Shoulders and Arms Today..
I just started my second P90X Heavy Phase this week and I got a great idea from another P90X blogger - Mobilis in Mobili. I don't know why it hasn't occurred to many other P90X bloggers to do this, but posting up your weights and reps is a pretty cool idea (maybe they have and I'm just a slacker, who knows?).
Anyway, here are my stats from today's workout, Shoulders and Arms:
Alternating Shoulder Presses
Set one - 14 reps, 30#
Set two - 8 reps, 30#
In & Out Biceps Curls
Set one - 16 reps, 25#
Set two - 16 reps, 25#
Two-arm Triceps Kickbacks
Set one - 15 reps, 25#
Set two - 8 reps, 25#
Deep Swimmer's Press
Set one - 8 reps, 30#
Set two - 6 reps, 30#
Full Supination Concentration Curls
Set one - 6 reps, 30#
Set two - 3/4 reps, 25#/30# (started with 25#'s and moved up to 30#'s)
Chair Dips
Set one - 15 reps, 40# vest
Set two - 12 reps, 40# vest
Upright Rows
Set one - 10 reps, 30#
Set two - 7.5 reps, 30#
Static Arm Curls
Set one - 16 reps, 25#
Set two - 16 reps, 25#
Flip-Grip Twist Kickbacks
Set one - 12 reps, 15#
Set two - 15 reps, 15#
Two-Angle Shoulder Flyes
Set one - 16 reps, 15#
Set two - 16 reps, 10#
Crouching Cohen Curls
Set one - 2/6 reps, 25#/15# (hit a wall and had to drop to 15#)
Set two - 9.5 reps, 15#
Lying-Down Triceps Extensions
Set one - 10/4 reps, 25#
Set two - 7.5/4 reps, 25#
On this last exercise, I do reps to positive failure, which means I can't extend the weight up one more time no matter how hard I try. Then I do reps to negative failure, which means that I lower the weight under control and then press up the dumbbells and then lower them again. I repeat this until I can't lower them under control any more (they fall out of control). (The press up portion of the rep looks just like a close-grip bench press - the tricep is no longer isolated and is seriously assisted by the chest).
In this phase I'm skipping most of the bonus rounds because I'm working on mass and not muscle endurance or cardio. I also try to do negative reps as much as possible but since this is the first week after the recovery week from the previous Heavy Phase. Next week I will start forcing negative reps until I puke. I'm still kind of tweaking the program a little bit for heavier work so I'm trying to decide how to modify the Static Arm Curls and other sets where he mandates 16 reps. All of the above sets were done to complete positive failure - the weight I use for my sets of Static Arm Curls is the heaviest weight I can possibly use and still get the full 16 in. Today, I pretty much fell apart right at 16 reps (I was losing my static arm and my curling arm was SCREAMING - it was awesome). Also, I'm not sure that kickbacks are a very useful exercise in this phase because they seem to be more for toning and not for mass-building. I could be wrong about that, but it's hard to use much weight with them and still keep decent form. The weight vest on the dips makes it very hard to press that last rep up. I was doing regular chair dips with a leg raise up in the 40's during round one of P90X.
Incidentally, on the Chest and Back routine, I have been using the vest with about 20#'s in it and it makes it very hard to do more than about 15 or so regular pushups in the first set. It goes downhill from there, of course. But a couple of weeks ago I did the first half of the routine with the vest and the second half without the vest, just to see what would happen. It makes a big difference and I will be curious to see how many pushups I can squeeze out when I start the regular phase of P90X at the end of the month.
So, after I finish this Heavy Phase, my next phase will be a regular phase of P90X, complete with all the ab rippers and no vest. I will use that phase to give my muscles a bit of a break from doing heavy weights and low reps.
One note about the vest and my "leveling the playing field" paradigm: it's not really the same because when I was 205, I was carrying that extra weight in my legs, my arms, my belly, even my face. The vest concentrates it on my chest and back. Exercises like pullups shouldn't be much different (although I was already skinny when I started P90X), but pushups and dips are definitely more challenging, at least from a balance point of view. Again, awesome.
Proceed.
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