This is the start of the final week of build and it’s probably my favourite build workout – Shoulders. I like the fact it’s focussed on one muscle group, whereas the other upper body workouts are paired up – Chest & Tris, Back & Bis – meaning your arms are pre-exhausted before hitting them specifically. For that reason, I’m looking forward to the Bulk phase which appears to focus on one muscle group at a time. I had a rather staccato start to the workout, I just finished the warm-up and a call came in, then an urgent message on my computer, then the estate agent with a (rather low) offer on my house. All of which I couldn’t put off responding to. Once that little volley was over with, I got stuck in. Managed to raise my weights again on most movements with good form, albeit sometimes by as little as 1kg but every little counts. I blasted through the 1,1,2 front raises through a burn the like of which I’ve never felt before in my front deltoid. Amazing. Next up was Beast Abs, I’ve not felt this how I should in the last couple of goes but today I felt it hit my midsection much more. That said, I still don’t think it’s quite as good a core & abs workout as the likes of Athlean X 6 Pack Promise, P90X Ab Ripper X or Ab Ripper X2 so I may sub in some extra abs during the bulk phase. Tomorrow is a rest day, then only 5 workouts before I start to bulk
Day 5 – Beast Cardio and Beast Abs
Today was cardio and abs day, a day off the weights you might think. Not exactly. Beast Cardio is a 30 min interval training workout. For most of the movements you’ve got a pair of dumbbells in your hands and doing compound, multi body part movements. For example, a sumo squat followed by trapezius raise for 20s then hold under load for 10s, repeat a further 2 times. My traps being toast from yesterday’s shoulder workout, I felt this deeply. I went really light on the dumbbells here, 3kg in each hand and for me, that was enough. I was blowing hard at the end of the 30 mins with heart rate sky high. I think I’ve lost some cardio fitness since I was doing P90X. Recovery from this workout was fast though, within 25 mins of finishing I felt like I could do more. After the 30 minutes of cardio I then took on Beast Abs. This is a 10 minute workout, some with weights like Russian Twist and others without, such as regular crunches. This started out well, Sagi encouraging hard contraction of the abs in the opening crunches and then maintaining a low body position in Russian Twists (far lower than in P90X, for example) making moving a dumbbell back and forth across the body particularly challenging. However, after this I didn’t feel too much more in my abs. There are lot of plank based movements which are great for core but maybe not so much for abs. The burn I’ve felt in Ab Ripper X, Ab Ripper X2 and Athlean X-6 Pack Promise have been far greater than in this workout. Which gives me a quandry, do I swap it out [...]
Mission Abs Possible?
They are the mecca in terms of commitment, the beacons of aesthetic success on a human body. The title of this page hardly builds suspense! I’m talking about abs or abdominals of course. I’m using myself as a case study in the quest for my very own hidden treasures. You can see on my results pages that I have achieved good results and success by following workouts and specifically Beachbody workout programmes. To date, although you have seen my fat loss progress you will also note that I do not (yet) possess a ripped six pack. I’m currently six weeks into performing P90X2 and I can tell you there are some serious changes going on around my midsection. I’ll post up a photograph later on, but for now I want to talk about the process. You’ve heard this before but it’s kind of true. Ab’s are made in the kitchen, not in the gym. I’d like to put my own spin on that statement and change it to something like this; abs are strengthened in the gym, made in the kitchen and then refined further in the gym. My experience with P90X2 so far is that your core is worked both primarily and secondary throughout every single workout in P90X2. My core was already strengthened significantly throughout P90X, Insanity and Asylum, but P90X2 takes it up a few notches. Everybody is different of course but I now have a midsection which shows decent signs of having a ‘four pack’. My bottom two abs are yet to push through but typically that is the last place a guy loses his fat. Now here’s a key statement if you read my blog regularly and compare me to [...]
