Background:
36 year old male, currently weighing 90 kgs, size 36 waist, I go to gym 5 days per week for 45 mins in the morning as it's the only time I can motivate myself to go due to how my work commute and energy levels work out in a day. I've been steadily increasing my gym frequency since the end of 2014 (2 times a week) until now (5 times).
My aim is general fitness, strength and building an appropriate upper body - I don't need to have a super hero physique, but defined arms and chest would be good.
My weekly routine is as follows:
- Monday - Cardio (5km run, treadmill at 1% gradient)
- Tuesday - Strength (details below)
- Wednesday - Cardio (5km run, as above)
- Thursday - Cardio (5km run, as above)
- Friday - Strength (details below)
- Saturday - Rest
- Sunday - Rest
My Strength Workout is as follows (in this order):
NB: 1 rep = 2s extension, 2s retraction (I read this is the correct way to work with weights), all named exercises are using Life Fitness Optima Series machines of the equivalent name/exercise.
- 10 mins on Concept2 rowing machine at max tension (10) for warmup
- Chest press 49kg - 10 reps
- Triceps Extension 49kg - 10 reps
- Bicep curl 35kg - 10 reps
- Seated Row 49 kg - 10 reps
- Lat pulldown 49 kg - 10 reps
- Pectoral fly 42 kg - 10 reps
- Rear deltoid 42 kg - 10 reps
- Abdominal 49 kg - 10 reps
- Finish with 12-13 mins walking at 4% incline
My questions:
- I recently moved from doing "Strength" once per week to twice per week (2 weeks ago) - when I was doing once per week I could easily do 49 kg across all machines. Am I doing something wrong or is my current inability to maintain that weight level due to needing further development or more rest?
- The gym instructor who did my gym orientation session said I should stay on circuit machines for a while until I feel ready to invest in a few personal training sessions with the gym weights trainer - considering that 49 kgs is almost the maximum weight on a few of these machines, how do you decide that moving to full-on weights training is appropriate?
- Is there a better and more strength related exercise that I could do instead of the 12-13 mins walking? By the time I reach this point, I am usually quite tired and would not be able to do another circuit at that weight level - is it worth doing the circuit again at a lower weight?