Questions and Answers with Trey Brewer
Written on October 11, 2010 by Jett Dooley
Questions and Answers with Trey Brewer
The weak point in my body is my chest. I work it once a week, mostly with compound movements. How could I bring my chest up more? Should I do it 2 times a week? I try to do push-ups everyday, like right when I wake up and before I go to sleep. My chest workout this month is:-incline dumbell/6-8 reps/4 sets-barbell flat bench/6-8 reps/ 4 sets-decline barbell bench/6-8 reps/ 4 sets-incline fly/6-10 reps/4 setsWhat do you think of my chest routine?
It looks decent to me. I keep my reps between 6-12, so maybe add in a few more reps. Some guys can make gains with 6-8, but I didn’t start seeing real results in my own chest (also a weak point, so I can sympathize) until I bumped up the reps. Add in some Hammer Strength presses too. I really like doing these to warm up or as a final burn out set. Also add in some cable crossovers or machine flyes. But I wouldn’t train chest more than once a week. I would also go easy on the push-ups because your muscles need to rest and recover in order to grow. Doing push-ups twice a day like you’re doing is just going to keep your chest from recovering, plus your own bodyweight isn’t really enough to stimulate growth if you can bang out tons and tons of reps with it. But stick to it man and don’t give up, it takes time to bring up a lagging bodypart.
How would you recommend training calves and forearms? I do calves every other day (standing calf raise machine) and forearms on the other days. Can you tell me what you do for calves and forearms? Yours are huge, man, and you’re my inspiration Trey!
Thanks for all the support. To be honest, I never train forearms. They have grown simply from gripping heavy barbells and dumbbells while I train everything else. Obviously you can do wrist curls and reverse wrist curls to make yours grow, but I wouldn’t do that more than twice a week, maybe 4 sets of 15-20 reps each. Don’t do them before arms or back as that will ruin your grip for those exercises. I do train my calves every other workout. This is usually what I do:
Seated calf raises 4x20Standing calf raises 4x20Donkey raises 4x20I superset all three, so that’s a total of four supersets of three movements. I rest about a minute or two between the supersets. I also do abs every other workout too. So one day I do calves, the next day I do abs.
I’m working out with a guy who has back problems, but he still wants to lift with me. What are the alternative exercises for squats and deadlifts that I can have him do so he doesn’t aggravate his back too much?
For legs try doing leg press, then hack squats. He may even be able to squat on a Smith machine if you pre-exhaust the quads with a few sets of leg extensions first. For back it would really depend on how bad his injuries are. He may be able to do things like barbell rows and T-bar rows or even rack deadlifts if he stays very strict and doesn’t go too heavy. But if his back is really messed up, he might have to do everything supported, like the T-bar row with the pad on your chest, various Hammer Strength machines for back, or dumbbell rows face down on an incline bench.
My legs have always been pretty good because I have always trained them to failure but my vastus medialis (teardrop) will NOT grow! Do you have any advice to bring it up? Also, do you split your hams and quads up on different days? All the best,Thomas
To bring up your teardrop, I would start doing leg extensions at the start of your quad workout and again at the end of your workout. Do 3 sets of 20 reps and really squeeze hard at the top to make them pop. Also, start throwing in some front squats. They hit that area real good and you don’t need nearly as much weight as regular squats. I do my legs all in one day. I used to split them up, but I get a better pump and a better workout when I work them together. It’s a personal preference thing, because I have talked to a lot of pro’s who feel they get the best workouts when they split the leg up.
When are we going to see a video of you doing some heavy ass squats? How much do you normally go up to these days?Man, the days of squatting 7 and 8 plates are behind me. I usually don’t go past 6 plates now due to the risk of injuries. I have a lot of work to do to turn pro and once I get that card I want to compete for a long time, so safety and longevity in the game are always on my mind. But you never know, if I come out with a DVD I might have to throw some heavy squats in there just to show that I can still do it.
Do you think biceps and triceps should be trained as low as 6-8 reps, or 10-12? If my arms lag, should I hit them twice a week? Do you ever train bi’s or tri’s with a different muscle rather do arms in a single day? If so, how would it look?Sometimes I may only get 6-8 reps out on my last set and that’s fine. Just remember to keep good form. Sometimes I might do a drop set. Like if only get 6-8 reps, I will drop the weight and do another 10-15 reps. When I was focusing on bringing up my arms this is the workout did:
Mon: Chest and Tri’s (I would just do 2 exercises)Tue: Back and Bi’s (Just 2 exercises)Wed: ShouldersThurs: LegsFri: Arms (Bi’s and Tri’s, 4 exercises each)
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