Your health and wellness transformation begins today!

Gym Rat

Here is a five-day resistance training split to keep you toned and burning. Always begin your training by knocking out 20 minutes of high intensity interval training on the treadmill. I’ve talked about it before but for those of you who don’t remember, here it is:

Raise the treadmill incline to 15 and walk fast uphill for 2 minutes. Lower the ramp to 1.0 and run fast for 2 minutes than walk at a relaxed pace for 1 minute. Repeat 3 more times for a total of 20 minutes. You can do it.

To achieve the best resistance training results, perform 8-12 repetitions. If you are just learning basic bodybuilding moves and don’t know how some of these exercises, don’t worry! In all of my programs, I show you the exact movements.

Start the week with a chest and abdominal routine. On Monday, perform 5 sets of decline barbell presses followed by 4 sets of incline dumbbell presses. Next do 3 sets of hammer grip flat bench dumbbell presses and 3 sets of flat bench dumbbell flyes. Finish chest exercises with 3 sets of pectoral deck flyes. Time to work those abs…I recommend doing 3 sets of hanging leg raises followed by decline bench crunches and then oblique crunches (side crunches).

On Tuesday, work those quads. Do 5 leg presses followed by 5 Smith machine squats, 3 barbell step-ups and 3 leg extensions.

Happy hump day! Work on delts and hamstrings. Start with 5 standing barbell presses followed by 3 dumbbell lateral raises. Next, do 3 front rope cable raises and 3 reverse pectoral decks. Finish up your routine with 5 Romanian deadlifts using the barbell and then 4 lying down leg curls.

Thursday work on the back and abdominals. Begin with 1 set of 30 assisted or non-assisted pull-ups. Next, do 4 bent over barbell rows followed by 3 seated cable rows. Complete the routine with 3 wide grip pull-downs followed by 3 reverse grip pull-downs. For the abs, do 4 reverse crunches and 3 rope cable crunches.

Look out weekend because here you come! Friday, work on biceps and triceps by doing 5 close grip bench presses followed by 4 barbell head bangers and then 3 cable pressdowns. Next perform 4 barbell bicep curls and 3 seated alternating dumb bell curls. Finally, do 3 standing lower cable curls and 3 cable rope hammer curls.

On Saturday, take a hike or a swim. Do something active and fun like take a spinning class. Sorry readers…spinning is my definition of fun. LOL

Sunday, rest and prepare yourself for the upcoming week. Keep a log with this workout written down and increase your weights as you go. Change your routine each month to keep things fresh. All of the above are very basic but tried and true movements that should be incorporated in your routines forever.