Pyramid Workout Progress: Week 1

I figured I'd post once a week during the cycle and update everyone on modifications and my own personal progress and opinions on the workouts, since I'm doing them all with you!

So, here it goes:
I AM SO DEAD! These workouts are tough, man.  I've been isolating one muscle group (i.e. just doing triceps or just doing chest) for a while now, but nothing compares to supersetting a pyramid workout.  I'm not kidding.  I finished the tricep workout on Tuesday, and just opening my laptop was so difficult, I may as well have been doing weighted dips. But no matter how painful the workouts are, after every single one, I have felt like I actually targeted the muscle group that I was going for (which is sometimes hard for me, especially for shoulders!). 

So far, so good! Keep it up, and let me know how your first week went!

This week's workouts 6/9-6/14

You guys. My shorts don't fit me...AGAIN. Literally, this is the third time since, like, September that I've had to buy new shorts because my thighs and my butt are too thick. Usually that wouldn't really be a problem because it's all muscle. But three times?? That's a little excessive. So, I'm still doing legs, but I'm trying to lean out, so you'll see a difference in the routine for leg day! You can find this week's workouts HERE
Have fun!

This week's workouts: 6/2-6/7

You guys. This week was a rough one for me, motivation-wise. For some reason, I found it really difficult to get my butt to the gym once I hit the halfway mark for the week. But, I'm so glad that I did; it was well worth it! This week's workouts were pretty tough, but so good!

Enjoy!!

This week's workouts: 5/26-5/31

Here's the workouts for the week; enjoy!

This week's workouts: 5/19-5/24

Yikes, I know I'm a week late posting any kind of workout...finals are really kicking my butt this semester! But...yay for the fourth week of the blog! (and it's OFFICIALLY summer!)

Here's the week's routine! I really want everyone to focus on the weight that they're using.  Don't worry too much about how many reps you're doing (unless it's less than 6.  If you're doing less than 6 reps, you should probably definitely use slightly less weight). Go heavy this week. Now let's go kick some butt!

April 28, 2014-Arm Circuit

Good morning, lovelies!  So for right now, I'm using this space as a way for me to stay motivated about working out consistently.  I usually hit the gym 4-6 times a week, and I love it.  But lately, with finals and everything happening, it's been really difficult for me to get my butt out of bed and actually do it.
So, here we go: day one of my new and improved workouts-Arms (my second favorite day!)

I've been doing my research this weekend, and I came across this really great article here.  Tom talks about his favorite arm workouts, where he really feels the burn, and I've decided to mix a couple together.

Since "arms" encompasses biceps and triceps, we'll be working both today.  I decided to combine the multi-grip and multi-angle tri-set routines for today's workout, but I'm gonna just say we do supersets instead of tri-sets.* We'll choose two exercises for both biceps and triceps, with two different grips, as well as two exercises for each muscle, this time making different angles (the elbow being the pivot point).

Biceps:
1.  Standing dumbbell reverse curl (like a normal bicep curl, just keep your palms facing down)
2.  Hammer curl (bicep curl with palms facing in)
3.  Incline dumbbell curls (lay at an incline so that your arms hang off of the sides, creating a stretched angle at the elbow)
4.  Preacher curls (keep the arms slightly contracted, so they do not fully extend at the bottom of each rep)

Triceps:
1.  Reverse grip triceps push-down (using the cable and small, curved bar, pull down, keeping your palms facing up)
2.  Triceps push-down (using the rope attachment, keep palms facing in towards each other)
3.  Seated triceps press (sit on a chair and raise one dumbbell over your head with both hands. Keeping your elbows in the same position, lower the weight behind your head and raise it back up)
4.  Lying triceps press (I call these Skull Crushers, because you lay down, holding a bar (or dumbbells) straight up. Keeping your elbows in the same place, lower the weight to just above your forehead, and raise back up)

For each exercise, perform 6-8 reps, with ONLY 10-15 seconds of rest between each exercise.  After each routine (full biceps OR full triceps), rest for 120 seconds (2 minutes).  Go through the full workout (biceps AND triceps) 2-3 times.


*supersets=two different exercises, with no rest between them, which either work the same or antagonistic muscles (i.e., curls + hammer curls; curls + triceps dips).
tri-sets=group of three exercises performed one after the other, with no rest between, to work the same muscle group.

I'll be doing this workout today, so we'll be suffering together!  Try it out and let me know what you think!

P.S., I promise the workout posts won't be this long every time, I just wanted to give some background information before we got started!

**EDIT**
I am already feeling the burn from this workout this morning! I was feelin' good after doing the entire routine 3 times through, so I dropped down in weight and performed the whole thing again, this time really focusing on my speed/tempo and my form.  Let me know how your workout goes!