Jim Stoppani's Six-Week Shortcut To Shred Workout - Chest, Triceps, Abs - Bodybuilding.com

♪♪♪ All right, we're here at Axiom Fitness in Boise, Idaho, for the workout overview video. Now, today we're gonna be doing Workout One, which is chest, tri's, and abs. You're gonna be doing Workout 1 each week of the program. However, the rep ranges are gonna change each week in the microcycles. So we're in Week 1. This is gonna be the 9 to 11 rep range. If you don't know what I'm talking about, make sure you check out the training overview video, where I break down the microcycles in the rep ranges. With each workout, we're gonna be doing cardio acceleration, which basically means we're gonna be doing about a minute of cardio in between every single set. So with the bench press, I'm gonna do a set of bench press, about a minute of cardio. So here's the breakdown of all the exercises that I'll be performing today. Now let's get into the first one, flat bench press. All right, now we're gonna be doing four sets on the bench press. Remember, for most of the large major muscle groups, we'll be doing four sets per exercise as the first exercise. Other smaller muscle groups, like biceps, abs, calves, we'll be doing just three, but with the major muscle groups, we'll be doing four sets on that first exercise. Now, I start each workout with cardio acceleration. Although I describe it as being in between every set, we're gonna start the workout with cardio acceleration as just a general warm-up. Now, I'm at the bench press, and the real key to cardio acceleration is not running somewhere across the gym. You're in a busy gym. You're gonna lose your bench. So you want to incorporate cardio acceleration moves that keep you moving, keep your heart rate up, but you can do right here. One of the things I love to do with a bench is I just do step-ups, so I'm gonna start the workout with step-ups with the rising knee, just to add some more calorie-burning explosiveness to it. ♪♪♪ Now, we're doing 9 to 11 reps, so even as I get up to my working weight, that's not gonna be that much weight in that rep range, so one warm-up will suffice for me today. But as you get heavier during the microcycles as they proceed, the weights get heavier, the reps go down, you're gonna require more warm-ups, two, maybe even three warm-ups to get up to your working weight. Now remember, the point of your warm-up is not to fatigue the muscle, so I'm doing 9 to 11 rep range, going up to about 8 reps in quite an easy way. I like to do on the bench press a bit more explosive movement on the warm-ups. It helps to warm up those fast-twitch muscle fibers which are gonna be critical on the bench press for moving heavier weight. Now remember, the point of the workout is to move right into cardio acceleration, then to the next set. So the only reason I'm stopping right now is to give you these tips, but normally I'd be right back to doing my bench step-ups. I'll be doing about a minute of cardio acceleration during this workout. I like to use a timer right there on my iPhone. If you don't have a smart phone that has a timer on it, use any timer. Make sure you're hitting that full minute, and then, boom, right into your next set. Now, once the set's done, you move right back into your cardio acceleration. There's no rest. Your rest is the cardio acceleration. Now, obviously you want to change your weight as quickly as possible, but one tip I recommend is that when you do change your weight, do it after the cardio acceleration. That way, you get a little bit of a breather before your weight's set where it really matters most. ♪♪♪ I always recommend having an iPod or other personal music players, so you have your favorite music going. It's gonna make a big difference in your strength and your endurance during these fast-paced workouts. ♪♪♪ Now, you're only worrying about the number of reps you complete on the first set of each exercise. You're only resting about a minute between working sets. In that minute you're doing cardio acceleration, so you're not gonna be able to stick with that rep range as the sets go up. Keep the weight the same, regardless of how few reps you get. ♪♪♪ All right, that's the fourth and final set of the bench press. We're gonna move on to the second exercise, incline dumbbell presses. ♪♪♪ From here on out, we'll be doing three sets per exercise for chest. Now, I'll be doing cardio acceleration as well. My cardio acceleration, since I'm right here at the dumbbell rack, is gonna be dumbbell cleans. I'll get into more detail on that as we get into them. But a quick tip I want to give you guys is to make sure that you add the "Shortcut to Shred" program to your body calendar on your BodySpace account, and then sync it to your phone. That way, you've got the workouts right there on your phone. You don't have to check 'em on your computer. You can bring it to the gym or check them right before you start your workout. That accountability will help you stay consistent with the program, and that's how you're gonna get the best gains. You can do both body weight exercises, like step-ups on the bench, as we did on the bench press, but don't be afraid to incorporate weights into your cardio acceleration. When it comes to choosing weight, it's really hit or miss in finding what works best for you. My tip is to go as light as possible at the beginning, because look, you're trying to do this for a full minute. Even though this is an explosive exercise, it's gonna help you build power, you're not focusing on the power aspect here in the cardio acceleration. You're focusing on burning calories, so start extremely light. Now remember, this is the first workout for chest during the week. We're gonna be doing two workouts for each body part. First workout for chest is all multi-joint exercises. These are your major mass-builders. They allow you to use more weight, and using more weight places more overload on the pec muscles, the chest, and that helps to stimulate more muscle growth. ♪♪♪ All right, we're on to our third and final exercise for chest, the decline Smith machine bench press. For my cardio acceleration during this set, I'm gonna simply run in place. It's probably the easiest form of cardio acceleration that you can do. It works anywhere, regardless of how tight of a spot you're in. Now, as you'll notice, I have a flat bench here, because Axiom does not have an adjustable decline bench that we can bring over. So you've got two options if this is the same case in your gym. If you have a standard decline bench press setup for a free weight barbell, go ahead and use that. Swap that out, or you could do what I'm gonna do here, and that's simply using a flat bench, but I'm gonna get in what we call a bridge position, my feet up on the bench. My body's gonna be angled and I'm essentially gonna create my own decline. Now, we've already done two chest exercises, so my chest, it's completely warmed up. I don't need to go into a warm-up set, especially with this 9 to 11 rep range. If you want, as the weight gets heavier during Microcycles Two and Three, you can do a warm-up. Just remember, you do a warm-up set, you don't rest between warm-ups. You've got another set of cardio acceleration. ♪♪♪ Now, those of you who are familiar with the anatomy of the pecs, you'll recognize the fact that we're hitting all three major areas. We started with a flat bench press. Flat pressing movements, mainly hit the middle area of the pecs. Then we moved on to incline dumbbell press. That helps hit more of the upper pec area. And now at a decline, the arms are gonna be coming down closer to the sides of body, as opposed to up on the flat and up on the incline. That's gonna hit more of the lower portion of the pecs. So we're hitting all those muscle fibers. Any time we're interested in maximizing muscle growth, we want to focus on hitting as many muscle fibers in a specific muscle as possible. ♪♪♪ All right, done with chest. Now we're gonna head straight over to dips for triceps. ♪♪♪ We're gonna do four sets of dips focusing on triceps, and I'll get into the distinction between doing dips to focus on the triceps versus chest when we get into that exercise. My cardio acceleration move here is gonna be kettle bell swings, or in this case, dumbbell swings. We don't have kettle bells here. If your gym does have a kettle bell, obviously kettle bell swings make a great move. But this little adjustment shows you how to do it with a dumbbell. Now remember, it's important to track your progress on the "Shortcut to Shred" program. We're changing up weight every week, and we have two different periodization schemes, the linear periodization, and then the reverse periodization. So there's a lot of variables here with your weight and rep ranges. Now, to focus on doing dips for the triceps, the two key things you want to focus on are your elbows and your body, your torso. With the elbows, you want to come in as close, keep them as close to your sides now. This one flips out, so if I went out, this would be more for chest. I'm gonna keep it in, so I keep my elbows close to my body, and then when I dip down, I keep them close. And then the other thing I'm doing is I'm keeping my body as upright as possible. ♪♪♪ Instead of holding the dumbbell by the handle, you're gonna hold it just with your fingertips on the weight plate, and then you're gonna swing it between your legs. Now remember, all the motion is coming from my hips as I swing it up. I'm not using my shoulders. I'm not using my arms. I'm just pulling up the dumbbell. That momentum is all from the explosions that extend at the knees and the hips. ♪♪♪ Now, I recommend, although I have it listed as the standard barbell close-grip bench press, that if you have access to a Smith machine, consider doing the close-grip bench press on a Smith machine. And the reason is that you've just finished your chest and then moved on to dips for triceps. All multi-joint exercises all involve both the chest and the triceps, so by the time you get here, your triceps are fried. It's gonna be tough to move any weight or focus on the triceps. Any time you're doing the Smith machine with a bench, you want to make sure that you have the bench set up perfectly in the middle of the Smith machine. Now, you can just simply drop the bench in here and try to eyeball it, but you're never quite sure how even it is in the middle. You want to make sure that both arms are supplying the same force and working at the same angle. So an easy way to do that is just drop the bar all the way down to the bench, and then that gives you a better idea of how close you've got it in the middle. You can get it right in the middle and make sure that each arm is applying the same amount of force. My cardio acceleration is gonna be a unique move that is Smith machine power cleans, but we'll get into that a little more after my working set. My close grip is shoulder-width apart. There is a study that actually showed that shoulder-width incorporated just as much of the triceps muscle fibers as if you went closer. The only thing that going closer did was put more stress on the wrists. So save your wrists. The other thing I like to use is an open grip. It's safe on the Smith machine because the bar's guided, so you don't have to worry about it slipping out of your hand. But when you're using an open grip, it allows you to press with the palms, and that can help you focus more on contracting the triceps versus using chest and shoulders like in a normal bench press. Now, to do the Smith machine power cleans, drop the weight all the way down. Gonna take a little bit of weight off. Now, most people, "Why would you do a power clean in the Smith machine?" Well, it's actually fairly beneficial for those who aren't really accustomed to doing power cleans, because with the Smith machine, the bar is on a track. Now, it's gonna keep the bar close to your body, which is exactly what you want to do when you do power cleans. A lot of people end up doing more of a curling motion, curling the bar in front of them. That's not what you want to do. You want to pull the bar straight up to your shoulders. Using the Smith machine allows you to sort of practice that movement, because the bar's already guided, so you can't get out of that range of motion. ♪♪♪ Remember, the power clean is an explosive move, so you want to do a bit of a jump as you throw the weight up. This is a full-body exercise using your legs and your upper body to throw the weight up there. Keep the weight light so that you can try to go for a minute. If you only get 30 seconds, that's fine. This one's very intense. You really get the heart rate going. ♪♪♪ All right, we finished up with chest and triceps, and now we're moving right into abs. And remember, the only reason I'm resting is to talk to you and give you some tips. Otherwise, we'd be moving right into the next exercise. In this case, it's gonna be the rope crunch. Focuses more on the upper abs. Later on, we'll be doing the Smith machine hip thrusts that focus more on the lower abs. So in this workout, we're hitting upper and then lower. Later in the week, we'll also include exercises that'll hit the obliques as well, and even the core. Remember, it's important to focus on all the muscles of the midsection. My cardio acceleration exercise in between for this one is just gonna be a fast step-up. ♪♪♪ All right, we're back over here at the Smith machine for Smith machine hip thrusts. Those of you who followed my "Shortcut to Size" know this exercise well. It's not a pretty move, but it is the best way to target the lower abs because you're allowed to add resistance, and we know that adding resistance is important when even training abs. You want to periodize all muscle groups, including the abs. That's the best way to get the most muscular development, and the lower abs is that tough area to bring up for a lot of people, so this is a great exercise for targeting the lower abs and help to create better development in those lower muscle fibers. It's also a great core exercise as well. Now, like the rope crunches, we're gonna do three sets of Smith machine hip thrusts, and in between, my cardio acceleration move here is gonna be back to doing the bench step-ups, but here we're doing it on the adjustable bench that I placed here at the Smith machine. Now, this is the final exercise of the workout. We've only get three sets and three sets of cardio acceleration left to go. Being that this is your first workout using cardio acceleration, non-stop pace, you're gonna be winded. Trust me, you're not gonna be feeling good at this point, but you're gonna feel real good when the workout's over, and you'll notice, as the days go by--not even the full week, by the end of the week, you'll notice that the workouts are getting easier as your body adapts to this non-stop pace using the cardio acceleration. Actually, the cardio acceleration, you'll find that your recovery after the workouts are better. ♪♪♪ So that's it for the "Shortcut to Shred" workout overview video. Now remember, "Shortcut to Shred" is not just about getting shredded. Yes, that's a critical part of this program, but you're also gaining more lean muscle and strength, so it's critical that you follow up each workout with your post-workout shake. You want to get those critical nutrients into your muscle as fast as possible. That's gonna aid recovery, boost muscle growth, and even aid fat loss. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to go back to the "Shortcut to Shred" landing page and watch my supplement overview video and read the supplement overview page so you're making sure you're taking the proper supplements at the right times. Remember, on the "Shortcut to Shred" landing page, each day of the program is broken down into full detail, the daily workouts, content, and tips from me, even on your rest days. ♪♪♪