I’ve been at the gym over five months now! Man time has flown and over the months I’ve worked out what things I enjoy doing and the best ways to do them. It’s been a bit of a learning curve, but I feel like I’ve finally settled into a workout routine that I love. I try to go to the gym four times per week (although I’ve only been managing two/three times a week lately – eek!), and I try to do 2 x upper body, 2 x legs with a bit of abs and cardio thrown in too. I used to have specific ab days, but recently I’ve been having issues with my neck, so I’ve had to be very careful about which ab exercises I do (no more sit ups!), so I haven’t included this in the routine.
I thought today I would share my current workout with you, starting with what I do on upper body days, and in the next post I’ll share my leg workout.
Of course sometimes this does change depending on how energetic I feel, but for the most part this is my upper body routine. As you can see I do a lot of supersets and I have very minimal rest time between sets (only about 30 seconds) – this keeps my heart rate high throughout my workout.
UPPER BODY ROUTINE
SUPER SET ONE
- 10 x 3 sets of shoulder presses with dumbbells (4-5kg)
- 10 x 3 sets bicep curls with dumbbells (4-5kg)
SUPER SET TWO
- 10 x 3 sets of behind the head tricep extension with dumbbells (4kg)
- 10 x 3 sets of kneeling bent over rows with dumbbells (bent over with one leg on the bench) (8kg)
- 10 x 3 sets of bench dips to work triceps (bodyweight exercise)
NOT SUPERSETTED – ALL EXERCISES DONE INDIVIDUALLY WITH A 30 SECOND REST IN BETWEEN SETS AND ONE MINUTE IN BETWEEN DIFFERENT EXERCISES
- 10 x 3 sets of chest presses on the machine (14kg)
- 12 x 2 sets of lat pull downs – two sets done in front, two sets done behind the head (19kg)
- 12 x 3 sets of cable rows (19kg)
SUPER SET THREE
- 8 x 3 push ups
- 10 x 3 weighted plate tricep extensions (see here)
Finish off with lots of stretching. I like to ideally get 10 minutes of this in at the end of my workout.
Sometimes I also like to try and get in a bit of cardio – just maybe a 20 minute power walk on the treadmill, or a treadmill walk on an incline. I hate running on the treadmill, so I choose to do a power walk or uphill walk instead.
What’s your current workout routine and what upper body exercises do you love to do? Let me know in the comments below!