IFBB Pro Regan Grimes continues his quest to be a serious contender for the ultimate goal of winning Mr. Olympia. Grimes took to his Youtube channel recently to share a glimpse of what his chest workout looks like. Long story short, it consists of multiple giant sets to prepare for the Arnold Classic coming up this March.
Grimes has the genetics and work ethic to compete on the big stage, plus he’s been working with Milos Sarcev as his coach and trainer. Sarcev had a long bodybuilding run of more than 20 years; he’s also an IFBB Pro who won WPF Mr. Universe in 1989 as a light heavyweight. Sarcev believes Grimes has a real shot at winning Mr. Olympia within the next few years.
Let’s jump into the behind-the-scenes look at the chest workout on Day 2 of prep for the Arnold Classic that Sarcev puts Grimes through...
The video starts with a quick take on Grimes breakfast; at around 285 lbs of pure muscle, it takes a lot to keep this machine fueled. We see he has 300 grams of lean steak which will have approximately 20 grams of protein, baby potatoes from an air fryer plus a bowl of cream of rice and washes it down with black coffee.
Before we get into the workout that has multiple giant sets, here's a quick refresher on what a giant set is.
A giant set is when you do 4 or more sets back to back with little to no rest in between. You can do a giant set of exercises that hit opposing muscles, or you can target the same muscle. Another way to think about a giant set is to combine at least two supersets.
With that out of the way, let’s get to the chest workout filled with giant sets.
Regan Grimes Giant Set Chest Workout
Coach Sarcev starts by chatting about a previous workout where Grimes was worried about a possible muscle injury when doing negatives on chest exercises. The goal Sarcev has for this chest workout is to get the pec muscles completely stretched while using some heavier weights and super strict contractions.
Before they kick off the workout, Sarcev asks Grimes which are his favorite chest exercises; this shows his expertise in training bodybuilders to play to their strengths. Grimes mentions a few of his favorite chest exercises:
- Incline on the Smith Machine.
- Decline Hammer strength machine press, incline machine press, dumbbell press.
- Cable fly press.
The last comment Sarcev makes is that he wants to run Grimes through ample sets of heavy negative eccentric movements.
Warmups
The first few reps we see Grimes doing are with lightish dumbbells where he bangs out a superset of flys and presses. His first warmup set is followed by another superset of the same exercises but with a heavier weight of 35lb dumbbells. Sarcev stresses the point of these sets is to really concentrate on squeezing and contracting the pecs.
Giant Set: Chest Press Machine x Dumbbell Flys
The goal here is to go extremely slow on the eccentric of 4-5 seconds then explode. Grimes starts with a meager 2 x 45 plates on each side.
After the first set is finished, Sarcev and Grimes discuss elbow positioning. Sarcev says you’ll get a deeper stretch with your elbows and shoulders back, but it can put you in a vulnerable position.
Next, we see one more set of these slow eccentrics of 8-10 reps with 3 plates on each side.
Moving on from the chest press machine, we see Grimes performing 50lb dumbbell flys with Sarcev helping to guide the motion.
Then back to the chest press machine, there are 3 x 45 lb plates and a 25 lb plate on each side. On the first two reps, Grimes does with slow eccentric, then knocks out another 13 fast reps for a total of 15.
This set was followed up by another of slow eccentrics with controlled dumbbell flys with what looks like are 70 lbs dumbbells. Grimes finishes up the superset with the last run on the chest press machine loaded with 4 x 45 lb plates on each side.
Incline Machine Press
After finishing up the first working set, Grimes heads over to the incline machine press, where he starts with 4 plates on each side then pumps out 10 reps. Next set, another 45 plate is added to each side, where Grimes completes another set of 10 reps. Sarcev says, “if you can’t complete your 10 reps, you don’t earn the right to do the next set”.
They have a short banter about some online haters making snide comments regarding training styles.
Sarcev then talks about this workout covering all aspects of gaining muscle saying “maximal stimulation of maximum amount of muscle fiber of a targeted muscle group, so with chest, you have to do upper, middle, lower, inner, outer, heavy, slow, deep contract and stretch, everything is in this workout.”
Sarcev imparts some knowledge of not needing to constantly go heavy to stimulate muscle growth and that going heavy too often for too long leads to injury.
Grimes teases the camera, saying they don’t go heavy even though he ended this exercise with 5 x 45lb plates plus a 25lb plate on each side for 8 complete reps and two partials.
Giant Set: Incline Smith Machine Press x Standing High Cable Flys
Next up, incline Smith Machine presses with 2 x 45 lb plates on each side for a set of 8-10 reps then Grimes moves over to the cable machine where he does a set of high cable flys where he angles his body back at a slight angle, but by the end of this giant set, he’s leaning forward slightly when he brings his arms together in front of his chest.
It seems like he does a total of 6 sets in this giant set while dropping the weight incrementally for each superset. All sets looked like the 8-12 rep range.
Incline Smith Press Partials
At this point, Grimes has been worked, his hoodie is off, and he’s sweating. Back on the Smith Machine for a few more sets. This time Sarcev has Grimes doing half or partial reps with a slow eccentric. It appears that he’s sticking with the same rep range here of 8-12 of 2-3 sets.
Giant Set: Decline Machine Press x Seated Flys on Machine
The camera pans to Grimes on a seated decline press machine, where he squeezes out some reps before moving over to the seated fly machine. It’s hard to tell how many sets and reps he does with these exercises because we only see a few clips before he ends up back at the cable machine. However, we can assume we did another 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps of both exercises. It’s clear to see how much effort Grimes is putting into getting maximum contraction with each rep; these sets aren’t about going heavy.
Standing Cable Flys High to Low
A short posing session in the mirrors before Grimes is back at the cable machine pumping around 10 reps; at this point, the man is looking jacked up!
Superset: Incline Machine Press x Decline Machine Press
Now at the final minute of the video, Grimes is pushing himself with the encouragement of Sarcev. We see one last superset of 10-5 reps of each exercise with a 45 lb plate on each side.
The video fades to black and displays Grimes logo RG.
Sample Grimes Giant Set Chest Workout
We modeled the following chest workout on the one demonstrated by Grimes and Sarcev. Be careful; there’s tons of volume in this one; the DOMS will be serious in the next few days.
- Warmup-Superset: DB Flys x DB Presses- 2 sets x 10 reps (each exercise)
- Giant Set: Chest Press Machine or Bench Press x Dumbbell Flys- 2 sets of each exercise x 8-10 reps (You will do 4 total sets with no rest between sets. Complete each rep with a slow eccentric of 2-3 seconds.)
- Incline Machine Press- 3 sets x 6-8 reps
- Giant Set: Incline Smith Machine Press x Standing High Cable Flys- 2 sets of each exercise x 10-15 reps (You will do 4 total sets with no rest between sets)
- Incline Smith Machine Partials- 2 sets x 15 reps (Slowly lower halfway then press up)
- Giant Set: Decline Machine Press or Decline Bench x Seated Machine Flys or Pec Deck- 2 sets of each exercise x 10-12 reps (You will do 4 total sets with no rest between sets)
- Standing High to Low Cable Flys- 1 set x 12-15 reps
- Superset: Incline Chest Press Machine x Decline Chest Press Machine- 1 set x 10 reps (each exercise)
Let us know if you try to take on this giant chest workout in the comments below.
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Andrew Lenau
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