Cardio

5-10 minutes of cardio (running, cycling, rowing machine…)

Cardio is optional, I do it because I want to cut down my body fat and have better overall stamina, if you are skinny and want to build muscle above all you might be better off leaving cardio out.

Flat bench dumbbell chest press 

5 sets of 5 at 60-80% max strength – take 30 second breaks between each set

Decline dumbbell press at 45° 

5 sets of 5 at 60-80% max strength

Incline smith machine press 

4 sets of 8 at 50-70% max strength – You can do this machine exercise with dumbbells or barbells instead but practice your form before upping weights.

Bench press 

5 sets of 5 at 50-80% max strength – lower the weight after each set if you need to, and if you have a training partner get them to spot you on higher weight sets. To get the most out of the exercise, go down slowly, and then exert a lot of force to get it back up.

Machine press 

4 sets of 8 at 40-60% max strength – lower the weight as you go, fully extend and retract your arms with this exercise.

High & low cable chest flys 

4 sets of 15 high flys, and 4 sets of 15 low flys, at 20-40% max strength – your body will get very exhausted from these two exercises even at low weight, take your time with the sets and lower the weight if it is too difficult to finish.

Single arm cable extension 

4 sets of 15 at 35-65% max strength – keep upper arm still

Skull-crushers (barbell or dumbbell) 

5 sets of 5 reps at 40-60% max strength

Dips 

5 sets of 5 – at some gyms there is special equipment to assist with dips and pullups exercises if you aren’t yet able to lift your own bodyweight.  If the exercise is too easy for you, put a weight between your legs or attach it to a training belt.

Cable rope extension (two hands) 

4 sets of 10 at 40-60% of max strength

Finishing Up

After the end of each day’s different exercise routine, I do my full abs workout, and then stretch and/or swim.

Featured image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/fitness-dumbbells-training-594143/ Pixabay License