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Training methods for your home gym: Typical home gyms, be it Bowflex, Weider, or ProForm, all have instruction manuals for exercising that will guide you through different circuits, and targeting areas of the body sequentially. The problem with the instruction manuals is that the sequences are not always user friendly. For instance, you may start out with the seated row for your first exercise using the lower cables, then hook up the upper cables and pulleys for lat pulldowns, then disconnect the upper cables and once again use the lower cables for X-Row or low back extension. Once you start to exercise you want to keep it flowing with only short pauses between sets. Following the recommended programs that come with the Home Gyms can be frustrating with all the cable changes in the middle of your sets. And when this frustration sets in, you will start avoiding your machine because - its just too much bother. NOT GOOD! You'll wind up with another big dust collector. To avoid numerous cable changes in the middle of your workouts, start with the exercises where you do not have to add cables and pulleys in order to perform the sets. Do the exercises with the recommended sets and reps then add the cables and pulleys and finish your other sets. Your sequence of exercise should be one that works muscle groups from the largest muscle to the smallest. However, it is sometimes more expeditious to work a smaller muscle before some larger ones because of cable changes. In the case of a weight bench or rack, you'll save time on plate loading by starting with the heaviest weight, work that muscle, and then remove weight down to the smallest muscle. Generally this will work out to be the larger muscles down to the smaller ones but not always and not necessarily in the recommended order. No harm done though, as long as the exercise is done correctly. The muscle groupings for your workout routines should be organized so that a particular muscle will not get overtrained. An example of this is the way in which some recommended routines have you work your arms. On a particular day they will have you Bench Press and work both the Tricep and the Bicep, however on the next workout day you might work your Back. The Back exercise is always a pulling motion and cannot be done without using your Bicep. But you already worked your Bicep on the last workout day; thus over-training the Bicep and also weakening the Back exercise. The better method is to work your Back and Bicep on the same day and work your Chest and Tricep on another day. You should work Legs on still another day because of the energy expended and the time involved. Working Shoulders and Traps then are easy to figure out. Shoulders are a pushing motion, so they should be worked on the Chest and Tricep day. Traps are a pulling motion and work the Bicep so they should be worked on the Back and Bicep day. In summary then: Back exercises are pulling motions that involve your bicep; work biceps on the same day as back. Chest exercises are pushing motions that involve your tricep; work triceps on the same day as chest. Legs are worked on a separate day because of energy and time. Note* Because abdominals are in the front, you might think that they should be worked on the chest day, however it is best when done with the low back exercise to balance out your torso. Some people will devote a separate day just for torso exercises. Beware, too much abdominal work including obliques will make you thick in the middle so don’t overdo. |
