Chest and Tricep day!

Great pecs are central to a fantastic physique. And triceps make up 2/3rds of our arms, so this is a very important day. Let’s get it right!

It’s imperative that you train your chest before triceps. If you hit your tri’s first, they’d be too fatigued to contribute to benching.

Training chest first will involve your triceps, but not anywhere near maximally. In fact, your triceps will be nice and warmed up after your chest workout. There is therefore no need for a separate tricep warm-up before you hit them.

If you don’t work these 2 body parts on the same day, separate them by at least 48 hrs to allow sufficient recovery, enabling you to maximize the potential of each workout. (as we do in the THT Volume Cycle).

Here’s an outline of the workout…

CHEST

1. Flat Barbell Bench Press
2. Flat Barbell Bench Press
3. Incline Dumbbell/Barbell Bench Press
4. Incline Dumbbell/Barbell Bench Press
5. Flat Dumbbell Flies (or pec deck)
6. Flat Dumbbell Flies

TRICEPS

1. Decline Tricep Extensions (with straight or EZ bar)
2. Decline Tricep Extensions (with straight or EZ bar)
3. Decline Tricep Extensions (with straight or EZ bar)
4. Tricep Cable Push Downs
5. Tricep Cable Push Downs
6. Tricep Cable Push Down

6 sets for each body part.

For chest we perform 2 sets of flat bench press, followed by 2 sets of incline bench press to involve the upper portion of our chest a little more.

For both incline and flat bench press, lower the weight slowly (2 seconds) so that you are controlling the weight. Lower until you feel a stretch across your pecs to ensure a full range of motion. Do not ‘bounce’ the weight off the chest; simply allow it to make contact before pushing the bar up again.

We finish off with 2 sets of flat dumbbell flies. However, the pec deck is a better choice if you have access to this piece of equipment.

Why is the pec deck better?

Every muscle in your body can be taken into a point where 100% of the muscular bulk is activated. But in order to do this, we first need to figure out the FUNCTION of the muscle.

The function of the pecs is to bring the arms across the chest, sometimes referred to as horizontal flexion. Raise your arms up and out to the side, then bring them towards each other in front of your body until you can clap your hands, that’s the position.

While we can certainly replicate this with lying dumbbell raises, this movement provides virtually no resistance in this position. You are basically resting the load on the bones of your arms i.e. there is no actual muscular CONTRACTION.

The pec deck, on the other hand, takes the pecs into this position and hits them with 100% of the available resistance. Therefore it is a much better choice.

Take a good break between chest and triceps. 3 minutes is usually enough, but take 5 if you feel you need to.

Start hitting your triceps with 3 sets of decline tricep extensions.

Now, the form I want you to use is a little different than what is usually recommended. Most trainers will advise you to lower the bar to the top of your head. This range of motion is very small and actually unnatural.

The result of all this is that you are forced to use a MUCH lighter weight than you are actually capable of working with.

The overload placed on the triceps then is very much submaximal.

A far better way to perform them is to lower the bar slowly behind your head before starting the positive. This becomes a COMPOUND movement because there is now movement around 2 joints, and the lats come into play a little as well.

If you’ve never tried this movement before, start today! You won’t regret it. This was another tip I picked up from Jeff Willet. I also made a video of this movement quite some time ago. It’s not great, but it shows the range of motion involved.

Now finish off with 3 sets of cable pushdowns. Again I want to emphasize lowering the weight under control; it should take about 2 seconds to perform each negative part of the rep.

If you’ve never done a workout like this before, you’ll be impressed by the not only the intensity and growth stimulation, but also the efficiency of the whole session.

Make sure you download your training logs to ensure that you are tracking your progress and doing everything correctly.

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7 | PART 8 | PART 9 | PART 11 | PART 12 | PART 13

Stay Motivated!

Mark