One Week in Olympia: The Craig Titus Workout Regimen

Top-level bodybuilder Craig Titus has the same basic workout regimen during the off-season as he does during the competition build up, except that the competition season workout is more intense and adds abs and cardio. So what is his plan?

Monday targets the chest and biceps. Start by warming up with a few stretches then hit the weights. For the chest, do flat barbell presses, incline dumbbell presses, cable crossovers and pec-deck flies (sets and reps as best suits you and your current level of strength and stamina). Then move on to working the biceps. Your exercise plan here is standing alternate dumbbell curls, standing cambered bar curls, standing barbell preacher curls and finish with hammer strength preacher curls. During the precontest stage, do one hour of cardio and work the abs in a separate session of standing cable crunches, followed by another hour of cardio. Also during the pre-contest phase, practise your required poses. Don’t forget to warm down and to take your post-workout protein shake or other body building supplement.

Tuesday concentrates on the back and traps. Begin by warming up. Then for the back, perform wide-grip pulldowns, bent barbell rows or deadlifts, close-grip pulldowns, seated cable rows and dumbbell pullovers. For the traps, do barbell shrugs. During the pre-competition phase, add an hour of cardio, then have a session in the evening concentrating on the calves, using seated calf raises, standing calf raises and leg-press calf raises. Finish with another hour of cardio.

Wednesday. Day off for resting from weights, but keep up the cardio work.

Thursday focuses on the delts and triceps. Begin by warming up. Then, for the delts, perform dumbbell side laterals, working one side at a time rather than alternating, followed by work on the seated delt machine and seated front presses on a Smith machine. Finish the delt work with standing upright cambered bar rows. Then for the triceps, do one-arm rope pressdowns, two-arm overhead dumbbell extensions, straight bar pressdowns and dips. During the pre-contest phase, do one hour of cardio, then a second session with another hour of cardio, standing cable crunches for the abs and posing practice.

Friday is the day for quads and hams. Quads will take up your morning gym session, and you should have a one-hour cardio session before breakfast in the precontest phase. You should begin with leg extensions, leg presses, hack squats and barbell squats. In the evening, concentrate on the hams and calves. For the hams, do lying leg curls and stiff leg deadlifts. For the calves, do seated calf raises, standing calf raises and leg-press calf raises. During the precontest season, finish with an hour of cardio.

Saturday: Restart the rotation (see Monday for Day 1).

How many sets and reps does Craig Titus aim for? In summary, its 4 sets of 12-20 reps for the chest, 3 sets of 12-20 for the biceps, 4 sets of 20-30 for the abs, 3 sets of 9-15 for the back, 4 sets of 10 for the traps, 3 sets of 15 for the calves, 3 sets of 12-20 for the delts, 3 sets of 12-20 for the triceps and 3 sets of 20 for the quads. For the hams, Craig’s looking at 4 sets of 12-20 for the lying leg curls and 10 sets of 12-20 for the stiff leg deadlifts.

 

Craig Titus Workout Regimen