Shock & Awe: Bionic Man I
Chapter Five: Training
Bionic Man
If you’re under 35 you may not know who the Bionic Man is, so a quick introduction is due. Here’s a Wiki link for you youngsters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Six_Million_Dollar_Man Basically whenever Steve Austin would do something that required super strength, the camera would show it in slow motion emphasizing the sheer power of his movement. Like the Six Million Dollar Man, this first phase of training will be done in slow motion.
We will use a basic tempo of 3-0-3 for each movement (that means 3 seconds up and 3 seconds down). Sometimes we’ll add a second for the contraction. This style of training will help you tune in your mind/muscle connection and it should be something you’ve rarely, if ever, tried (SHOCK!). It’s also difficult to injure yourself using a slow tempo which is certainly something we want to avoid at all times, but especially starting out working together.
The training spit is 4 days on 1 off. If you’re mass gaining, you’ll do your one HIIT cardio session on your day off. If you’re in fat loss mode, you’ll do the same and can eventually add a second cardio session to one of your training days, preferably 6 hours before or after weight training.
I’ve uploaded videos to YouTube (www.youtube.com/advancedgeneticsTV) to help with some of the exercises. There will be notes next to each exercise to help direct you. If you don’t have a certain piece of equipment, that’s okay, just do something similar. Each set is a work set, but I expect that you will slowly increase the weight with each successive set until you reach the proper rep range for the last set or two. The rep range in this case is 6-8 reps. Because of the time under tension, 6-8 reps is the equivalent of 10-15 reps done in a more conventional rep speed.
In 5 days I will post your second “week” of Bionic Man training.
Let’s begin!
Bioinic Man I
Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Arnold press – 4 sets
Incline hammer press (seat low) – 4 sets
DB lateral raises – 4 sets, make the last one a single drop set.
Flat DB press (supinate at bottom) – 3 sets
Wide grip upright rows (you can check out my YouTube video for this one) – 3 sets
Seated cable cross-overs – 3 sets, make the last one a single drop set.
Machine shoulder presses – 2 sets
V-bar Pushdowns – 4 sets
One arm overhead DB extensions – 3 sets
Cable kickbacks – 2 sets, double drop set on the last one.
V crunches – 4 sets
Quads and Calves
Machine leg press – 6 sets
Leg extensions – 5 sets, single drop set on the last one.
Standing calf raises – 5 sets
Seated calf extensions – 4 sets, single drop set on the final one.
Back and Biceps
Chins (use the weight assist machine) – 4 sets
Reverse grip pulldowns (go for a good stretch) – 4 sets
Low pulley v-bar rows (contract this one for a 1 second hold) – 3 sets, final set drop once
Face down (on an incline bench) rear delt lateral raises – 5 sets
DB shrugs – 3 sets, double drop set on the last one
Smith machine body-drag curls – 4 sets
Incline DB curls – 3 sets
One arm machine preacher curls (superset normal grip with a hammer style grip, alternating arms) – 4 sets
Hamstrings and Lower Back
Lying ham curls – 5 sets (I like to do these with a 1 second squeeze at the top).
Standing leg curls (see YouTube video) – 4 sets. Go a little lighter on the last set and really burn them out.
“Hunchback” hyperextensions supersetted with regular hypers – 4 sets (see my video on Youtube)
Hanging leg raises – 4 sets
I’ll post your second series of workouts in 4 days!