j.m.

First of all thanks to all of you who replyed to my How to work out at home thread. In the end i didnt do much with it because I am the sort of person that likes to be using things rather than using walls etc.

Anyway I have been looking at joining a gym but it works out around £370 a year for me to join & i am not paying that sort of money!

I started to look at some multi gyms as i have some room in my garage & ordered one off ebay at the weekend for £60 so I think that is a good price so im happy & even if i doesnt get used loads then it isnt money wasted.

It is a York 2001 Multi Gym With Pec Dec

55 exercises.
12 weight levels.
Works on 8 muscle groups.
Up to 65kg resistance.
Workouts include Bench press / Lat pulldown / Tricep press / Shoulder Press
Detachable bench for easy storage.
Pec Dec attachment




I now need to know what exercises to do on it & which bit of the multi gym works on which muscle.

Also as i am only 15 will i need to limit my use on it?

Please can someone try & give me any ideas on the amount of reps/sets to do please bearing in mind i can go on it every day.

My sister has apersonal trainer over in chile & said to me about doing less reps with a heavier weight to rip your muscle slightly & it will grow back slightly bigger.

Is this safe for me to do at this stage or not?

Any comments welcome.

j.m

Timmy Smooth

I was gonna say that £370p/a is pretty good, that's like a pound a day, but then saw you are 15, and I know money's tight as a teenager. With your new machine, you will be able to target your upper body quite well, but I imagine you will need to find ways to target your legs...perhaps get a cheap set of dumbells and do Single Leg Squats or Lunges.

Just looking at the picture, I think you could do....

Shrugs - Traps; the top of your back and shoulders.
Pec Dec - Pectorals; chest.
Close and Wide Grip Lat Pulldowns - Lats, Biceps, Rhomboids, Rear Delts; your back.
Chest Press - Pecs, Front Delts and Triceps.
Abs Crunches - Sitting on the bench, holding the cable to the top of your head and crunching down.

Timmy Smooth

Standing in front of and taking the chest bar, you could probably do Standing Calf Raises. If you could put a wooden block down and let the backs of your feet overhang, this would be even better.

j.m.

Youve lost me on a couple of those mate.

What are shrugs?

Close and Wide Grip Lat Pulldowns (is this the thing on the left low to the bench?)

Abs Crunches - please explain a bit more

& the one in your 2nd post completely lost me.

Sorry I ask loads but dont have a clue what most of it means lol.

I was thinking of maybe joining the gym aswell just to get the enduction & learn more about them & how to use them properly.

thanks
james

Chest Press (what is this?)

Timmy Smooth

Here's a brief Diagram showing which exercises go where. Did you get a leaflet or anything with your machine showing the qouted 55 exercises?

Attached Images

peec.jpg (117.2 KB, 57 views)

Timmy Smooth

OK....

1) Sorry, by Chest Press I mean Bench Press, I just tend to think of the exercise as Chest Press when performed on apparatus such as a naautilus machine or multi-gym.

2) Shrugs are when you stand, hold a weighted bar/dumbell/lever and 'shrug' your shoulders - imagine trying to touch your ears to your shoulders - the bar/dumbell/lever travels upwards. I could imagine this being performed using the Chest Press levers - get the bench out of the way, stand in front of the levers....and you're away. These work your Traps - imagine the supersized triangular muscles that go from the shoulders toward the neck on a bodybuilder.

3) Close/Wide Grip Pulldowns. You would use the high cable for this, sitting on the bench, facing the multi-gym and pulling the bar in a controlled fashion down towards your chest. Wide Grip is holding the bar slightly wider than, or shoulder width apart. Close Grip is holding the bar in the middle, with your hands close together. This is great for back development, as well as shoulders and biceps.

4) Cable Abs Crunches. Sitting on the bench, facing away from the multi-gym. Hold the high cable bar to the top of your head and pull your body into a crunched position using your abs (stomach), elbows pointed out until they are pointing at the tops of your thighs.

5) Standing Calf Raises. Standing facing the multi-gym, by the Chest Press Levers, grip the levers and stand up on tip-toes, thereby targeting your calves - the muscle on the lower-backs of your legs. I suggested putting the balls of your feet on a block of some kind - this would allow you to go deeper, providing better development of the exercise.

**Sorry if any of this sounded a bit too simplified, but at least it'll make good reference for anyone unsure about multi-gym exercises.

Timmy Smooth

6) Reverse Cable Tricep Extensions. Standing facing the multi-gym, reach up and grap the high cable bar. Grip the bar with your palms facing in. keeping your elbows locked to your sides, draw the bar down until your arms are straight, pinting downwards. This works the top-backs of your arms.

7) Straight Arm Pulldowns. Again, standing in front of the multi-gym, reach up and grap the high cable bar, palms down and hands close together. Keeping your arms straight, pull the bar downwards in a controlled fashion towards the tops of your thighs. This'll work your triceps, shoulders and a bit of your chest.

j.m.

Thanks alot mate that all really helped.

Not sure if it has an instruction book yet as it is coming on friday & havent asked the man.

Just one question... by a crunched position (ab crunches) do you me like a sit up position?

Also can anyone give me any guidance as to how many sets & reps i should be doing?

Thanks Alot

James
:lift:

Nick B

Erm it depends where you are at the moment, if your quite athletic I would train arms one day, chest, then shoulders back and do cardio on the other days.

However, if your not very fit at the moment, maybe you should try training every other day, but doing arms, chest, shoulders and back all together, just so you can get into a good shape so you can make better gains.

If I were you I'd look at 3 sets of 8-10, I'd go with that and see how you feel and how you are gaining.

j.m.

I am quite an athletic person.

I have football training for 1-2 hours per week which consists mainly of fitness training.

At weekends wh have football games which last for around 90 mins & that is mainly non stop running.

When the weather is good i play football out in my village aswell

Finally I have about 1 hour 30 mins of PE lessons in school each week.

So i do alot of running & stretching each week. We have a tredmill at home so a bit of cardion there wont be a problem either.

Do i need to do streches before exercising aswell?

Nick B

You sound like you are in good shape and fit. Before you lift weights its a good idea to warm up by lifting some weights on low loads, if you like stretches I'd recommend moving stretches instead of still stretches.

To start, I think you should find out what your capable of, what you can lift, learn to perform the exercises properly, that should take about a week. Once you've done that try and build a structured routine, where you do arms one day, chest another and shoulders and back another.

However, make sure you have a good diet with plenty of protein so your muscles are sure to grow. I'd reccomend you purchase a tub of protein so you can mix them up after your workout. Yet you need to gauge your diet on how big you want to get. What are your goals for training?

j.m.

My goals for training are to get some quite big biceps, pecs, better abs & make the rest a bit bigger.

I dont want to be huge though.

What sort of foods do you reccomend?

I like most meats but hate all fruit & vegetables that i have tryed. (except potatos, bananas & apples)

I like fish (more white fish like cod & haddock though) which I know has alot of protine in it.

How much would a tub of protine set me back at approxemately?

cheers
james

Nick B

Eat lean meats, turkey, chicken, pork etc, fish is very good, I often eat tuna straight out the tin.
Roughly you should eat 1.5-2 times your weight (lbs) in grams of protein so if you weigh 155lbs eat roughly 250grams of protein a day. You said you hat vegetables, well you don't need any to get big, however they are worth eating as they are packed with vitamins and minerals and give you fibre.
Try to avoid fatty food, chocolate bars, fried foods and also don't eat too much carbohydrates i.e bread, potatoes.
Protein will set you back about £20 per tub and it'll last you about 4 weeks, but it varies from who you buy it from.

You should be able to achieve your aims from your multi-gym, just make sure you don't overtrain and you eat I nice healthy diet to back it up.

j.m.

I take tablets each morning with vitamins & minerals in so i am still getting them.

Thanks for all the other advise.

cheers
james

chrisj22

250grms of protein for a 16 year old is quite high IMO.

At the lads age, and taking into consideration how much cardio etc he does, eating pots and bread won't affect him.

I wouldn't worry too much about a 'diet', just ensure (if your wanting to put on muscle) that you eat quality foods.

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