I’ve been pretty slack in terms of exercise and getting to the gym over the last few or even many months so the start of this website and a training blog to accompany it should be a good motivator to get training again in a more regular manner.
I’ve been training properly for about six years now, since 2005. When I say properly I mean following a proper routine and knowing about nutrition. But that doesn’t mean I’ve stuck to much of the nutritional information I have learned over the years which probably goes a long way to explaining why my progress in the gym, despite a pretty regular attendance has been less than spectacular!
Anyway, I hope that this public log of my workout and exercise activities will keep me motivated.
Today I was back in the gym after a break and did a legs and shoulders workout. My gym is very close to where I live and is also free but it is also very under equipped. When I arrived today most of the equipment was in use so I had to improvise a bit. The small amount of gear in the gym has been the main reason why I started this website as I want to know more about training at home and without using a gym and how one can get an effective workout with a small amount of good equipment at home. Hopefully I can make the transition to home training without too much pain!
Legs & Shoulders
Seated Leg Press: 3 main sets starting with about 15 small plates ending with the whole stack. Could only do about 5 reps with the full stack of plates but will try and get that up to a whole set over the coming weeks and months.
Seated Leg Extension: You are probably guessing that there is nowhere to do squats in my gym and you would be correct! There is just a smith machine for the big compound movements and I don’t like to do squats on it so I use the machines. I did 3 main sets with about 10 small plates.
Seated Calf Raises: Using the leg press machine to do calf raises isn’t ideal but seems to work OK. One leg is definitely stronger than the other but I managed 3 good sets.
Standing Front Raises: I did this using an Olympic plate and lifted it up in front of me until it was at eye level and I could see through the hole. I did 8 reps with the 15 kg plate then 2 sets of 8 with the 20 kg plate. I hurt my shoulder last year in a ‘sporting’ accident so can’t lift anything above my head which means I can’t do many shoulder exercises or incline bench press which is a pain.
Standing Side Raises: I used a dumbbell for this, well one in each hand, and did 3 sets of 8 reps. I think I used the 25 lb weights which is OK but nothing to write home about.
Front Raises/Upright Rows: I don’t usually do these but I thought I’d give it a try as I am limited to only a few shoulder exercises due to the injury and lack of gear in the gym. I did 3 sets of 8 again using the EZ bar with 10kg on each side.
Smith Machine Shrugs: I love shrugs and miss my old gym which had heavy dumbbells and even a shrug machine. Now I normally use the cable machine thing for shrugs but today I thought I’d try some Smith Machine shrugs and it worked quite well so I will leave the cables alone for this exercise in the future. I did 3 sets of 8 reps with 90 kg including the bar.
Ab Work: I normally weighted decline crunches for my abs but today someone was on the benches so I did some crunches and sit ups on the floor followed by some leg raises. My goal is to get a six pack eventually so I do like to focus on my abs now and then.
Not a bad workout but the constraints of the gym are annoying. Will try and get back in tomorrow for either a chest or back workout depending on the availability of the equipment.
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