
Biceps & Triceps workout
'Like a Viking'
The Science of a healthy life
This weeks biceps and triceps workout took
place today and I decided to switch some minor things up, resulting in a wonderful and sweaty challenge.
After 5 set of close grip bench press for triceps I decided to create one giant set by combining dips ( triceps ) and barbell curls ( biceps )
with a special biceps pull up version of "hanging leg raises".
I repeated this giant set 3 times before finishing my workout with 3 set of biceps dumbbell curls for each arm ( no rest between sets for those
dumbbells ) and one more set of hanging leg raises.
In addition, todays workout ended with 5 minute of sprint intervals and 20 minute of MMA.
Photography & workout plan by Mike Koontz
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Strength + Cardio served with healthy food equals a happy, fit and healthy body and mind
You guys should already know the main stuff behind my workouts, so let´s just talk about the small adjustments that I decided to do
for todays workout.
Why did I combine 3 different exercises into one continuous set?.
Well, the challenge, first of all, it
is fun and beneficial for both body and mind to challenge yourself in a different way every now and then.
Secondly,
it allowed me to up the intensity for my body as a whole, as well as my muscles, without having to increase the weights I
use.
Doing it like this, will as a nice bonus, up the body fat burn and cardiovascular fitness level and health,
and still allow you to keep it strict and controlled and challenging through each set.
You shouldn't really train like this all year round of course, but you can certainly train like this for extended periods, this
was week 2 for me and I will continue doing my arms like this for 3 or 4 months before going back to the more traditional one exercise
per set routine.
Health is 24/7
[ Weights, Cardio, Food ]
Please be aware, however, of how much more taxing it is for your recovery time if you decide to start doing super and giant
sets. As a general thumb of rule, born out of actual scientific facts and not gym rat superstition,
while your muscle normally recover more or less in full 48 hours after a challenging workout, it takes the same muscle
at least 5 whole days to recover after a workout making use of super or giant sets. So please adjust and make room for ample
recovery time, because as important it is to eat healthy food and keep active on a daily basis, in a challenging enough way,
recovery and sleep are just as important if improving fitness and health is your number one reason to stay fit and active.
A couple of additional notes.
I stuck to the same weights I usually train with for this workout.
So try not to lower your weights, and instead focus
less on the amount of reps you do, instead, go for failure in each giant set and inside of that set, go for failure in each of the individual
exercises. And by doing so, put the exact number of reps to the side, if it´s 8 it is, and if you do 12 in set one,
and only 8 in set two, it´s all good.
Just keep going and push yourself to the limit. Having said that, if you absolutely have to lower the weights in
set 2 and forward, please do.
For me, this played out as 30 reps of dips,
and 8 to 11 reps of barbell curls and 8 to 12 reps of "hanging leg raises" per giant set.
I did not add any rest at all inbetween the 3 individual exercises that made up each giant set. Neither should you.
Once you are done with one bigger combined set, rest 2 to 4 minutes before you do it all again. Repeat 3 or 4 times.
"Hanging leg raises" - The biceps curl way.
This is just like your ordinary hanging leg raises, except that you also challenge
your biceps by pulling your chest up towards the bar with your biceps (not your back). Making it a pretty neat compound exercise,
working your abs, your biceps and in part, your shoulders and back too.
And finally.
Once I was done with all that, I decided to keep that wonderful intense high pace for my normal dumbbell curls.
So I did one arm at a time, 3 set x 8 to 12 reps per arm, but once I was done with my right arm I did my left arm right away, and
right on to my right arm again, left arm, right arm and finally the left arm once again.
No rest at all needed between sets.
Go to failure in each set, and since your biceps do get some partial recovery while you are busy tormenting the other arm.
Do not be surprised if you manage to keep the number of reps pretty even throughout the entire exercise.
But if the number of reps should drop, no worries, just stick it out and be proud over yourself for totally killing it.
It feels great, so kick some ass now :).
You can of course opt to combine two exercises instead of three.
That will still prove challenging for you, just not as daunting as doing three straight exercises each set.
But, start out doing these kind of giant set´s for smaller muscle groups like arms. While you can do stuff like this with great results for
legs and back and chest as well, that will always prove even more taxing for your body and mind. And let´s face it, a traditional leg
or back workout is already plenty challenging for your entire body as it is, right?.
Which is why mixing it up like this for smaller muscles like biceps, abs, triceps and shoulders is a pretty neat middle of the road
thing. It doesnt kill your entire being like trying to do the same thing for legs and back would.
And as such, while it ups the intensity and challenge for those smaller muscles, you still allow yourself the energy and strength
needed to really kill it each set for those bigger muscle groups.
Which is not the same thing as saying that you can never do a super or giant set for your back and leg workout, I do that too.
Just a lot less than I do super or giant sets for my arms.
Cardio, 5 minutes of sprint at 100%
Once I was done with my arm and abs workout, I right away proceeded to do 5 minutes of high paced intervals.
The sprints was done at 100% of my capacity for the day, and inbetween each sprint I jogged at a lower pace. Allowing you to maximize your body
fat burn, and your cardiovascular performance, while reaping plenty of health benefits in a short amount of time.
The sprint formula also works really well together with lifting weights, proving a beneficial symbiosis for each other.
Once the sprint intervals was all done, I settled for 5 additional minutes of high paced kicking and punching (constant high paced
movement for 5 minutes) and 15 minutes of kicking and pacing and movement in a lower pace.
At the end of the day, it was a high paced, challenging and great fun exercise that left me sweaty and very happy :).

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