Marcus Seidel

Training

So over the past two years I’ve been training with a lot less volume and total frequency.  This has given me the ability to really focus on maximizing intensity, load and recovery.  I have also experienced SIGNIFICANTLY more progress in both size and strength.

In my prep for Jr. USA ’17 I developed a benign tumor on my left tibia bone just below my knee.  This threw a huge wrench in my lower body training and eventually resulted in having to take 7 months off training legs and a surgery to remove the tumor this January.  Some of the numbers I’m logging, for quads especially, are rather underwhelming but it is somewhat of a blessing in disguise.  Legs got a HUGE break, atrophy was minimal and with the lack of strength, progress has been much faster. It’s like being a beginner again!

My current split rotates and looks something like this :

Week 1:

Mon: Upper body pull, Wed: Upper body push, Fri: Upper body pull, Sun: Legs

Week 2:

Mon: Upper body push, Wed: Upper body pull, Fri: Upper body push, Sun: Legs

NOTES: I only track the top sets of each exercise. The preceding sets are what I consider “challenging warm up sets.” On top sets I often use Rest Pause, sometimes drop sets and in some cases I count specific tempos.

July 24 (Upper Body Push)

–Single Arm Cable Lateral Raise:

50 lbs x 8 reps each {right shoulder has been impinged so I do what I can to avoid significant pain}

-Machine Overhead Press:

275 lbs x 17-8-7 reps (Rest pause/3010 tempo)

-Incline Dumbbell Press:

130s x 9 reps

-Hammerstrength Flat Press:

3 plates x 12-4-3 reps (Rest pause)

Overhead Cable Triceps Extensions:

180 lbs x 10-5-5 reps (Rest Pause)

V-bar Pushdown:

180 lbs x 10-6-4 (Rest Pause)