Wednesday, December 06, 2023

Easy Muscle Schedule B: Week 1 Complete

Wednesday session went fine as it was the calisthenics day. Practicing dips and pull ups is paying off. I like setting up the rings less than shoulder width apart, because this setup makes it easy to keep the shoulders externally rotated throughout most of the movement, which turn minimizes irritation to the shoulders.

Friday session was a struggle with the 24kg Clean and Push Press, with one or two unassisted reps with left arm out of the 15 minutes, and better performance with the right arm. I tried to jerk the 24kg but lacked the technical skill. The double 16kg KB clean portion of the session went more smoothly. The Clean and Push Press practice felt more like a strength workout than a hypertrophy workout. In other words, I don't think I got enough hypertrophy stimulus from that exercise. So I tried to make up for it by doing this chest expander routine, with exercises somewhat spread out through the rest of the day.
Overhand Vertical Pullapart - 3 springs - Drop to 2 next time

Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 2 springs - Increase to 3 next time

Horizontal Pullapart with mechanial drop set of Underhand Vertical Pullapart - 2 springs - Drop to 1 next time

Horizontal Pullapart (1 spring less) - 1 spring

Back Press - 2 sets - improves behind the neck pressing mobility, as well as working the shoulders and triceps. Whether the mobility gain translates to improved mobility for double KB press, double KB jerk, etc. remains to be seen.

Sideway (Tricep) Extension - 1 set, followed by mechanical drop set of Overhead Tricep Extension - works triceps which have been pre-exhausted by the Back Press, to increase pump in the triceps

Bicep Curl - 1 set

Bicep Curl (1 spring less) - 1 set

Reverse Curl - 2 sets - All these curl variations are for stimulating strength and muscle gains for the biceps and forearms. There is no direct benefit for pressing but these exercises should help improve elbow health and performance in the kettlebell clean, as the biceps help control the descent of the KB out of the rack position into the bottom position.

Lateral Raise (scapular plane/Y raise) - 2 sets - Finish off delts which have been pre-exhausted by the earlier exercises, to stimulate muscle growth.