So I got together with my boys Big Rob and Simeon Panda, to get a nice chest workout in. We didn’t kill ourselves, but it was still a great workout that I wanna share with you guys so that you try it out for yourself.
But before we get into the details, let’s talk about building muscle. And I’m not talking about just any kind of muscle—NO. I’m talking about building nice, dense, high-quality muscle that stays with you even if you can’t work out for a few days.
I mean, I had to stop lifting for a few months, and I still looked good. Sure, I Iost some mass, but since I’ve focused on building dense muscle, I was able to retain it while I wasn’t able to lift.
On the other hand, if you take as an example people who just focus on building show muscles, you’ll see that if they get injured, or something happens that forces them to stop lifting for a month or so, when they come back, they’ll look like a completely different person. Alright, let’s get into it.
The Workout: Triple Threat Challenge
Warm-up to *Your* 315
We first got started with a short warm-up to build our way up to 315. For this, we weren’t using too much weight, but we still threw in something that was somewhat challenging to get our bodies ready.
Just start with some lightweight and get some nice and easy reps in. Then, progressively start increasing the weight until you get to your desired weight. In this case, ours was 315. For you, it may be more, or it may be less. Simply be honest with yourself and adjust accordingly.
For reference, our approximate average body weight is 230. We were looking to warm-up to 315 to start our drop sets. 230 is about 135% of our combined average bodyweight so just do the math!
Benchpress: The Triple Threat Challenge
The challenge is simple. Once you warm yourself up to the ideal weight, what you’ll do goes as follows:
- Set 1: 315, 5 reps
- Set 2: 225, 10 reps
- Set 3: 135, 15 reps
- Set 4: 335, to failure
- Set 5: 315, to failure
Now don’t be going out there and doing this with shitty technique because you’ll get injured. If you’re unsure as to how to benchpress the right way, go check out this benchpress tutorial for beginners I made. You know me. I’m all about developing proper foundations. You should think the same way.
Bonus Exercises To Make Sure You Destroy Your Chest
After the Triple Threat Challenge, you should be feeling that stupid pump already, and that’s great! That feeling means your body is trying to adapt and is, therefore, responding. Or, in other words, you’re building dense, high-quality muscle!
But that shouldn’t be it. You should get at least a couple more exercises in so that you take advantage of that stupid pump and continue to further develop strength and endurance. So, go ahead and get some sets of the following exercises:
Plate-Loaded Incline
Cable Crossover
Why I Don’t Wanna Get Bigger
My boy Simeon asked us if we wanted to get bigger. If you’ve been following me for some time, you already know the answer but if you don’t, let me tell you something: I do not want to grow more.
In fact, not too long ago, I actually lost some weight on purpose because I felt that I was starting to get too big. And mind you, there’s nothing wrong with that, you know I admire those guys! But for me, it’s not something that I want.
I don’t work out to get show muscles. I workout because I want to be able to move well and feel good. Having an aesthetically-pleasing body is just a consequence of that. Trust me, if that’s what you want, you’d still be better off focusing on developing great mobility and building strength and endurance.
Why? Because that’s how you develop dense muscle. And, dense, high-quality muscle stays with you. If you have to stop lifting for a few weeks or so due to injury or something along those lines, you’ll see that you’ll look the same. Obviously, you won’t feel the same, but most of your gains will stay.
On the other hand, if you just focus on growing like crazy, your muscles may not be as dense, and if you stop, you’re gonna deflate like a balloon in a very short time.
Again, you do you. If you want to go after the Mr. Olympia title, go ahead. I’ll support you and cheer you on. But, if you’re looking to follow my lead, you gotta drill this into your head.
Killer Finisher (Optional)
We didn’t do this, but if you’re feeling it, go ahead and knock out one set of Warrior Push-ups. Most likely, you won’t be able to do all of these different types of push-ups unbroken but try to do so. And, if you’re not able to, try to get back at it as quick as possible. After all, one set should be just about 35 push-ups in total.
Hindu Push-Ups x 5
Pretend there’s a bar and you’re going below it and forward with your head. One of these push-ups is like 5 regular push-ups. This push-up will stimulate your upper chest and shoulders.
Touch Hand Push-Ups x 5
You wanna do these nice and slow because once one hand is off the ground, your stabilizers and core will be fully engaged.
Knee-Ins x 5
These ones are perfect for your abs. Don’t go crazy with speed here. It’s better to take your knees as deep as you can as that’s what’s really going to engage your abs. As to the actual push-up, keep your hands to shoulder width.
Push-Up to a Side Plank x 5
Go down on a push-up and when you come back up, turn your body to face left and point to the sky with your left arm. Then, repeat the same thing with your right arm. If you’re feeling strong, raise your leg to form some sort of star-like shape. This will engage your core and challenge your stabilizers even more.
Diamond Push-Ups x 5
Place your hands close enough until you form a diamond-like shape. Go down and up on a push-up. Try to keep your hands close together. These push-ups will work on your middle chest area.
Plyometric or Hand Clap Push-Up
Depending on how I get to this final stage, I’ll continue with plyo push-ups or hand clap push-ups. Both of these are meant to be really explosive. You lift yourself entirely off the floor in the first one, and in the second one, you clap. Once you do your five reps, go into regular push-ups until failure.