Squeezing Out Time to Get to the Gym Again

[TLN Phil]

Oak,

Glad to hear that you made the decision to get back to the gym. After
all the years of knowing you and your workout commitment, I knew that
you'd find your way back sooner than later!

With understanding of your crazy schedule and only slivers of free
time to spare for exercise, there's no doubt in my mind that you can
get quality workouts with only 2-3 sessions per week. Heck, 1 time
per week is better than what you were doing for a while--which was
zilch!

To accommodate your desire to split a sixty minute workout between
cardiovascular exercise and weight training, I recommend starting with
the cardio first. Gradually working up to moderate intensity pace on
a treadmill, stationary bike or elliptical trainer will properly warm
up joints, muscles and increase blood circulation.

I favor the elliptical trainer and treadmill over a stationary bike
because they involve the entire body. To keep things fresh, you can
rotate between the different cardio machines, or at very least, try
different programs on them to continuously challenge pace, caloric
burn, heart rate, etc.

Before hitting the weights, take a few minutes post-cardio to cool
down, hydrate and do some light stretching.

To meet your goal of completing a full-body workout in the remaining
time, mix and match exercises between dumbbells and machines. The
latter may be the quickest way to blow through and hit each muscle
group, but taking this route will get stale and boring really fast.
Machines also do not equal the benefits of properly performed dumbbell
exercises (trust me on this for now, I can elaborate in another
discussion).

Run through your muscle groups in this order:

Legs (No skipping this one if you know what's best for you!)
Back
Chest
Biceps
Triceps
Deltoids
Abs

Perform 1 set of 20 repetitions for each muscle group with a goal to
increase the weight by 2.5 to 10 pounds each week for four weeks.
Then change up the routine to keep it fresh and the body challenged
with new movements. If you complete a full body workout more than
once a week, use two different routines. For example, if you
performed machine leg presses the first day, do dumbbell squats the
next time. Always use strict form with a medium tempo and a 1 minute
or so break between sets.

If you get into a more regular groove and find yourself back at the
gym 3 days a week, I recommend separating out muscle groups, hitting
them once per week. You can check out 3 day routine samples on my
Weight Training Journal page here:

http://groups.google.com/group/tlnutrition/web/tln-weight-training-journal

Good luck and remember that healthy eating is a huge factor in making
all of your efforts at the gym worthwhile!

TLN Phil