Sam’s Recession Buster Program

Here is the weight training article for the Feb 2009 Newsletter. It was written by yours truly and is part of a series of more advanced workouts for people that are training in their home gym with limited gym equipment.

I am going to do a series of programs based around basic gym equipment. If you already have a home gym you can incorporate these into your training. If you are thinking twice about forking out for a gym membership this year, these basic programs may work out cheaper in the long run.

I am currently doing this program on the Powertec Leverage Gym with the Ironmaster QuickLock Dumbbells . However you can do this program on a power rack too. You can easily change it to suit your existing home gym equipment. If you need any advice on modifying the program just drop me a line and I will help you out.

There are two workouts. We alternate between the two workouts over a fortnight.

Week 1: Monday Workout A Wednesday Workout B Friday: Workout A

Week 2: Monday Workout B Wednesday Workout A Friday: Workout B

Workout A – Chest, Back & Shoulders

Flat Bench Press: 20, 15, 12, 10, 6-8

Lat Pulldown: 1 warm up set, 3 x 12 reps (set rep progression)

Incline Dumbbell Press: 3 x 12 reps

Barbell or Bent Over Rows: 20, 15, 12, 6-8

Front Dumbbell Raises: 2 x 12 reps

Side Lateral Raises: 2 x 12 reps

Notes:

We don’t do a warm up, we just use a really light weight for the first set of 20 reps of flat bench press. Same with the first set of 20 reps on the barbell or bent over rows. Really light just concentrating on form and warming the back up.

I alternate the chest and back exercises to give my shoulders a break. I find I can push a bit harder on the incline dumbbell press by alternating.

I don’t a shoulder press because the 2 sets of presses is enough for my shoulders. I find the 2 isolation exercises are great. If you still have some fuel in the tank do some bent over lateral raises.

Workout 2 – Legs & Arms

Leg Extensions: 30, 25, 20

Lying Leg Curls: 20, 15, 12

Squats: 20, 3 x 15 reps

Bicep Curls 3 x 15 reps

Supersetted with

Triceps Pushdowns 3 x 15 reps

Notes:

Once again we don’t do a warm just really light weight for 30 reps on the leg extensions.

We do the leg extensions and lying leg curls before the squats to really warm our legs up.

If you want you can do some calf raises supersetted with forearm work at the end too.

We do all exercises with strict form and control. This is not a powerlifting routine. We are trying to work the targeted muscle to failure not break world records!