Free weights day one

I have been turned on to the wonderful world of free weights.  Lifting free weights is better than circuit training on machines in so many ways:  you get a whole body workout rather than targeting specific muscles.  You get miniature workouts while you rack and unrack weights from your barbells and dumbbells.  And so far, you don't get stuck in a rut like you do with machine weights (or maybe free weights are just new).

I had been ambling around focusing on "pushing" weights one day and "pulling" weights on another, but I think I have settled in on a routine for day 1 (the push day):

I'll say this day concentrates on chest and lower body muscles.


3 sets bench press 8 reps @ 135 lbs
3 sets dumbbell flys 12 reps @ 25 lbs (per arm)
3 sets vertical row 8-10 reps @ 70 lbs
3 sets overhead dumbbell press 8-10 reps @ 30 lbs (per arm)
3 sets incline press 10 reps @ 70 lbs
3 sets squats 10 reps @ 110 lbs
2 sets leg press 15 reps @ 270 lbs
2 sets calf raises 15 reps @ 140 lbs
2 sets leg curls 10 reps @ 50 lbs (per leg)
2 sets leg extensions 10 reps @ 45-50 lbs (per leg)
2 sets hip abductors 15 reps @ 110 lbs
2 sets hip adductors 15 reps @ 140 lbs

Run. You'll laugh at those first few hundred feet when your lower half doesn't know what your upper half is telling it to do. I also learned about the power rack which is tremendous because now I'm not worried about killing myself by dropping a heavy barbell on my own head.  Having confidence is a real performance booster.  Instead, I was getting one or two half-assed sets of bench/incline presses in per day because I was too embarrassed to ask someone to spot, and the power rack is safer anyway.