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Old 03-20-2006, 01:18 AM
Darkhorse Darkhorse is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: CA
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0311's Personal Experience & Routine

The following is what I picked for my exercises when I did this program. I also added what the suggested target reps should be. Some exercises are different from all the others such as deadlifts, calves, hammer curls, and squats that only use straight sets. Make note of that.

A1-
• Smythe Incline Barbell: 15 RP
• Shoulder Dumbbell: 15-20 RP
• Skullcrushers: 15-30 RP
• Pulldowns: 15-20 RP
• Barbell Rows: 2 x 10-12

B1-
• Barbell Curls: 15-20 RP
• Hammer Curls: 12-18 reps
• Seated Calves: 1 x 12, 10 sec. stretch between reps
• Leg Curls: 20-25 RP
• Squats: 1 x 4-8, 1 x 20 (called the widow-maker set!)

A2-
• Incline Dumbbell: 15-20 RP
• Smyth Military: 15 RP
• Reverse-Grip Bench: 11-15 RP
• Rack Chins: 15-20 RP
• Machine Rows: 2 x 12

B2-
• Preacher Curls: 15-20 RP
• Reverse Grip Curls: 12-18 reps
• Donkey Calf: 12 reps, 10 sec. stretch between reps
• Hack Squats: 1 x 4-8, 1 x 20
• Stiffleg Deads: sets x 6, adding 10 pds. until can’t do anymore.

A3-
• Hammer Strength Incline: 15-20 RP
• Hammer Strength Shoulder Press: 15-18 RP
• Weighted Dips: 15-20 RP
• Weighted Pullups: 15-20 RP
• Rack Deadlifts: 1 x 6-8, 1 x 3-4

B3-
• Incline Dumbbell Curls: 15-20 RP
• Barbell Wrist Curls: 12-18 reps
• Seated Calves: 12 reps, 10 sec. stretch between reps
• Front Quad Press: 6-8 reps, 20 reps
• Standing Leg Curls: 20-30 RP

For most of the 15 RP’s, your target should be 8 reps, followed by 2-4, followed by 1-3 all rest/paused. Some exercises such as calves are completely different altogether. For calves, it’s a 4 second negative, followed by a 10-12 second stretch. This counts as only one rep. My calves blew up using this method.

Overall, I definitely gained a lot of strength/mass using this program. My legs seemed to really respond the best due in part to the widow-maker (20 rep) squats. My calves by far grew the best. I was surprised to see how sore I was from only doing one working set. I personally liked the program, but I had to stop due to a hundred different "life" things. Diverticulitis being one of the top things supersetted with lots of Vicodin. If you don’t have a spotter for some exercises, it makes it very hard (psychologically) because of the heavy weight. I also must say that this program is very individualized. Some people, like myself, respond better to higher reps for biceps and triceps while others won’t need as much. I also got decent mass gains even though I stopped prematurely. If I ever find a gym buddy half as motivated as me, I’ll be picking this program up again for sure.

BTW, one more thing to note. When this system says getting stronger = getting bigger, it is dealing with high reps/rest/pausing. I know some people will try to call bullshit on this, but DC isn't doing 1-5 reps either. Doing rest/pausing, trying like hell to increase the weight on the bar will get you bigger because rest/pausing can hit the muscle fibers deeply with only a single rest/pause set.

It's important to note that this program is a very good program for a trainee without a training spotter, mostly because of it's heavy use of machines. If you fail midway through a rep like during hammer incline press, it's easy to drop the weight and carry on.

Some of the mistakes people commonly make are mostly in regards to always increasing the weight on the bar versus trying to also increase the amount of reps done with a certain weight. For example, I'll use low incline smythe machine. Say my goal is 11-15 RP. On my first workout I do 315 lbs for 12 RP's. Now, two upper body workouts go by in my rotation and low incline smythe is up again. Most people have a tendency to want to add more weight on the bar instead of carrying over the 315 and striving for 15 RP's, which would be an increase in performance from only doing it for 12 RP's. At least this way, you can continue progress a lot longer instead of burning yourself out with too much weight.

I’m sure there’s a few of my exercises that you don’t know what they are:

-Rack Chins: I picked this one because I’m trying to do a four second negative on each one. I think this works my lats way better than pullups. To do these, I grabbed a bench and put it under a smythe machine bar. If I needed extra weight, I used an ez curl bar and put it in my lap. I'm sure everyone can figure it out from there.

-Rack Deadlifts: Go to the squat rack and put the bars about knee level. Rest the barbell on top of the bars. Keep an overhand grip. From there it’s a regular deadlift, but you aren’t going all the way to the floor, eliminating using your legs. This is a great exercise for back thickness because you can go very heavy.
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Last edited by Darkhorse; 04-03-2006 at 07:24 PM.
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