20 May Home Gym and Functional Trainer Week: legs and shoulders 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 B (legs and shoulders).
This is the second 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 B, it’s time to work out the legs and shoulders. For legs, perform squats (3 sets of 10) if your knees will allow it. For squats it’s extremely important to use good form. Keep your back straight as possible as you go up and down and think “front legs” to power the weight up and down. A good tip is to pick a point out on the wall at eye level and look at that to keep your head up. When descending, do not go down past parallel.
Then mix in three sets of 10-12 of leg extensions and leg curls, followed by calf raises (3×15).
For shoulder exercises overhead presses, aka military presses, are always a good exercise. Do three sets of 10. For more shoulder work you can do front raises and side raises (3 sets of 10 for each).
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 Friday I’ll add the basics for Program C (back and biceps).

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