Seated dumb bell press – 70 x 13, 75 x 10, 80 x 7, 85 x 7, 90 x 4
Seated smith machine press – 165 x 12, 185 x 9, 195 x 7, 205 x 6
Hammer Strength shoulder press – 200 x 7, 210 x 5, 210 x 6, 220 x 6
Standing lateral raise – 40 x 20, 45 x 18, 50 x 16
Standing alternate front dumb bell raises – 40 x 13, 45 x 12, 50 x 11
Abs and Lower Back
Ab bench crunches – 30 x 35, 30 x 30, 30 x 30
Hyperextensions – BW + 25 x 30
After I finished I had a shake, went home to eat my post workout meal and before long it was time to head back to the gym. I got in early to stretch my lower back and warm up my rear delts. I saw Will on the way in and he said we’d be starting on the reverse pec fly machine for the rear delts. After warming up I headed over to meet Will.
Will had a tip for me before we even started our workout. It was to work the rear delts first in your shoulder workout. He said that the rear delts were a significant part of your shoulder musculature but most people didn’t realize their potential because they didn’t train them first.
I had used the reverse fly for rear delts on a regular basis back in Australia and had used this machine at Gold’s once before. Will had me sit on the machine with my bottom at the back of the seat and leaning forward with my chest up so that it was touching the pad in front. He had me hold the horizontal hand grips with my wrists flexed, elbows high and upper traps relaxed. The machine I am used to using in Australia has only vertical hand grips, so just the positioning was a difference in itself. He had me contract my rear delts to bring my arms all the way out to the side and then come back towards the middle. Its important to note that he made sure I stopped about 10 degrees out from the middle in order to keep the tension on the rear delts constantly. We did four sets and a few variations Will threw in. On the second set I had to hold every fifth contraction for a count of two, hold for a count of two on every tenth rep of the third set and finally he increased the weight by ten pounds for the fourth set. My rear delts got a good pump and were burning like crazy from this exercise.
Rear delt machine fly – 4 x 20 reps
To finish off the rear delts Will attached a rope to a low pulley and showed me an exercise I hadn’t seen before. It was an upright row with a rope and Will explained that done in a certain fashion it targeted the rear delts and side delts. From a bent knee stance with back arched and chest out Will got me to pull the rope up in front of me and then bring it towards myself at the top of the movement squeezing the rear delts. I would then lower the weight throw the same path but again short of the bottom point to keep tension on the rear delts at all times. After three sets of 15 reps my rears delts had really blown up. I want to note that Will constantly encouraged me to breath out on each rep, and because Will’s workouts are so fast paced with short rest periods you really do need to keep sucking down that oxygen.
Upright row with rope – 4 x 15 reps
We moved onto traps next. The exercise we did was seated machine shrugs. I had used a similar machine back home, except that it was a standing version. Will explained the purpose of them being seated was to take effort away from the legs to help isolate the upper traps. The weight was ninety pounds each side and we completed four sets of twenty reps. I usually go fairly heavy on my shrug exercises so using a lighter weight and really focusing on getting a complete range of motion and a strong contraction was refreshing. Will had a good tip for taking some of the agony away from the forearm flexors. He suggested I place my thumb over the end of each grip and apply pressure through the thumb. It did help to alleviate the burning sensation from my forearms. Using this technique (providing you don’t go excessively heavy) you can focus more of your attention on your upper traps when doing shrugs and simultaneous work on your grip strength.
Seated machine shrugs – 3 x 20 reps
For our last exercise Will really wanted to cap off my side delts. The exercise we did was seated lateral raises. The technique for this exercise was to sit on an incline bench with your posture upright and chest up. From a hanging position I then raised two dumbbells up and out to the sides keeping the pinkies very much up so that the thumb sides of the dumbbells were tilted down. This helps to focus on the side head of the deltoid. We were only using fifteen pounds but after three sets of these in strict fashion my side deltoids had blown up like balloons.
Seated lateral raises – 3 x 20 reps
After we had finished working out I took the time to speak to Will and find out a little about him. Will said he had been training for forever and a day or at least it felt that way. However he has been training at Gold’s Gym since 1975. He turned pro as Mr USA in 2004.
Comics were in fact what got Will interested in bodybuilding initially. When he was young he wanted to be hit by cosmic rays and transformed into the Thing from the Fantastic Four!
I asked Will what kept him motivated after being in the sport for such a long period of time. He said it was the youth of the sport (when they are willing to listen). He finds enjoyment from teaching the youth of the sport and admits he is still learning himself.
Will’s favorite body parts to train are his legs and back. His least favorite to train are shoulders and arms. He trains his legs with more than 20 repetitions per set and other body parts with a minimum of ten repetitions per set. He says it’s all about stimulation of the target muscle group and thinks that low rep training with very heavy weights is “injury training”. He explained that with heavy training its only a matter of time until you injure yourself. Further he added that being bodybuilders we aren’t power lifters and we are in the business of looking good.
Will is about to begin his twenty week prep for his next show – the Europa – on Sunday of this week. From there, Will says, its on to the 2011 Olympia!
I asked Will if there was anything he wanted to let our readers know as a final thought. Will said “Whenever you walk into any facility, especially Gold’s Venice, in a place that has stood the test of time. Please leave your ego at the door. This is the Mecca and its called that for a reason”.
I’d like to thank Will and I look forward to our next training session in the coming weeks.
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