Normally I train in the middle of the day, but today I trained with the early birds because I’m traveling to Columbus, Ohio for the Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic tomorrow.

We’re hitting biceps, triceps, and gastrocnemius. I’m very sore from my leg training yesterday. After sitting for about an hour at dinner last night, trying to get mobile again was painful. That’s because I was feeling the scar tissue in my legs, and I was beginning to break that down. The ways you can recover are through movement, hydration, supplementation, nutrition, and rest. So, when you’re in the gym you annihilate, and then you get out and stimulate recovery through every means possible.

You may be wondering why I’m wearing this beautiful shirt. It’s because it’s our national Welsh holiday, St. David’s Day. I have no idea why everyone in America celebrates St. Patrick’s Day, but they’ve never heard of our Welsh holiday.

We’ll be using higher rep DTP with arms to prevent over-stressing the tendons and ligaments. First up is triceps cable pushdowns, beginning with 30 reps and dropping 5 reps per set as you increase weight. Keep your arms pinned to your sides to effectively work your triceps and protect your joints. Use the bar that’s best for you. Keep rest to about 45 seconds at the beginning. You can rest longer to better regenerate ATP when you increase weight.

For overhead triceps extensions, you’ll reverse the rep scheme, beginning with 10 and adding 5 for each subsequent set until you complete your fifth set of 30 reps. For the heavier sets at the beginning, you can rest a little longer. Then shorten rest periods as you perform higher reps with lighter weights. The reason for this is that you’re relying less on ATP production and more on glycogen—these sets are more aerobic, helping reduce body fat. That’s all for triceps. It may look easy on the page, but it’s much harder than it looks. I know because I’ve been through it with you.

For biceps, begin with EZ-bar preacher curls to work the outer head of the biceps. Notice that I don’t extend fully to protect my biceps tendons, and I stop before I reach the top of the rep when I begin to feel my biceps disengage. After that you’ll perform standing biceps curls with an EZ bar to target the inner head of the biceps. For reps, you’ll start with high reps, dropping 5 per set for the first move. Then you’ll begin with moderate reps (10) and add 5 for each subsequent set for standing biceps curls. This mirroring rep strategy is an important component of DTP.

For gastrocnemius, you’ll complete 6 sets. As with soleus, you’ll start with high reps and then build back up. Keep your feet close together on your first three increasing-weight sets. Then switch your foot position so your feet are farther apart with toes pointing outwards as you decrease weight and increase reps.

I’ll see you in a different state tomorrow. I’m off to Ohio.

Triceps cable pushdown Sets: 5 Reps: 30, 25, 20, 15, 10 Strategy: DTP
Triceps overhead extension Sets: 5 Reps: 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 Strategy: DTP
EZ-bar preacher curl Sets: 5 Reps: 30, 25, 20, 15, 10 Strategy: DTP
Standing EZ-bar biceps curl Sets: 5 Reps: 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 Strategy: DTP
Calf press Sets: 6 Reps: 25, 20, 15, 15, 20, 25 Strategy: DTP
HIIT Sets: 1 Reps: 3 Strategy: 4 minutes easy/1 minute full intensity for a total of 15 minutes

POST WORKOUT

Remember that we’re relying on ATP (adenosine triphosphate) for the sets with heavier weights. One way to boost ATP production is to supplement creatine—research demonstrates the effectiveness of creatine supplementation. If you’re taking PRE-KAGED and RE-KAGED, then you’re getting a dose of Creatine HCl in these products. However, if you’re my bodyweight or more, then you need a larger dose of creatine. That’s why I always add an extra scoop before and after workouts. This product is more digestible and soluble in water, unlike creatine monohydrate. It also doesn’t cause subcutaneous retention of fluid or the bloat many get with other forms of creatine.