcripts
[Music]
thank you
there we go I think
I actually remember the day today 1 36
is my best guess but I do know that it's
a chest day
uh all the gyms around me are kind of
like screwed up
uh because like the weekdays hours are
perfect
right like the one Hardcore gym Metro
they're open till I think it's like four
to eleven
all week the whole week I'm like that's
sick because if I got to do a late
workout
you know [ __ ] man
I don't want to have to do a home gym
lift
because all the other gyms are closed
right and then Planet Fitness
we'll get into that and then uh
sometimes I lift it at my y like the
YMCA
like that's good too they got free
weights they got machines nothing wrong
with that Jim
but on the weekends they close at six
it's six for every day Saturday Sunday
not ideal so
rather than go to Metro today which I
would have wanted to
uh I was on a little bit of a time
constraint
headed to Planet Fitness for chest
which
still gonna get a good lift but I would
have preferred to go to a gym with a
couple of
you know different machines and
Equipment right but
not gonna let that stop me so first
movement is going to be incline Smith
uh really just because that's the
that's the only pressing movement there
that I can do where I can actually load
it up seriously heavy
that pretty much fits my training
philosophy which is you know if I'm
about to hit a muscle
right I want to start off with a
movement where I can use as much weight
as possible right you know you want to
start off with bench press first and not
you know chest flies you want to start
off with squat instead of leg extensions
if you want to start off with heavy
barbell rows or cable rows rather than
you know pullovers where you're just
squeezing
right
because
well just because
you know why we did if I were to do
lighter sets in the beginning like for
this chest day if I were to sit on the
pec deck
and start off with a few sets of that
and then move on to the chest fly or the
uh what do I saying the Smith machine
for bench I'd still be pumped like the
lift would still result in a pump but
when I move on to the incline Smith
I'm gonna be moving less weight right
and doing less work you know I don't I
want my workout to look like this in
terms of the weight
start off with as much as I can do and
then as I do more and more sets the
weight will have to go down purely due
to uh
due to fatigue
trying to see the
red light switch without getting blinded
by the Sun
you know I don't want to do this where I
start off with lightweight and then go
up to a heavy set in the middle and then
droop back down
that just doesn't make sense to me you
know right in the beginning when you're
the freshest
would it make sense to go the hardest
you know it's there's all sorts of ways
to lift like rep schemes and sets and
exercise selections and it's all gonna
probably work if you go hard but that's
just sort of the style that I've been
you know really into as of late
so uh let's stop chit chatting and just
get in there
so I didn't show the warm-ups there's a
bunch of people running around
you know kind of feel like an [ __ ] if
you're recording and there's somebody
like in between you and the camera it's
kind of stupid
but I was considering four plates
I was considering it
but what was it what I want to get six
reps you know I I like to do at least
eight
like pretty much my working range I'd
say eight to Thirty it's pretty
effective so let's just throw this
around
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
huh
um
considering there's not really any other
heavy alternatives
I'll just do two more sets of this
so I'm gonna get like five reps
and then they're gonna help me with
assistant Reps for like six
you think you got it okay we got it
that'll be good
I'll tell you one you'll know
okay probably start helping
all right too much
yeah it was perfect
okay
you know some
you want something oh too slow I would
say that that heavy incline pretty much
met my requirements for doing some heavy
sets
you know what I'm saying like
the chest has certainly been stimulated
in a way that required a lot of [ __ ]
tension right so now I'm going to move
on to more isolation movements so
I wouldn't mind like
a cable press right now but the cables
are kind of taken so instead I'll just
jump onto the pec deck I think
at least two sets maybe three
really just try to squeeze uh this is a
little bit more of like an advanced tip
but when I do these I'm trying to like
bias the upper PEC like that's what I'm
trying to flex the hardest
right but if you can't like
it's kind of hard it's almost as if I'm
doing the fly like I'm pulling my hands
together but I'm trying to force them
upwards at the same time which I don't
know it's just something you're going to
get used to with experience but as long
as you can feel your chest when you're
doing the peg fly
eventually you'll start to get the Mind
muscle connection you know if I can pop
your pecs all that kind of [ __ ]
so let's just [ __ ] slam it
so I say this every chest day and every
chest day I still think it warrants
mentioning right you know I the first
five or eight reps whatever I touch my
hands together right I can actually
touch them really good squeeze it's a
good set
but once I can't touch my hands anymore
I'm not just going to stop this set
right I still got more energy left in
the tank
so if I can get 10 more partial reps
that's what I'm gonna do
so one more and then I'll move on
[Music]
if
wow
so I'm thinking just
three sets of basic cable flies you know
I got the cables at about shoulder
height so I'll just go right in front of
me
let's just finish off this pump pretty
well
what's up
yeah
okay
okay
doing that bent over fly
feels really [ __ ] good
let's go check the pump
okay
so
three movement chest day
incline Smith
Tech Deck
and the freaking uh
cable flies
you know anybody could come up with that
there wasn't anything special about it
so let's see what kind of palm
what kind of Pulp let's see what kind of
pump resulted
when it's hard to get your shirt off
that's usually a good sign
all right
all right holy [ __ ] dude
holy [ __ ]
that's like frightening
oh
foreign
just standing here flexing is like
putting me out of breath
that's the most muscular is so cheesy
like
I hit a side chest
I'm like all right this was pretty cool
you know same thing with lat spread
but
if you really want to just feel like a
lung head sitting in front of the mirror
doing this
I always feel so silly doing that one
but yeah [ __ ] man
I feel like I always get an inadvertent
like just slight bicep pump watch I
guess the whole arms because I also
activated my triceps doing all the
pressing
but like doing those flies
right if you think about it the weights
being pushed against my hand and I'm
holding it like this so I'm getting a
little bicep activation
so
chest day the pump is always extra
freaky because not only is the chest
[ __ ] inflated two cup sizes above
normal
I also get
just a slight
arm pump as well
so I mean
trying to squeeze them in between the
arms
yeah freaky as [ __ ]
what do you think little bro you wanna
hit a pose down
okay
all right here give me give me tips
you're right dog
yeah
all right oh
what else is there to say chess has been
pumped
let's get out of here
four on Flex so okay so anecdote now
that I just did that
forearms
well let's think about this any muscle
on your [ __ ] body right if you train
it it'll [ __ ] grow I was um
when I was over in uh in Hilton Head
this one guy came up to me and he asked
me about a neck training right like the
[ __ ] where you're laying on a bench you
put a plate on your forehead
and you do that kind of thing or if you
have that kind of machine at your gym
it will work right it will grow whatever
body part you're [ __ ] training as
long as you do some heavy weight and get
a pump
so I used to do forearms every arm day
right
my sort of method was
I would do triceps like normal like I'd
finish the whole tricep workout first
and then I'll do a set of curls for
biceps
and whatever variety just for the whole
workout and in between every set of
curls I would do a set of
let's see how can I even describe it
like
[ __ ] you can't even whatever
I would do a set of bicep curls like
imagine my forearm the back of it is
sitting on the bottom of the bench and
or the top of the bench and I'll just
sit here like this doing forearm curls
with a dumbbell put my hand hanging off
the bench you know maybe 10 15 reps 30
40 pounds whatever you can handle just
get a forearm pump
and then obviously you've got
you know these things back here too so
what I would do for that is the same
thing I'd grab a lighter dumbbell and
I'd flip my hand over and just like like
right now if I were to do it I'd only
use the 20s and I just do reverse
forearm curls like that so if you want
bigger forearms
train them directly like at the end of
your arm day
at that that day just makes the most
sense to me because you're already
working your forearms just a little bit
by doing arms you know just throw in
some [ __ ] forearm curls there's a
variety
like I I don't just do those dumbbell
ones I do a ton
or I used to do a ton I'll show you
what I do for forearms soon
very soon I promise but that chest day
was very good I did
I remember the Smith machines at the
Planet Fitness feeling a lot worse than
that
I don't know why they felt it felt
pretty [ __ ] good
Let's uh let's slam this shake and then
and then discuss it
I tell you what I
I never really look forward to this part
believe it or not
okay
let's take a second let that settle
oh man
so yeah
uh
Mr chest yeah so the heavy
going heavy on that inclined Smith to
start
felt good as [ __ ]
uh yeah I was thinking about four plates
I was really thinking about it you know
it's it's always fun to put a four plate
bench of any variety
in the uh in the thumbnail of a chess
day but
not gonna let that you got you got two
wolves inside your body you got the wolf
that's that says all right to do what's
good and effective do what's gonna help
you
and the other one's like throw four
plates on the bar
so the good one won this time
uh chest if you're if you watch the
chest Day video you know I was saying my
right one is feeling a little funky from
a previous injury
but 365 felt good today well
three plates and a 25 on the Smith
machine whatever that translates to in
real weight
that is a mystery
but that felt good if I were to gun
heavier
maybe it would have felt alright as well
but
definitely chose the correct weights
today
so yeah I mean that one set heavy
really good primer right and then those
next four sets
plus that is that assistant set was a
little funky it gets kind of weird when
you have two spotters at once
um but that felt really good too I love
getting some assisted reps like that but
the fact that you have to have another
person helping you just makes it a
little complicated so I don't always do
it
and then pec deck
you know really good squeeze
same with those cables same with the
cable flies
I
like I say every [ __ ] video there's
no need to really over complicate this
kind of stuff
you know I could have told
well
it may not have been
someone that's never been to the gym may
not have been able to like kick those
specific exercises but if you've been
working out for a few months
you know what the incline batch feels
like you know what the pack deck feels
like in the cables right so you've only
got
well what I pretty much believe at this
point is you've got about eight to
twelve sets
you know 10 ish sets per body part
where you should go hard
as f
right so that's pretty much what I did
today
hard on all those sets of incline bench
hard on the cable flies hard on the pec
deck and by the time you've done that
many hard sets you know I say eight to
twelve but I mean the range probably
varies even more than that
um that's a whole
topic of conversation you know higher
volume and lower volume training it's as
long as you feel like you did a good
workout you're probably all right but
yeah around 10 sets hard you should
pretty much be fully pumped
and doing any more than that
probably won't get you any extra benefit
and I mean if you do way more than that
like I've talked to guys where I show up
and I'm like how long have you been here
dude oh I've been doing legs for about
three hours
what
if you're sitting there like forever
doing a crazy amount of volume
and you're probably not going to make
sweet progress you know you're still
doing exercise you're still working out
but
you know the basic idea is you want to
do as much as you have to do
to grow and make progress
and then
cut it off and be done
so
proud of that chest day gonna go eat
some food
get ready for bed
and then tomorrow we'll be back
day and I'll probably do a very similar
style of workout
as in I'll start off with something
heavy
perhaps um
cable rows seated maybe some barbell
rows
you know those are pretty much my go-to
heavy movements for back and then
you know some pull Downs some pullovers
maybe some single arm stuff
uh it's
you know I don't know just kind of go by
feel once I get in there
right I don't have my workouts planned
oh that's that's a cute dog I don't have
my workouts planned out like
in advance
right I just know the basic
scheme of a workout that I like to do
and then I'll sort of input the specific
exercises that I feel will be best at
the time right like sometimes
let's say for whatever reason my
shoulder's jacked up or something
just gonna pass me or what uh maybe that
incline Smith machine would feel like
total dog [ __ ] right and even though it
felt great today
you know maybe I'm not going to want to
do it next chest day and I'll have to
substitute something else right if you
have all your workouts just written out
already
and you know you don't allow yourself to
be able to make sort of on-the-fly
changes based on how you feel
then odds are you're gonna be in the gym
and you're gonna think to yourself oh
man this feels like [ __ ]
ah geez and you're not gonna have any
fun you're not gonna be hyped up at all
and you're not going to want to keep
working out
right
like I've said this before kind of a
while ago I haven't really gotten into
it as of late but if you don't enjoy
what you're doing in the gym
then how long do you think you're gonna
be able to stick with this [ __ ]
like if I had uh
let's say I gotta I bought a coach or I
paid for a coach
and he told me to do he gave me a
workout plan and for whatever reason
I hated it I hated the exercise choices
he was making I hated the rep schemes uh
I hated the workout split
guess what I'm probably either gonna do
one of two things
you know ditch that particular coach
and then you know get a new split that'd
be the best move but if you're a total
gym noob you know and you actually like
that's what you did odds are you're just
going to think to yourself okay well
[ __ ] working out sucks I'm done with
this [ __ ] boom and be done
you know this uh
a lot of the times it's pretty much just
effort based
right like
once you've sort of developed a basic
understanding of the gym and working out
and diet
and uh you know recovery and [ __ ] like
that exercises
uh once you kind of get that Baseline
level of information
it's just about how hard you go
right but if you don't have that initial
sort of
uh you know level of experience
which usually people get from like going
to the gym with one of their friends
that already has been Lifting for a
while or watching uh some YouTube
tutorials on how to do it then you know
there's gonna have no idea where to
start
so for me I I've been bringing this up
every so often uh when I started working
out I was I was looking up all sorts of
[ __ ] I was watching athlean X all the
time getting you know trying to
understand well maybe not understand but
like just see examples of different
exercises right like just watching
people working out
like on videos whatever that gives you a
ton of [ __ ] information right because
you're like okay so that's how you do it
all right that makes sense and then if
they say commentary as well like all
right so here's how you're going to want
to do this curl you know you just give
it a good twist where like that kind of
[ __ ] is [ __ ]
Priceless to the beginner you know I was
watching a ton of Jeff nippard stuff in
the early days and all sorts of other
guys like that just to sort of you know
get a basic understanding and once
you've done that
you know once you kind of have that
little itch in your mind to you know
learn about what you're doing and not
just work out mindlessly
then it just ends up being a [ __ ]
upward spiral right because let's say
you're a total beginner
and you've got the itch you've got
you've got that motivation all right I
want to start working out and I wanna I
wanna know how to do it you subscribe to
Jeff Nipper do you start watching
athlean X all day even though I don't
really love athlete X uh [ __ ] like that
you're like all right
oh I'm starting to understand what I'm
doing now you go to the gym for a few
months you start to make some [ __ ]
gains and then you're like oh [ __ ] this
is [ __ ] working and you start to
learn more about it and get more gains
just [ __ ] it up up up up up next thing
you know it you're [ __ ] 250 pounds
sitting in your Camry
talking to
uh talking to yourself on your phone you
get what I'm saying
so
uh that is it for me
back tomorrow as you well know
and
cardio
in the morning I'm doing it
I know you ain't God damn it
so I will see you next time
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