Day 37: Chest Strength Training

               How much do you bench bro? It is common knowledge in the fitness world that Monday is international chest day. On this day, every bench in the gym is taken & spotters all around can be seen bicep curling the barbell off of their partners’ chests. For me, chest day has always meant heavy dumbbell presses to avoid the business of the barbell benches, followed by shoulder presses, followed by flies, ending with dips, if I had anything left. Since a heavy bench is unlikely to help you during the Spartan Race, I’ve tossed the dumbbell press aside in exchange for burpees, dips, push ups & kettlebell opinion. The theme of the majority of my training is to develop a better ability to move & manipulate my own bodyweight to help me over the obstacles come race day.

                Today I look at how my first 5 strength-training chest & shoulder days went, & how I’m looking to switch up the plan moving forward. 
 

  

Chest & Shoulder Exercises

                First, I will look at the progress that I made on the 4 strength-building chest & shoulder exercises that I have completed over the past 5 weeks. If you would like to read more on the rational behind why I chose each exercise, I discussed it at length in my day 8 post on strength training.

1. Dips (chest, shoulders, triceps): dips are a great bodyweight exercise that blasts the chest, shoulders, & triceps & has the added bonus of closely mimicking the act of propelling oneself over a wall. My progress in terms of dips has been a little slower than other exercises, likely due to the fact that I have included dips in my workout routines in some capacity for over 10 years, so my baseline strength was likely much more advanced than other exercises where I had little-to-no experience, such as the burpee. None-the-less, I am going to look to continue to improve my progress over the next 10 weeks. As I mentioned in my day 8 post on strength-training , once I am able to do 3 sets of 20 repetitions each which I am close to accomplishing, I will begin to incorporate weighted dips where you hold a dumbbell between your legs while completing the exercise for additional resistance. A major reason I will look to add resistance as opposed to continuing to increase the number of repetitions I’m completing is because obstacles using the dip motion will require a one-time, explosive movement over a wall, versus exercises mimicked by the pull-up such as monkey bars & hanging exercises which will require more muscular endurance.
     Progress: 53 repetitions to 70 repetitions
    
    
2. Push-Ups (chest, shoulders, triceps, back, core): one of two exercise that I have likely not completed since grade 10 gym class, the push up is a bodyweight exercise classic that works the majority of upper-body muscles, but primarily the chest, shoulders, & triceps. I was surprised to discover that I could only complete 30 push ups in a single set when I first began which was about half of what I expected. Similar to the dip, I am a little disappointed with the progress that I have made on the push-up, but was happy I was able to complete 25 push-ups on my third set in my most recent workout (set 2 was rushed far too close to previous set of dips). For push-ups a major focus of mine will be to complete the number of repetitions that I can do in sets 2 & 3 to simulate race day conditions when I will have to complete similar movements in an exhausted state.
   
   Progress: 62 repetitions to 83 repetitions
    
    
3. Burpees (chest, triceps quads, glutes, hamstrings, abs): as I discussed at length in my day 15 post on burpees, I was amazed at just how challenging burpees were when I first attempted them a few days into this journey on March 20^th. Given that I did not consider myself completely out of shape when I started, I foolishly assumed that I would be able to do 30 burpees in a set if I pushed myself. Wrong. In fact, very wrong. On my first set I was only able to complete 10 burpees before I thought I was going to toss my cookies. I simply could not believe how much of an anaerobic exercise burpees were. To my chagrin, the progress came slow after that. What isn’t shown on this plan summary is the 18 other sets of burpees that I have mixed into other workout days. The burpee is going to be the most important exercise come race day, so I want to get to a place where I can do 3 sets of 45 repetitions to ensure I can get in a full 30 when my muscles are exhausted on race day. When you look at my progress, you will likely notice a huge jump in my burpee output from April 4^th to April 10^th – the reason for this is that I completed burpees first instead of third on this day because the dip machine was swarmed. To me, this shows that when my muscles are tired, my burpee output drops considerably, motivating me to continue to focus intently on the burpee. That said, I’ve found on my third set of burpees in a week, I tend to see decreased output, so I am going to focus on completing burpees 2 days per week moving forward, monitoring my progress to ensure I continue to improve towards my goal of 3 sets of 45 repetitions.
    
   Progress: 30 repetitions to 94 repetitions
    
    
4. Two-handed Kettle Bell Swings (hips, glutes, hamstrings, core, shoulders, chest): the kettlebell swing is a new exercise for me, & I have seen some substantial progress in the exercise so far. The compound movement uses a ton of different large muscle groups including the chest & shoulders, & similarly to the burpee, I have been surprised at the anaerobic challenges associated with the obstacle. I will continue to work on the exercise, however given that I am now using the heaviest kettlebell available in my gym, the focus moving forward is going to be on increasing to 20 repetitions of slow, controlled movement utilizing great form. Once I am able to achieve this goal, I will likely switch to the one-handed kettlebell swing so I can continue to add weights & progress my strength in the exercise.
   
   Progress: 35 lbs for 48 repetitions to 55 lbs for 36 repetitions

  

Chest & Shoulder Day Changes 

                Overall, I am moderately satisfied with my chest & shoulder strength progress. While I am very pleased with my three-fold improvement in the number of burpees I can complete, I was hoping to advance more quickly in terms of dips & push ups. When I begin to think this way, I must remind myself of the impact of incremental gains which I discussed in my day 32 blog post. Even if I continue to improve by just a few repetitions per week, the progress over the remaining 10 weeks will be staggering. Similar to what I discussed yesterday in my post on my leg strength progress, I am going to look to decrease the amount of time that I spend resting between sets in order to better replicate race day conditions where there will (hopefully) be very little time to rest.

                In terms of new exercises, I mentioned in the section on kettlebell swings that once I reach 20 slow, controlled repetitions of 55 lbs on the exercise, I will switch to doing one-armed kettlebell swings so that I can continue to add weights since I am currently using the heaviest dumbbell at my gym. One brand new exercise that I am going to look to incorporate on this day will be the dead hang which focuses on shoulder & grip strength. I believe the dead hang will come in very handy in the numerous obstacles that require upper body & grip strength, as I mentioned in my post on obstacle-specific training.

                As mentioned above, I am moderately happy with the progress that I have made on my chest strength exercises, however I must remind myself that progress will not come quickly on every single exercise & that this training journey is a marathon, not a sprint. I have set training goals for myself in each of the 4 exercises listed, & will look to continue to work towards these goals as race day approaches. Who knows, maybe after all of this chest & shoulder strength training, I’ll finally be able to have a respectable bench press come June 25^th (unlikely).

100-Day Spartan