Six Weeks Out.
Watch Nath give you a few tips on competition prep and how to train to get a full chest when having shoulder niggles.
To continue to follow Nathan Williamson’s journey to the 2016 Arnold classic bodybuilding Australia event; like our faceboook page, follow our instagram, and subscribe to our youtube channel, that way you won't miss a thing!
Transcript:
"Today we're 6 weeks out from the Arnold Classic Australia, which means we're 3 weeks out from Melbourne championships. I did the math; that means about 40 days worth of training with the breaks in between the pre-Melbourne championships and the pre-Arnold Classic. Today we're going to go and hit some chest. I've always had a bit of a shoulder problem in my right rotator cuff in my left front delt, so I've always had to kind of alternate my training with my chest so I can still get that really good chest development. Without having to lift those big, massive, heavy weights. We're going to go through a chest workout today, I'm going to show you guys how to develop a nice, dense, thick chest, and not have to risk smashing out those big-ass heavy weights. Got my pre-workout, if you guys want to know what I take and why I take it, hit me up Facebook and I'll explain to you what the ingredients are and what I use. Here we are let's go smash some chest.
Today we smashed some chest, what we did we did 4 main exercises, and a warm-up. The warm-up consisted of just some machines, and some light movements. The whole idea behind the warm-up was to create as much blood as I can into my chest, so that my front delts and my rear delts don't take over as I'm going and doing those slightly heavier movements. Basically with the exercise I did incline bench press, and what I did with that was I tapered the weight up nice and slowly, and I made sure that the weight was in my chest the entire time. I'm using my chest, it's really important to use chest to contract the weight up, squeeze your chest at the top, and then use your chest at the top to lever the weight down. Kind of like you're stretching a lacka band. I think it's really, really important to make sure, you see a lot of people trying to lift heavy weights and there are plenty of ways to do things, but if you've got a shoulder problem or a rear delt problem and you cant do those heavy weights, this is a really good way to hit that chest.
The second exercise, we did a bit of super-set, with 3 different exercises. I just did front incline chest-press, 2 chest presses and a cable fly or a peck deck fly. Same thing again just making sure that throughout the entire movement, I'm mentally thinking about what my chest is doing, my chest is contracting the weight, I'm holding a nice, hard squeeze at the top, squeezing as much blood as I possibly can into my chest. I'm using my chest to lever the weight on the way down. Constantly throughout the entire movement, I'm making sure that the blood is at my chest and that the chest doesn't let go of the exercise. I'm hitting my chest with 3 different exercises, so that slightly hitting different muscle fibers from different angles in one movement.
The third exercise is probably one of my most favorite exercises that I believe has built my chest the most was the cables. Now with the cables I put them on a slightly lower angle, just below my chest height, and with the cables what I'm doing is I'm mentally in my mind again I'm making sure that I'm starting from ... the starting position is a bit lower than my chest height and my hands. I'm squeezing up my diagonal line and squeezing the top part of my chest, holding that squeeze at the top, and at the same time I'm using the contraction in my chest to lever the weight of those cables down. Now with particular exercise you don't need to go really heavy, because all you're doing is you're just using just your chest. You're not trying to use your shoulders or rear delts or anything like that, go as heavy as you can with progressive weight load. You don't want to be putting on 1 or 2 kilos, you want to make sure you're doing a little bit strenuous, but you don't want to go too crazy to the point where you're swinging and levering your body.
Last exercise, I just did a basic chest-press movement. Any chest-press movement will do, it can even be a flat bench-press or whatever, but I decided to use the machine because then I got more control over my chest and I don't have to worry about stabilizing the weight. The first set in the exercise I used a close grip, and I squeeze my chest 10 to 15 reps, and the second exercise was also a super-set; I just did a wider grip. The difference is not massive, but I'm still hitting my chest from a slightly different angle from that close grip to that wider grip. Mentally in my mind I can feel the squeeze in different parts of my chest by using a different grip, and I feel that gives you a nice, better, overall chest development than just jumping on some heavy weight and slogging around. Like I said there's a million ways of doing things, but if you've got any shoulder problems or rear delt problems or anything like that or bicep kind of problems, it's definitely a good workout so give it a try. If you guys want anything more hit me up, and I'll give you guys a hand and teach you guys more about it.
Man, what a workout. We are 6 weeks out from the Arnold Classic, 3 weeks out from the Melbourne Championships. I'm going to explain to you guys the time to do about the nutrition side of things and when it comes to the last few weeks of comp prep. Basically when it gets to about, for me, 6 weeks out now. The reason there is no real structure with the nutrition, I kind of just change things up as my body changes. I kind of have an idea of what I want to be eating and how I want to be eating it, and how many calos one should be consuming in a day. But some days I'll do ... I'll look at my body in the mornings, or I'll listen to how I feel, and I might just do a whole day of no carbohydrates, and the next day I might do another whole day no carbohydrates. Day three I might wake up and go, okay, I'm feeling really flat and depleted and lethargic. I don't have any energy. Let's go smash some legs today, and I might go and do a whole day of carbohydrates every single meal.
There is strategy behind what I do, it's just the strategy changes as per your body looks coming into the show, at the moment last week I did a successful whole entire week of carb cycling. I did two days zero carbs and one day high carbs. I feel like that worked really good for last week. I dropped quite a lot of weight in the scales, but my body stayed nice and full and believe it or not, my strength stayed actually quite good as well which I was quite surprised about. This week I'm going to go, this week is the same approach with the carb cycle. This will be my second day no carbohydrates again. I'm just going to judge it how I go. Today I felt quite flat and lethargic. I went and had an energy drink. I don't usually have energy drinks during my prep. I try and steer away from artificial sweeteners. But 110%, I feel like especially during those last few weeks of prep, getting away from those artificial sweeteners and sticking with good whole foods is really important. But, when it comes to what you need you got to go and do what you got to do. So I had to go and do that today. So that kind of tells me that my energy levels are quite low, and it's really important for me to go on and have some carbs tomorrow.
So I'm going to wake up tomorrow, I'm going to do a whole day of carbs, I'm going to smash some legs, and then from here on out I'm just going to judge it day by day, and work that out the best I can. If you guys want to know more about why I do what I do, hit me up on Facebook, I can explain to you guys what supplements I'm using and why I'm using it; supplements which help me sleep, supplements which help me burn fatty acids as energy, supplements that help me maintain muscle tissue. A lot of things like that as well as why I eat certain foods at certain times of the day.
Otherwise here we are, six weeks out from the Arnold Classic, 40 days of training left until the Arnold Classic and three weeks out from the Melbourne Championships. Let's get it.
To continue to follow my journey to the Arnold Classic, 2016 hit subscribe and like on the Facebook page of Bulk Powders Australia. For all your supplement needs, hit up bulkpowders.com.au for all your quality pharmaceutical grade supplements and free shipping. "
Song: CRNKN - Corridorz
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