Back and Triceps Training

Here is a recent workout compilation that my buddy Mark Gannon and I did.

In it, we are Back and Triceps.

This is a crazy combination. Many people don’t realize that the triceps will assist in the movement pattern of shoulder extension, so when you work Lats and Triceps together, it makes for a freakin’ sick pump with a pre-exhaust factor that is hard to put into words.

I also threw in some Ab Wheel. Sure, it works the core primarily, but I love adding it in on this day because it also works the lats, when you pull back to the starting position, and it hits the triceps hard too, because they have to hold your bodyweight up as well.

In the video, I added text blocks to show the set-and-rep schemes we use, and in some cases the loading. Go through it and you’ll see what I mean.

Try this workout combination and let me know what you think. I bet you will be hooked on this combo as much as I am.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

When I go to the water park, I like to hit a full body contraction before I go down the water slides as well.

I’m the kind of guy that when I hear about something new or different, I just have to give it a try.

When I started hearing more and more about this Vince Gironda guy and his 8 X 8 Keep-You-Honest Workout, I thought it was a bunch of hype and probably nothing to be impressed by.

However, before I make any judgements, like I said, I like to give it a try, so I did.

I scanned down through it to see what it entailed and how I could fit it or part of it into my routine this week.

Since Tuesday was Upper Body Workout day for me, I chose the first combination in the report, which was targeting Upper Body, specifically Chest, Shoulders, Back and Triceps. There is also a workout for legs and a workout for arms, but I have not tried them.

Here is the exercise layout for the 8 X 8 Upper Body Day:

Section I: Bench and Dips
Gironda calls for Wide Grip Bench Press to the Neck (with the feet up) and Bodyweight Dips on V-shaped Dip Bars. I did not do these exactly, for a few reasons.

First off, I think my shoulders would hate me the next day if I benched to my neck with a wide grip. Younger dudes that are more limber than me might be able to do that without pain, but baseball wreaked too much havoc on my shoulders all those years, so I do not try stuff like that anymore, so instead I did Close Grip Bench and although I don’t normally bench with my feet up, I gave it a try (made it much more chest/tricep specific, for sure).

Section II: Sternum Pull-ups with Pull-downs to the Sternum
Gironda’s instruction calls for maximized range of motion, and suggested performing both the Pull-ups and Pull-downs so that the chinning bar and pull-down bar touched the chest. I want as far as I could here. I like the idea of pulling that far, unfortunately, tightness throughout my upper body kept me from doing this very well. I did however really focus on pulling the bar down solely with my lats, as Gironda suggested. This created an awesome pump.

Section III: Side Lateral Raises with “Dumbbell Swings”
I put Dumbbell Swings in quotes, because the movement he describes is most likely not what most of you think of when you think of Dumbbell Swings, which somewhat resembles a Snatch with a straight arm. However, in watching the video, I see what he is talking about, as the motion kind of resembles the Pirate Ship Ride at the amusement park and how the ride swings back and forth.

Here is video of my Gironda Upper Body 8 X 8 Workout:

Get the report here: Gironda’s 8 X 8 Workout / Report

Findings:

• I enjoyed this workout. Like I said, I welcome a challenge and enjoy trying new things.
• Because of the short rest periods (only about 30 seconds between sets – “Keeping You Honest”) I had to employ rest pause in many of my sets. I just did not have the endurance and recuperative abilities to finish off all of the sets any other way.
• I started out too heavy in the bench press. If I had longer rest periods and was not pairing the Bench work with Dip work, I could have gotten all four sets of the Bench at 225, but I busted it down to just 185 during the third set in order to get better reps in.
• I had to cut most of the last set of Chin-ups short because I just couldn’t do any more reps. I was literally so fatigued I could not do any more reps.
• I really liked the Lateral Raise + Drawn Bow combination. I would like to try Military Press followed by the Drawn Bow sometime to see how that feels.

Conclusion:
I liked this workout. In a way it is nice to have some workouts already set up for you so that you can just go in and take a challenge. Couple that with the fact that supposedly Gironda used this training program with his bodybuilding clients and celebrities who all had fantastic results, and it seems to be a pretty good workout.

Incidentally, I was thinking during the workout that I would be viciously sore, so I wanted to wait a day before posting this, and to my surprise the soreness is not that bad at all. I feel pretty confident that I could train today without it affecting my session too much, except if I were going to train Grippers. I think my chest and shoulders would be too fatigued to get a good set on a high level Gripper. You know what that means – Pinch and Thick Bar day!

Download the report and check out this workout through this link: Gironda’s 8 X 8 Workout / Report. Give it a try and post back here, I’d be interested in hearing how you did.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Click the image below to get the Vince Gironda E-Book.