18 May Home Gym and Functional Trainer week: Chest and triceps workout

This week the focus is on Home Gym workout machines and Functional Trainers. Although they have slight differences there are also many similarities. I’ll talk about basic workout tips to help people on both and then offer up my suggestions on how to set up a basic workout program. Today, here are my tips for Workout A (chest and triceps).

This s the first of a three-part workout program that if followed will improve your strength and stamina.
Program A will work out the chest and triceps; on the next day do Program B (legs, shoulders); then Program C (back, biceps), followed by a rest day. Then, repeat the cycle.
If you wish, you can add Program D (an all-cardio) day, then take a rest and start over.

Start all workouts with a good warm-up. Do a real light stretch for a few minutes, then walk, jog or ride a bike for 10-15 minutes to get the blood flowing and some warm-up cardio time. At that point, I do a more thorough stretch because my muscles are warmed up nicely.

For program A, start with flat bench press (3 sets of 10), followed by either incline or decline bench press (3 sets of 10) and flyes (2 sets of 10).
Then its on to triceps. It’s good to use heavier weight for triceps extensions (3 sets of 10), and there are a variety of ways to do these. Standing and working overhead, or sitting or lying on a bench for the same motion.
Then, I use a little less weight for triceps pushdowns or kickbacks (3 sets of 10) to really isolate the triceps.

These are some excellent base exercises to work out the chest and triceps, but you may find others you like to substitute or add in time. You can also change up the number of sets and reps every few weeks, for example doing 3 sets of 5 on the bench press some days to work with more weight.

After all of your basic strength training sessions then do some core work (ie: sit-ups, plank, etc.) and cardio (ie: 15-30 more minutes on the treadmill or elliptical).

Thanks for reading and Wednesday I’ll add the basics for Program B (legs, shoulders).

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com