Iron Game
Veteran
[h=1]Getting His Chest Out in Front in Tampa[/h][h=2]Alexis Rivera Rolon's Pec Strategy for the PBW Championships[/h]
Alexis Rivera Rolón is the very first NPC Nationals Overall Champion from outside the 50 states of the USA. Hailing from Bayamón, Puerto Rico, he stunned the audience and judges alike with a combination of mass, shape and stellar condition to sweep that event in 2014.
This is how the Freakin’ Rican worked on his chest in order to move up the pec-king order at the PBW Championships in Tampa this weekend.
Did you have any pro bodybuilders that you looked up to for inspiration because they had excellent chest development?
My favorite bodybuilder who inspired me the most was Flex Wheeler, but when it came to chest, Arnold was the man. Even though Arnold had been retired for many years by the time I started looking at the magazines, they still used to feature plenty of training and posing pictures of Arnold, and they still do, even today! He had the craziest, thickest and fullest chest ever. I really don’t think anyone since then has built a better chest than his. So when I started getting a little more serious about lifting and decided I wanted to be a bodybuilder, it was Arnold’s chest that I would envision for myself to have one day. I am still trying!
Did your chest grow easily, or was it more of a challenge to make it grow?
Thankfully I was born with good genetics for bodybuilding. I can’t deny that. Even when I had been training only for a few months and like I said, only for two or three days a week, I already looked better than many guys in the gym who had been lifting and trying to get big for years. But even so, nothing has come very easily for me. I worked hard with very little in the way of financial resources to build every ounce of muscle that I have. Good food and supplements are not cheap! All that being said, my chest always responded as long as I worked it hard. It was never a weak area compared to everything else.
In what ways has your chest training changed over the years, from the time you started until now?
My chest training has changed in several ways. First, I use a wider variety of rep ranges now than I did years ago. When I was starting out, I did eight to 10 reps almost all the time for everything. Eventually I tried going a bit higher on the reps, as in 12 or even more, and found I was able to get a better connection with my pecs and also get better pumps. You do need heavy sets for six to eight reps for that muscle thickness and density, but you also need to do those sets of 12 or more reps to tap into each and every muscle fiber.
Learning how to have a powerful mind-muscle connection to the pectorals also took time. When I started training, I was only thinking about lifting the weight. Over time, I learned to think about each rep as contracting and stretching the muscle. I also started paying attention to details like my breathing, making sure I inhaled as I would lower the bar or dumbbells, and exhaled with the effort. That actually made a big difference. I stopped worrying so much about how much weight I was using and focused more on the feeling I was getting in the muscle itself. If I couldn’t feel the chest working and wasn’t getting a pump, I realized it didn’t matter how strong I was. That’s the difference between training like a bodybuilder versus all the other guys in gyms who lift weights.
As time went by, I also began learning about and incorporating intensity techniques like drop setsto work the muscle even harder. Really, it was just a process of paying attention to what I was doing and what type of results I was getting. I experimented with different techniques, and so on, and would continue doing things that I saw that were working. If anything I did wasn’t giving me results, I stopped doing it.
What are some reasons you think many bodybuilders don’t see good results from their chest training? What do you think they are doing incorrectly?
There can be several reasons to look at. First off, a lot of guys do the same exact workout all the time, even though they aren’t growing or improving. Why wouldn’t you try changing the exercises, the rep range, the order you do the exercises or how fast or slow you perform the reps? But most guys just never think to do that. They expect that eventually, their chest will just start growing, but it doesn’t.
Some people train their chest with too many exercises and too many sets, while some don’t do enough. I think with chest, doing too much is more common. You really shouldn’t need more than four or five exercises for three or four work sets. The chest isn’t that complicated, the way an area like the back is.
Nutrition is where most guys go wrong in general. They think just training hard in the gym is good enough, and they don’t make an effort to feed their body with all the nutrients it needs. It’s a lot of work to eat quality protein and carbs every two to three hours, but that’s what it takes if you want to have a physique that stands out.
Finally, many guys overtrain. They work out every day for two hours or more, and don’t take rest days often enough. They train body parts like chest and arms too often, before they have time to recover properly. If you’re feeling tired and run-down, there is no way you are recovering adequately. Your chest won’t grow. Nothing will!
Your mindset going into the Tampa show?
I feel I will be ready to compare to the other pros. I am very excited and extremely motivated! There hasn’t been a good IFBB pro from Puerto Rico in the open class in a long time, and I really want to make my island proud.
ALEXIS’S CHEST REGIMEN
Flat Barbell Bench Press
Barra plana press de banca
“Most of the time, I start with a standard grip that’s just outside of shoulder width. As I add weight over the sets, I start closing my grip in a bit more each time, so it winds up being maybe a little closer than shoulder width by my final, heaviest set. The reason I do this is because I suffered an injury to my left shoulder years ago, and found that I can’t do heavy barbell presses with a wider grip safely anymore. The last thing I want to do is hurt my shoulder again, because that impacts just about everything you do in the gym. Plus, it’s good to vary your grip width on exercises anyway. You hit the muscle from slightly different angles and stimulate more growth.”
Incline Barbell Bench Press
BarraInclineprensa
“One thing I like to do on incline presses in general is to do some sets with the more standard angle of about 30 degrees, and set the bench to a steeper angle of around 45 degrees for others. Some people say it’s all front delts when you have the bench set that high, but I am able to feel it right under the clavicles in the uppermost part of the pecs. And even if it’s true that my front delts might be working hard on those steep inclines, that’s OK in my case. I need bigger shoulders!”
Incline Dumbbell Press
Incline la pesa de gimnasia de prensa
“Inclines are a staple in my chest workouts, but I like to alternate using barbells or dumbbells for them from week to week. The bar allows for maximum weight and power for the upper chest, but I am able to control the movement and the contractions better with dumbbells. I think all bodybuilders should use both in their training at different times for the best results.”
Mancuernaplanapress de banca
“This is one of my favorite movements to go heavy on, as in 150-180 pounds in each hand. I like to pyramid up in weight and only do three sets, finishing off with the heaviest dumbbells I can press that day for six reps. Obviously, I am stronger sometimes than others. But this is just about equal to the flat barbell bench press, in my opinion, as far as developing overall mass to the chest.”
Incline Dumbbell Flyes
Inclinemancuernaflye
“This is an exercise I know many bodybuilders do later on in their chest workouts, and that’s fine. But for me, I find I get the most benefits when I use it as the first exercise before I start off with an incline press of some type. It stretches the pecs and helps bring blood to them as well. It’s a good warm-up for the area, and when I do them first, I am always able to feel the upper chest working better when I do my presses afterward.”
Dumbbell Pullovers Across Bench
Pullovermancuernatravésbanco
“I have always liked this exercise, and I never understood why more bodybuilders don’t do it. When I do it, I lie across a bench so that it’s under my mid-back. I let my upper body hang over the other side, and let the dumbbell come down way past my head. Not only do I feel the pecs stretching, but my rib cage too. I’m really not sure that pullovers contribute directly to mass in the chest, but I do believe that stretching the muscles in general does help you grow.”
Cable Crossovers
Crucesde cables
“Most of the time, if I am doing cable crossovers, it’s to finish off the chest workout. The weight I use is moderate. There is no point in going very heavy on crossovers. My reps are actually more like 20-25, and I do them slowly with a good squeeze of the pecs at the conclusion of each rep. One thing you need to be mindful of, not only on this but even more so with any type of dumbbell flye, is to avoid going into an extreme stretch at the start of the rep. You do want to open up the chest and get a nice stretch, but going too far can hurt your shoulders. You usually don’t even think of flye movements as being something you can get hurt on, but you sure can.”
Push-ups Off Bench
Flexionesoffbanco
“Push-ups are very easy for bodybuilders. For that reason, I only recommend doing them at two times: at the very beginning as part of a warm-up for the workout, or at the very end to finish the chest off with a crazy pump.”
Alexis’ Chest Workout
Incline Flyes 4 x 20, 16, 12, 10
Incline Barbell Press 3 x 16, 12, 8, 8/8/8*
Flat Dumbbell Press 3 x 12, 8, 6
Decline Barbell Press 3 x 12, 8, 6
Dumbbell Pullovers 3 x 10-12
or
Wide-grip Dips 3 x failure
*Final set of incline barbell press is a double drop set of eight reps, eight reps and a final eight reps, for a total of 24.
Training Split
Day 1:Chest
Day 2:Quads and calves
Day 3:Biceps, triceps and abs
Day 4: OFF
Day 5
elts and traps
Day 6:Hams and calves
Day 7:Back
Day 8:OFF, repeat
Alexis Rivera Rolón’s ProSupps Supplement Routine
Upon Waking
1 scoop of Whey
1 scoop of Glutamine 1000
1 scoop of ProSupps AminoLinx
After Meal 1
4 capsules of ProSupps Fenumass
After Meal 2
1 capsule of ProSupps I-Load
1 scoop of ProSupps Karbolic
Pre-Workout (15 minutes prior to workout)
1 scoop of ProSupps Mr. Hyde
1 scoop of Glutamine 1000
Post-Workout
1 scoop of PS Isolate
1 scoop of Karbolic
1 scoop of Amino
1 serving of L-Carnitine 1500
Bedtime
1 capsule of Crash
1 scoop of Glutamine 1000
Alexis Rivera Rolón is the very first NPC Nationals Overall Champion from outside the 50 states of the USA. Hailing from Bayamón, Puerto Rico, he stunned the audience and judges alike with a combination of mass, shape and stellar condition to sweep that event in 2014.
This is how the Freakin’ Rican worked on his chest in order to move up the pec-king order at the PBW Championships in Tampa this weekend.
Did you have any pro bodybuilders that you looked up to for inspiration because they had excellent chest development?
My favorite bodybuilder who inspired me the most was Flex Wheeler, but when it came to chest, Arnold was the man. Even though Arnold had been retired for many years by the time I started looking at the magazines, they still used to feature plenty of training and posing pictures of Arnold, and they still do, even today! He had the craziest, thickest and fullest chest ever. I really don’t think anyone since then has built a better chest than his. So when I started getting a little more serious about lifting and decided I wanted to be a bodybuilder, it was Arnold’s chest that I would envision for myself to have one day. I am still trying!
Did your chest grow easily, or was it more of a challenge to make it grow?
Thankfully I was born with good genetics for bodybuilding. I can’t deny that. Even when I had been training only for a few months and like I said, only for two or three days a week, I already looked better than many guys in the gym who had been lifting and trying to get big for years. But even so, nothing has come very easily for me. I worked hard with very little in the way of financial resources to build every ounce of muscle that I have. Good food and supplements are not cheap! All that being said, my chest always responded as long as I worked it hard. It was never a weak area compared to everything else.
My chest training has changed in several ways. First, I use a wider variety of rep ranges now than I did years ago. When I was starting out, I did eight to 10 reps almost all the time for everything. Eventually I tried going a bit higher on the reps, as in 12 or even more, and found I was able to get a better connection with my pecs and also get better pumps. You do need heavy sets for six to eight reps for that muscle thickness and density, but you also need to do those sets of 12 or more reps to tap into each and every muscle fiber.
Learning how to have a powerful mind-muscle connection to the pectorals also took time. When I started training, I was only thinking about lifting the weight. Over time, I learned to think about each rep as contracting and stretching the muscle. I also started paying attention to details like my breathing, making sure I inhaled as I would lower the bar or dumbbells, and exhaled with the effort. That actually made a big difference. I stopped worrying so much about how much weight I was using and focused more on the feeling I was getting in the muscle itself. If I couldn’t feel the chest working and wasn’t getting a pump, I realized it didn’t matter how strong I was. That’s the difference between training like a bodybuilder versus all the other guys in gyms who lift weights.
As time went by, I also began learning about and incorporating intensity techniques like drop setsto work the muscle even harder. Really, it was just a process of paying attention to what I was doing and what type of results I was getting. I experimented with different techniques, and so on, and would continue doing things that I saw that were working. If anything I did wasn’t giving me results, I stopped doing it.
What are some reasons you think many bodybuilders don’t see good results from their chest training? What do you think they are doing incorrectly?
There can be several reasons to look at. First off, a lot of guys do the same exact workout all the time, even though they aren’t growing or improving. Why wouldn’t you try changing the exercises, the rep range, the order you do the exercises or how fast or slow you perform the reps? But most guys just never think to do that. They expect that eventually, their chest will just start growing, but it doesn’t.
Some people train their chest with too many exercises and too many sets, while some don’t do enough. I think with chest, doing too much is more common. You really shouldn’t need more than four or five exercises for three or four work sets. The chest isn’t that complicated, the way an area like the back is.
Nutrition is where most guys go wrong in general. They think just training hard in the gym is good enough, and they don’t make an effort to feed their body with all the nutrients it needs. It’s a lot of work to eat quality protein and carbs every two to three hours, but that’s what it takes if you want to have a physique that stands out.
Finally, many guys overtrain. They work out every day for two hours or more, and don’t take rest days often enough. They train body parts like chest and arms too often, before they have time to recover properly. If you’re feeling tired and run-down, there is no way you are recovering adequately. Your chest won’t grow. Nothing will!
Your mindset going into the Tampa show?
I feel I will be ready to compare to the other pros. I am very excited and extremely motivated! There hasn’t been a good IFBB pro from Puerto Rico in the open class in a long time, and I really want to make my island proud.
ALEXIS’S CHEST REGIMEN
Flat Barbell Bench Press
Barra plana press de banca
“Most of the time, I start with a standard grip that’s just outside of shoulder width. As I add weight over the sets, I start closing my grip in a bit more each time, so it winds up being maybe a little closer than shoulder width by my final, heaviest set. The reason I do this is because I suffered an injury to my left shoulder years ago, and found that I can’t do heavy barbell presses with a wider grip safely anymore. The last thing I want to do is hurt my shoulder again, because that impacts just about everything you do in the gym. Plus, it’s good to vary your grip width on exercises anyway. You hit the muscle from slightly different angles and stimulate more growth.”
BarraInclineprensa
“One thing I like to do on incline presses in general is to do some sets with the more standard angle of about 30 degrees, and set the bench to a steeper angle of around 45 degrees for others. Some people say it’s all front delts when you have the bench set that high, but I am able to feel it right under the clavicles in the uppermost part of the pecs. And even if it’s true that my front delts might be working hard on those steep inclines, that’s OK in my case. I need bigger shoulders!”
Incline la pesa de gimnasia de prensa
“Inclines are a staple in my chest workouts, but I like to alternate using barbells or dumbbells for them from week to week. The bar allows for maximum weight and power for the upper chest, but I am able to control the movement and the contractions better with dumbbells. I think all bodybuilders should use both in their training at different times for the best results.”
Flat Dumbbell Bench PressMancuernaplanapress de banca
“This is one of my favorite movements to go heavy on, as in 150-180 pounds in each hand. I like to pyramid up in weight and only do three sets, finishing off with the heaviest dumbbells I can press that day for six reps. Obviously, I am stronger sometimes than others. But this is just about equal to the flat barbell bench press, in my opinion, as far as developing overall mass to the chest.”
Inclinemancuernaflye
“This is an exercise I know many bodybuilders do later on in their chest workouts, and that’s fine. But for me, I find I get the most benefits when I use it as the first exercise before I start off with an incline press of some type. It stretches the pecs and helps bring blood to them as well. It’s a good warm-up for the area, and when I do them first, I am always able to feel the upper chest working better when I do my presses afterward.”
Pullovermancuernatravésbanco
“I have always liked this exercise, and I never understood why more bodybuilders don’t do it. When I do it, I lie across a bench so that it’s under my mid-back. I let my upper body hang over the other side, and let the dumbbell come down way past my head. Not only do I feel the pecs stretching, but my rib cage too. I’m really not sure that pullovers contribute directly to mass in the chest, but I do believe that stretching the muscles in general does help you grow.”
Crucesde cables
“Most of the time, if I am doing cable crossovers, it’s to finish off the chest workout. The weight I use is moderate. There is no point in going very heavy on crossovers. My reps are actually more like 20-25, and I do them slowly with a good squeeze of the pecs at the conclusion of each rep. One thing you need to be mindful of, not only on this but even more so with any type of dumbbell flye, is to avoid going into an extreme stretch at the start of the rep. You do want to open up the chest and get a nice stretch, but going too far can hurt your shoulders. You usually don’t even think of flye movements as being something you can get hurt on, but you sure can.”
Flexionesoffbanco
“Push-ups are very easy for bodybuilders. For that reason, I only recommend doing them at two times: at the very beginning as part of a warm-up for the workout, or at the very end to finish the chest off with a crazy pump.”
Incline Flyes 4 x 20, 16, 12, 10
Incline Barbell Press 3 x 16, 12, 8, 8/8/8*
Flat Dumbbell Press 3 x 12, 8, 6
Decline Barbell Press 3 x 12, 8, 6
Dumbbell Pullovers 3 x 10-12
or
Wide-grip Dips 3 x failure
*Final set of incline barbell press is a double drop set of eight reps, eight reps and a final eight reps, for a total of 24.
Training Split
Day 1:Chest
Day 2:Quads and calves
Day 3:Biceps, triceps and abs
Day 4: OFF
Day 5
elts and trapsDay 6:Hams and calves
Day 7:Back
Day 8:OFF, repeat
Upon Waking
1 scoop of Whey
1 scoop of Glutamine 1000
1 scoop of ProSupps AminoLinx
After Meal 1
4 capsules of ProSupps Fenumass
After Meal 2
1 capsule of ProSupps I-Load
1 scoop of ProSupps Karbolic
Pre-Workout (15 minutes prior to workout)
1 scoop of ProSupps Mr. Hyde
1 scoop of Glutamine 1000
Post-Workout
1 scoop of PS Isolate
1 scoop of Karbolic
1 scoop of Amino
1 serving of L-Carnitine 1500
Bedtime
1 capsule of Crash
1 scoop of Glutamine 1000
