Personal Training: OskarFaarkrog.com
CHEST AESTHETICS TRAINING ROUTINE
Created by Oskar Faarkrog, ISSA Certified Personal Trainer
Important notes:
1. This training routine is a specialization training routine, which means it is not ideal for beginners (you should first build a solid overall foundation and then sculpt individual body parts after the foundation has been built). If you can’t do 15 pull-‐ups and 25 diamond push ups with perfect form, work on these two exercises first to build some basic strength. 2. This training routine is a chest mass building routine, therefore you need to be in a caloric surplus. To be in a caloric surplus and benefit optimally from it, you need to already be lean (at minimum a flat and lean waist, but preferably a 4 pack), therefore get lean before you do this training routine and make sure you eat enough calories to grow your chest. 3. Do this training routine for maximum 4 weeks at a time to reduce the risk of injuries and muscular imbalances. 4. Never skip warm-‐up and stretching.
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Monday: HIGH VOLUME CHEST Exercise Name 1. Incline Machine Press 2. Pec Deck Flys 3. Elevated Diamond Push Ups
Weight 20RM 20RM BW
Sets 12 12 5
Repetitions 8-‐10 8-‐10 MAX
Rest Intervals 30 seconds 30 seconds 1 minutes
Tuesday: HIGH INTENSITY CHEST Exercise Name 1a. Low Cable Flys 1b. Diamond Push Ups 2a. Incline Bench DB Pullovers 2b. Incline Bench DB Flys
Sets 4 4 3 3
Repetitions 8-‐12 MAX MAX MAX
Rest Intervals 2 minutes 2 minutes
Wednesday: STRENGTH MAINTENANCE
Exercise Name 1. Pull Ups 2. Machine Rows 3. Leg Presses 4. Hamstring Curls 5. Plank 6. Leg Raises 7. Weighted Hyperextensions
Weight BW 10RM 20RM 15RM BW BW 20RM
Weight 20RM BW 20RM 20RM
Sets 3 3 3 3 2 2 2
Repetitions MAX 6-‐10 12-‐15 8-‐12 MAX MAX 12-‐15
Rest Intervals 2 minutes 2 minutes 1 minute 1 minute 1 minute 1 minute 1 minute
Thursday: OFF Friday: HIGH VOLUME CHEST Exercise Name 1. Incline Machine Press 2. Pec Deck Flys 3. Elevated Diamond Push Ups
Weight 20RM 20RM BW
Sets 12 12 5
Repetitions 8-‐10 8-‐10 MAX
Rest Intervals 30 seconds 30 seconds 1 minute
Saturday: HIGH INTENSITY CHEST Exercise Name 1a. Low Cable Flys 1b. Diamond Push Ups 2a. Incline Bench DB Pullovers 2b. Incline Bench DB Flys
Weight 20RM BW 20RM 20RM
Sets 4 4 3 3
Repetitions 8-‐12 MAX MAX MAX
Rest Intervals 2 Minutes 2 Minutes
Sunday: OFF
Exercise instructional videos: http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/
Personal Training: OskarFaarkrog.com
Explanations DB = Dumbbell RM = Repetition Max Example: My military press 5RM is 130 pounds. In other words, I can do 130 pounds for a maximum of 5 repetitions. When I attempt the 6th repetition I reach muscular failure and thereby I’m unable to complete that repetition. To find your repetition maxes, take 2-‐3 days out of your schedule to test them on each lift while you’re fresh. Alternatively, you can estimate your repetition maxes and then adjust the weight during the workout to find one that you can fit into the prescribed repetition ranges.
MAX Max means that you take your set to complete muscular failure, e.g. when you drop to the floor during diamond push ups.
1a and 1b This essentially means that you do two exercises back-‐to-‐back, also called a SUPERSET. Here’s how it looks for low cable flys and diamond push ups on your HIGH INTENSITY CHEST DAY: •
Step 1: Perform 8-‐12 reps of low cable flys with your 20RM.
•
Step 2: Immediately drop down and max out on diamond push ups.
•
Step 3: Rest 2 minutes.
You perform step 1-‐3 a total of 4 times to achieve 4 supersets on the two exercises. The same principle applies for 2a and 2b.
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Muscle Progression A lot of people believe that you need to always ADD WEIGHT to exercises to add muscle mass. The truth is that adding weight is only ONE VARIABLE out of many: •
Increase frequency / Train the same muscle more often.
•
Increase time-‐under-‐tension / Perform the movements with more control, using the target muscle.
•
Add sets.
•
Do more reps.
•
Increase intensity through supersets.
•
Lower rest times.
This workout uses all the progression variables above. If you’re used to do a regular bodybuilding workout, the fact that you start doing this one will be enough to stress your body to grow: •
The high volume day will most likely have you doing more sets and reps than you’re used to.
•
The high intensity day will most likely have you training at a higher intensity than you’re used to since you’re supersetting chest exercises.
•
You will be training chest 4 days a week which most likely is more than you’re doing now, so the frequency variable will also be satisfied.
In other words, as long as you push yourself each workout, get a great pump and eat enough to gain weight, your upper and inner chest will grow because the stimulation will be there for that to happen.
Mind-‐Muscle Connection You want to focus on the upper and inner chest since those are the 2 parts most people lack. The lower chest will get plenty of work since the chest is one big muscle consisting of a bunch of muscle fibers. When you do the exercises in this
Personal Training: OskarFaarkrog.com program, you will be emphasizing the muscle fibers around the upper and inner chest, but the lower chest muscle fibers will also do work so there will be absolutely no need to do any additional lower chest exercises such as the bench press or push up. Forget everything about heavy weights on your chest days. Instead, use light weights on each exercise. I’m usually one of the biggest guys in my gym and I often use 10 pound dumbbells and one of the lowest weights on the stack on flys. If you want bigger muscles, the weight you do on a lift isn’t nearly as important as HOW you perform the lift and how often you train it. Instead of thinking about lifting more weight each workout, think about how you can make light-‐moderate weights harder by engaging your upper chest and inner chest more on each exercise.
Rep Tempo Each exercise repetition has two phases: 1) Negative phase and 2) Positive phase. The negative phase is the “lowering phase” phase of each rep, and the positive phase is the “pulling or pushing phase” of each rep. Most people use too much weight, so they end up pushing or pulling so much weight that they cannot control it properly on the negative phase. Generally speaking, you want to spend about 2 seconds on the positive phase and 3 seconds on the negative phase. In the beginning it’s useful to count in your head, but as time goes on it becomes so natural to you that you won’t have to count.
Avoiding Injuries Since this is the first time you perform a training routine by me, I want you to test it out and let me know if you experience any kind of pain with these exercises. If you do experience any pain, look up alternative exercises. Never push through pain in training, since that will lead to injuries that will set you back a lot.
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Stretching and Warm-‐Up Stretching will speed up recovery between workouts (extremely important when you’re doing a specialization routine like this one), and warming up will prevent injuries, therefore don’t skip them! Note: You may have to copy-‐paste some of the exercise links into your browser because of Word to PDF format errors.
Upper Body Warm-‐Up (To Be Done Before Every Workout) Ø Arm circles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP52FXTlzjA Ø Arm swings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaGw37FbU0Y Ø Wrist warmup: https://youtu.be/-‐0OK5ZbZnws Ø Elbow warmup: https://youtu.be/-‐0OK5ZbZnws Do 1 set of 15 reps on each exercise without any break in between the exercises.
Lower Body Warm-‐Up (To Be Done Before Leg Presses) Ø Front to back leg swings: https://youtu.be/bKmwVSh0m-‐E Ø Hip and knee circles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfW8LKLo3_8 Ø Side leg swings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naW8u72lOzI&feature=youtu.be&t= 35s Do 1 set of 15 reps on each exercise without any break in between the exercises.
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Upper Body Stretching (To Be Done After Every Work Out) Ø Arm over head shoulder stretch: http://www.buzzle.com/images/exercises/man-‐doing-‐overhead-‐ shoulder-‐stretch.jpg Ø Standing chest stretch: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/images/2007/richardc1_straightarm stretch1.jpg Do 1 set where you hold each stretch for 1 minute each side and do them right after each other.
Lower Body Stretching (To Be Done After Hamstring Curls On The Strength Maintenance Day) Ø Standing hamstring stretch: http://www.fitbie.com/sites/default/files/stand-‐ham-‐stretch-‐female.jpg Ø Open lizard hip stretch: http://media2.onsugar.com/files/2012/04/16/4/192/1922729/65fb7d b592e2d825_side-‐hip-‐opener.xxxlarge_1.jpg Ø Standing quad stretch: http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/uploads/images/Medium/5264.jpg Do 1 set where you hold each stretch for 1 minute each side and do them right after each other.
Stretching Note The pictures linked to each stretching exercise are of people with good flexibility. If you do not have good flexibility (the case with most people new to training), you will not be able to go far in your stretches. The key is to not push further than to the point where you can feel a gentle stretch. Stretching should never be painful. Furthermore, you want to relax as much as possible and focus on your breathing during each stretch.
Personal Training: OskarFaarkrog.com This program took me several years to create so I hope you find it useful! Be proud but stay hungry, Oskar Faarkrog
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