A bit of help with my gym program?

atgate

Hi

I'd love some advice, if anybody has the time.

Current program (3 days a week):
X Trainer for 15 mins
Treadmill for 15 mins
(Stretches)
Chest Press 12x3
Lat Machine 12x3
Bicep Curl 12x3
Tricep Ext 12x3
Shoulder Press 12x3
Upper Back 12x3
Abdominal Crunch Machine 30x3
(Stretches)
Swimming for 10 mins

All the weight machines I start at the highest weight I can get to 12 reps with and drop off the weight a bit for the 2nd and 3rd set.

I'm getting results (my upper body was very under-developed) but I'd like to work more muscle areas but I don't want to commit to a 4th trip to the gym each week. Would it be a good idea to do an A and B workout? Working different groups on each other day?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Runfree

drop your reps and increase the weight. I generally do 6-8 reps on a real heavy weight.

Also try and seperate your work out a bit more. focus on certain muscle group each day you go to the gym.

Im not sure why you do the x trainer and the threadmill but if its for fitness then do a day of fitness itself.

Example:
Day 1: Exercise machine
eg. Thread mill, x-trainer, rowing machine, bicycle. do 15-20 minutes on those each. Also do your stomach crunches. There is a great variety of crunches you can do. Ask your gym instructor for these.

Day 2:
Chest and leg exercises. shoulders execise.Once again do your crunches.

Day 3:
Bicep & tricep.And then do your back aswell. again do your crunches.

Also swim after each day as this is the greatest exercise ever.

Boru.

Hi atgate,

I agree with Runfree, but before I make any recomendations its important to know what your goals are, is it size, strength, definition, endurance, stamina etc. All of these atributes have a specific way to be trained. At the moment it appears that you are doing general tone and capillary growth training. Runfree's suggestion places more emphasis on bulk and dynamic strength. Personally I've always been fond of pyramid training for dynamic strength. Similar to that I mentioned in the "look at this animal" thread. 5 reps at 85% of my 1 rep max, 4 reps at 75%, 3 at 65%, 2 at 55%, 1 at 45%, all with maximal tension..you get really defined, really big, really strong, really fast!

If your provide more details on your specific goals I'm sure myself and others on the board would be more than happy to help you attain it.

atgate

Thanks Boru & Runfree.

Gives me some good ideas...

I suppose my goals would be to bulk up some muscle - to be honest I don't need to much strength, just wanna look better (vain I know, but there ya go).

The cardio stuff was to lose weight - I don't need to lose any more but I keep it up so I can eat like a pig and not put that 3 stone back on again

Thanks again for the advice

White&Proud

Well... I won't comment you strength training, but just wanted to give you one little tip: do your strength training (ST) before your Cardio. Off course the cardio after ST must not be of high intensity, unless you have a very good nutrition and supplemmentation.

It's better for you do spend your glycogen stores while doing strength training, so you can have more energy and strength during it; then spending your glycogen store while doing your cardio and going to strength training with low glycogen.

PJG

I agree, do a 10 minute cardio warm up before the ST and leave the rest of the cardio until the end. Also agree with decreasing the amount of reps to 6-8. One thing to watch out for is the speed of your rep's, try to slow down and focus on you breathing and visualize your muscle’s getting stronger and bigger.

good luck