Starting next week I will be transitioning into an upper/lower body split routine.

Upper

Two presses, two rows and a few extra sets for the arms and the shoulders.

Lower

The focus is on the quads, glutes, hamstrings and the lower back with a few sets for the calfs and abs thrown in.

This is essentially “Lyle’s Generic Bulk”. It is an intermediate routine that hits every body part twice per week (similar to a 2x/week full body routine but with a considerably higher volume). When it comes to exercise selection, I am not including anything new this time. These are the exercises I feel the most comfortable with and the once I feel that I can progress with safely and with good form.

The chins are supposed to be my “high rep row” (ideally every body part is hit with both high and low reps in this routine) but I need to gain more strength in my lats before that is possible. Until I can comfortably do 10 chins I will simply do as many as I can. My PR so far is 6 chins in one set but depending on my weight fluctuations my daily performance in this exercise varies quite a bit.

I’m not sure how this will work out with “real life” getting in the way of things but I’ll start out with the schedule outlined below. Alternatively I might try the less optimal Mon/Tue+Thu/Fri setup.

Since I’ll be doubling the number of strength training sessions I obviously need to reduce the amount of time devoted to cardio and endurance. I’ve already reduced the amount of cardio from five to three sessions per week in the past year and I will now drop another hour of cardio.

If my previous cycle was all about barbell exercises, then you could say the theme this time around is a focus on dumbbell exercises. I know from experience that it is a lot harder to make linear progress with dumbbells but I think I need to change things up a bit to make progress in my “problem areas”, namely my chest and shoulders. For this reason I am actually cutting back on the pressing and including some isolation exercises which target the pecs and lateral deltoids directly. Since I am still working with a full body workout twice per week I will alternate the two presses and the two isolation exercises which target these muscles. That way I will be hitting everything twice per week with roughly the same volume I have used previously. But with less focus on the triceps.

Workout A

3x Chinup (BW to Failure)
3x Squat (5-10)
3x DB Bent Over Row (5-10)
3x DB Bench (5-10)
3x DB Lat.Raise (10-15)
2x RDL (3-7)
2x Superset: Triceps Dips (BW to failure) + Barbell Curls (10-15)
2x Superset: Back Extension (10-15) + Bosu Ball Crunch (10-15)

Workout B

3x Chinup/Pullup (BW to Failure)
3x Split Squat (5-10)
3x Barbell Bent Over Row (5-10)
3x Seated DB Press (5-10)
3x DB Fly (10-15)
2x Deadlift (3-7)
2x Superset: Triceps Dips (BW to failure) + Barbell Curls (10-15)
2x Superset: Back Extension (10-15) + Bosu Ball Crunch (10-15)

Even though I have two different workouts, this isn’t a body part split routine. It’s a 2x/week full body routine which I will start out as alternating A/B every week and move towards alternating it A/B one week and B/A next week. I do this because I know that I will need to vary the intensity over the week (weekly periodization) after about 2-3 weeks in order to progress another 2-3 weeks into the cycle before I need to deload. Two workouts per week has worked out pretty well for me so far so I’m sticking to that for now. 3×1h cardio per week and a 300 kcal daily surplus should be a good starting point.

I’m putting chinups first in my program because I find it to be the most rewarding and thus most fun exercise and by placing it first I should be able to put more focus on it. I can currently perform five chinups and my plan is to work myself up to 15 chinups and then alternate it with pullups, which put more emphasis on the lats and less on the biceps. Once I can do 15 pullups it will be time to add weight to the exercise.

My “other row” is the Bent Over Row and I will alternate between the dumbbell and barbell version just to figure out which one I like the most.

For some reason I have not been able to improve my Split Squat and Lunge performance in Body Pump and Cross Training class even though my back squat has improved, so I will be alternating the squat with the split squat in order to address this weakness.

I learned from my last cycle that putting deadlifts directly after squats was not such a good idea, so I’m placing the deadlifts further down in the workout. I’ll be alternating clean style deadlifts with the Romanian deadlifts for some variety.

Another thing I learned was that while arm strength has stayed roughly the same, endurance has decreased as a result of not doing much direct arm work. So I’m including a few sets for that purpose. I may have to increase the number of sets at a later stage, but lets see where this leads me. I could just as simply add an extra arm workout before/after a spinning class if the weekly volume isn’t high enough.

I use the supersets simply to save time, I don’t like spending more than 1.5h at the gym each session.

Bosu Ball

I see many people using Swiss Balls for various different crunches, and it seems like a good way to add a few extra inches to the range of motion for the exercise. What I don’t really care for is the whole “instability” aspect, so I’m thinking that a Bosu Ball should work out better for this purpose. I tried this out a few days ago and while it was a bit difficult to find that “sweet spot” on the ball, once I did get it right, I felt the crunch very nicely in the target muscle. I didn’t try it with a weight, as I think I may have to find a way to lock my feet down if I am to attempt that.

Another six week period of Strength Training comes to a close. In total I have been Strength Training regularly for six months now.

As I mentioned before, I’ve never been able to perform even a single chinup or pullup and three months back I noted that the assisted pullup machine was not the right tool for bringing up my chinup/pullup strength as I had a very difficult time achieving any kind of progress with it.

So I switched to underhand pulldowns on a single pulley and have been progressing steadily on those for the past twelve weeks. I started with only managing 8×32kg and yesterday I pulled 8×68kg on my final set.

However, since machines and pulleys don’t translate very easily to body weight or free weight exercises, it is not possible to predict the functional strength transfer from one seemingly similar exercise to the next. So in order to put this into a meaningful context I tried doing some body weight chinups yesterday.

And guess what? I did it! I performed a body weight chinup. In fact, I did three of them. :) (with a body weight of 72.5kg)

Plugging the values above into the Brzycki formula (a formula for predicting your one rep maximum) tells me that my 1RM for the pulldown is 84kg. My body weight is roughly 86% of the predicted 1RM, which according to Brzycki means I should be able to pull that weight 3-5 times, which indeed is pretty much what I did with the chinup. So the functional strength transfer from the Underhand Pulldown (on this particular single pulley) to the body weight chinup seems to be close to a one-to-one match. For me, anyway.

With the exception of the Bench Press I have made good progress with all of my primary exercises. Before this six week period my heaviest squat was 40kg (in Power Step class). Yesterday I did 8×85kg. I feel stronger even on the endurance side of the equation. And this simply because the 30-35kg I take on during the squat track for Body Pump class is now a typical warm-up weight for me.

My heaviest Romanian Deadlift was similarly 40kg in Power Step class and in six weeks I’ve managed to build up to 9×85kg in the weight room. If it wasn’t for grip strength becoming a limiting factor for the deadlift, I might have been able to push it up another 10-15kg.

Paradoxically, even though I have decreased the number of exercises, the amount of time it takes to finish the workout has increased. This is partly due to the fact that with barbell exercises you need to run around and hunt for plates and collars and after you are done you need to carry them back to the racks. But mostly it is because I feel that I need more rest in between sets now than I did before.

Since my workouts now take longer to complete I have very seldom had any time nor strength left in me for any auxiliary exercises. I’ve done two sets of curls in the past six weeks. Given the chance to get some extra sets in I have often opted for the Weighted Back Extension and the Weighted Crunch, both excellent exercises, although a bit cumbersome to perform when holding heavier plates.

But it’s not just the recovery time between sets which has increased. I often find myself so fatigued from the first session of the week that I regress on the following workout. I can’t push for a new PR for every exercise every single workout as I did before. This marks my transition from the beginner to the intermediate level, when strength gains are no longer linear. This means I may have to progress into a training program with some kind of weekly periodization.

I just finished reading Practical Programming for Strength Training by Rippetoe & Kilgore (2006) and about half way thru the book it struck me that this book had pretty much summed up every meaningful piece of knowledge I had managed to distill from the abyss known as the Internet in the past six months.

Half of the literature and articles you find on the net are full of re-iterated training myths and macho bullshit boosted to absurd proportions by the authors bloated egos. Much of the other half of the literature is devoted to articles promoting expensive and useless supplements. On top of this, very few of these so called “training gurus” of the Internet have any resemblance of teaching or writing skills and often look at isolated training issues and fail to see the bigger picture which only confuses the readers more than it helps.

So it is very refreshing to find a book which manages to be the complete opposite of this. The structure of Practical Programming for Strength Training is excellent, and the argumentation and conclusions are sound and logical. The book is truly a training “text-book” as it teaches you not only the methods for programming your training but also the underlying principles and physiology which is important for understanding the “why” for the recommendations given in the book. However it is in it’s application where the book truly shines, the book doesn’t give you a specific training template and doesn’t teach you any of the exercises it discusses but instead teaches you how to program your training to fit your own fitness level. Most trainees could use the methods discussed in this book to drive progress in the weight room for several years.

So if you are the least bit interested in strength training this is the book to read.

I wish my gym had a proper squat rack, and not just a “stand” as it can be quite shaky to squat heavy the day after a Body Pump class. My hip flexors got really tight after Wednesdays Body Pump class, restricting my range of motion so much that I could barely hit parallel on my squats the day after.

One thing I didn’t think about when I planned for Romanian Deadlifts was that I have to perform a clean style deadlift off the ground to get started, which isn’t exactly optimal. It seems the stand doesn’t go low enough for a rack pull.
But I’m not 100% sure about that, I will have to try it once to be sure.

It’s funny how I never saw anyone using the stand for anything before, but now that I started utilizing it myself, during my first four sessions I’ve seen one guy using it for squats and three guys using it for curls. But that is during “rush hour” so it seems most of the time I get the bar all for myself which is a big plus.

Speaking of curls, most of the time I feel that my biceps are worked pretty hard by the pulldowns and the rows alone, which leads me to think I may not need so much direct arm work. Instead, I’m leaning more and more towards using that time for more rowing. My back seems to have a lot of growth potential so it makes sense to put more focus on it.

I was planning on using the smaller fixed weight barbells for the Military Press and the Upright Row, but after two weeks I’ve already worked my way to the end of the rack. And that’s even though I’ve been working in the 8-12 rep range for these two exercises. So I figure I will have to move on to using the Olympic bar for those exercises as well. Which means I’ll be using the bar and the stand for four exercises in a row which in a sense would be quite practical, but it might piss a few people off when I monopolize the bar for half an hour…

I find that it is quite difficult to adjust to a 5RM rep scheme as it’s difficult to gauge whether I can take on a heavier weight on a workout following a PR. So what I’ve been doing is that I build up to 10 reps before moving on to a heavier weight, and this works out better for me on deadlifts and squats. So in a sense I’m now working in the 5-10RM range which is not very far from the 8-12RM range I have been working in previously.

I just hate it when I forget to pack my spinning shoes and am forced to use my running shoes for spinning class. When I bought my spinning shoes I wasn’t convinced at first whether they made much of a difference, but now whenever I go back to the old sneakers I feel it is very obvious how much of a difference it really makes. It’s not just the fact that you can better utilize the pulling motion, it’s also the stability that a pair of spinning shoes provide which really make the difference. With a pair of soft and flimsy running shoes I constantly fear that I’m going to trip on the pedals. Especially when I’m standing up on the bike and all of my body weight is resting on the balls of my feet.

I’m starting to think that my running shoes aren’t really good for anything in the gym. They are too soft for safe and stable squatting and they are too heavy and clumsy for group training. Ironically, they are probably not very good for outdoor running either as they’ve lost their bounce a long time ago.

So I probably need new gym trainers. The ideal solution would be some kind of compromise, a shoe which is flat and relatively stable and solid for weight lifting and have enough chock absorption to survive a step class.

According to Lyle McDonald one of the primary goals of beginning strength/weight training is to “determine optimal exercise selection for targeting individual muscle groups”. And that can only be achieved with hands-on experience.

With that said I think that when it comes to machine and cable exercises I have come a long way in finding out which exercises work out well for me. However, when it comes to barbell exercises, my experience is rather limited. While I have been benching, deadifting and squatting for the past couple of years in Body Pump and Power Step class, it is not quite comparable to when you are working with heavier weights. For one thing, the Body Pump bars don’t even allow for a wide enough grip to properly target the pecs. So my summer project will be to relearn these exercises with the “big boys” equipment.

So for the next six week cycle I’ll be doing a full body workout twice per week with a focus on the heavy compound barbell exercises. Also, I’m reducing the number of exercises so as to keep the volume down a bit. However, to add some flexibility and familiarity I’m including quite a few extra auxiliary exercises which I will include in my workout whenever I feel that I have the extra time or when I feel after completing my main exercises that I still have plenty of strength left in me for a few more sets. Deadlifts and Squats put a lot of pressure on the core and the central nervous system so it may turn out that I won’t need any Crunches or Back Extensions, but as I will eventually progress into some form of split routine I feel that I should at least include them so that I can try them out a few times in advance as they make more sense in a split routine. In fact, the twelve exercises which I have included in this cycle may go completely unchanged into the next cycle in some form of upper/lower body split.

I’ll be aiming for 3 sets of 5 on my main exercises and 2×8-12 on my auxiliary exercises.

1. Barbell Squat	2. Romanian Deadlift
3. Bench Press	4. Cable Underhand Pulldown
5. Barbell Military Press	6. Barbell Upright Row

Pictures from the exercise database at ExRx.net.

Some of you may notice that the exercise selection above is quite similar to Mark Rippetoes Starting Strength Program with the exception that I’ve replaced the Bent Over Row with two vertical rowing motions, the Pulldown and the Upright Row. A more optimal selection would include some form of horizontal row as well, but I feel that my back might not be able to handle it. So I choose the Upright Row as my secondary Rowing exercise as I like to give my Lateral Delts a bit more work.

What worries me is that Sats Jakobsberg doesn’t have a proper Squat Rack. Putting on too heavy and not getting out of the “hole” is not something I want to experience. The same applies for the Bench Press as well, there are no safety racks/bars in the Bench racks at my gym. So for this reason I’m placing these two exercises early in the routine so that at least I’m not fatigued when I do them. When it comes to the dangers associated with Deadlifting, I’m not too worried as I feel that I’m quite good at keeping my back straight so as long as I get the bar of the ground I shouldn’t be hurting myself with that exercise. Another unknown is whether or not I’ll be able to handle both Squats and Deadlifts in the same workout, but as Rip would say:

“Those who argue against squatting and deadlifting on the same day may just be pussies.” Mark Rippetoe

Auxiliary Exercises

The following are my auxiliary exercises. A little extra for the arms, legs and core.

Cable Pushdown	Cable Curl
Weighted Calf Raise	Lever Lying Leg Curl
Weighted Back Extension	Weighted Crunch

Pictures from the exercise database at ExRx.net.

Another six week period has passed and so it is time to summarize what I have learned in the weight room.

I have steadily been increasing the volume of my workouts during the past couple of months from 1-2 sets per exercise to 3 sets per exercise and I even stepped up to two full body workouts per week. The increase in volume has been taxing and I feel that it is soon time to take a short break and a de-load to restart the progress but seeing how I’m still making beginner gains I will keep going with my current routine and volume for a couple more weeks until I stall on the majority of my current exercises.

Since I had a mix of both new and old exercises in my third routine, it doesn’t make sense to talk about gains in “total weights lifted” anymore as some of them started off scratch and some from a level close to my previous best. Also, as the weights go up the reps start to vary from one workout to the next so that also makes it harder to talk about progress in these terms. So starting with my next routine I will be logging reps/sets as well as weights lifted. I will also get started on free weights based exercises, which are easier to benchmark against.

That said, I did increase the weights (for 8RM) for the new exercises by a bit more than 60% in six weeks, which is in line with previous gains on new exercises. As percentages work in mysterious ways this obviously doesn’t mean much, but I’m happy with the progress I’ve done with the Underhand Pulldown at the very least. I can really feel that exercise in my lats so it stays for another round. The Lying Leg Curl is also a lot better at targeting the hamstrings than the seated version, so it too qualifies for a second round. I’m not a big fan of the Calf Press machine as it has some of the same issues as the Seated Leg Curl machine. If I choose to target the calfs in the future I think some kind of Calf Raise exercise might be a better option.

What I can say with certainty is that I have been steadily increasing my weights and hitting new personal bests every week with the majority of my lifts. Both the Chest and Shoulder Presses have progressed very nicely but are now coming to a stall. The Seated Row however has been progressing slower which is a bit of a disappointment. Deadlifts or Back Extensions may be a better choice for me for targeting the lower back.

As I’ve been progressing with smaller increments (5-10 pounds instead of 15-20 pounds per week) I have been able to maintain form with all of my exercises, which was one of the primary goals of this cycle.

I also note that it feels like I’ve outgrown the Core class so I probably need to change my strategy, drop the Core class and include some heavy lifting work if I want my abs to grow past this point. And before anyone says anything, I’m fully aware that a six pack is a result of more things than a large Rectus Abdominis, it also involves getting your total body fat down, something which is better accomplished by dieting than by trying to “spot reduce”. Which is not what I am trying to do. But I digress. When it comes down to core endurance and balance Core Pulse class is sufficient I believe.

While the weights have been going up the reading on the scale has not been going anywhere. But this is no mystery. It’s as simple as Calories in = Calories out. Even though I try to eat 7-8 meals per day I somehow end up screwing up one or two days of the week so that the average calories over the whole week ends up at roughly maintenance levels.

I also realize that I do too much cardio, which is why I have stepped up to 2 strength training sessions and gone down to 3 group training sessions per week. Eventually, I may have to progress to a 3:2 split of strength:cardio.

However, for the first time in my life I can actually see a faint definition of upper abs and I think I can see a slight increase in size and definition in my “beach muscles”. If the weights go up in the weight room, at some point the muscles have to grow larger as well. I realize I won’t be able to make “lean gains” forever, but progress against the odds is what being a beginning weight lifter is all about so I’m quite happy with these results.

For my third Strength Training routine I am sticking to what I know works from my previous routines and I am adding an exercise for the calves.

1. Lever Chest Press	2. Cable Seated Row
3. Lever Shoulder Press	4. Cable Underhand Pulldown
5. Cable Pushdown	6. Cable Curl
7. Lever Seated Leg Press	8. Lever Lying Leg Curl
9. Lever Seated Calf Press

Pictures from the exercise database at ExRx.net.

The Assisted Pullup was the one exercise where I struggled the most to improve so I am replacing it with the pulldown for now to give my ego a little break.

Increasing my weights on the cable pulleys became a lot easier when I discovered the add-on 2.3 kg (5 lb) blocks you can attach to the pulleys for a smaller increment. For this reason I am going to give the Cable Curl and Pushdown another chance.

The Leg Press, which I mistakenly labeled as a squat last time, stays for now. I want to eventually move on to squats but I want to make sure my technique is in order before I go down that road. The Leg Press is still a great exercise.

As I increased the weights on the Leg Curl it became very difficult for me to keep my butt from lifting off the seat so I am going to try the Lying Leg Curl next to see if that works out better for me.

The Seated Calf Press machine at Sats Jakobsberg is slightly different than what is illustrated in the image, but the motion is essentially the same.

I continue as before with a mix of Group Training classes, four times per week, but I’ll switch them around a bit to maybe help alleviate some of the problems I experienced with lower-back fatigue. My priority is to avoid having a Body Pump or Power Step class the day after my Strength Training session.

It’s time again to summarize my experiences from another six week period of Strength Training.

I managed to increase the total amount of weights for my eight exercises by 52% in the past six weeks. So I am definitely getting stronger. What remains a mystery is whether or not I am gaining lean mass. I’ve been stuck on pretty much the same body weight for the past six months so if I have gained any muscle mass I must have lost fat as well in the process. I am a bit skeptical though as I still don’t see much of a difference in the mirror. It’s likely that the changes in my muscles are still very much on the neurological side.

I havn’t been very strict with my diet, or rather, I haven’t really thought about my diet at all for a long time. However, I suspect I need to eat more, lots more, if I am to gain weight. So what I am doing now is that I am counting my calories to see where I land. In about a weeks time I should have some solid data to work with.

Another, maybe even more likely, issue is the amount of cardio I do. The thing is, cutting down on cardio and increasing the time spent in the weight room to maybe twice per week is a compromise I would like to avoid as much as possible.

I have been doing my strength sessions in combination with a 30 minute Sats Core class and this has worked out quite well. Not only has my core strength increased during the past six weeks, but having a class after the weight training is a very good way to limit the time spent in the weight room as well. In one hour I manage around 20-25 sets (which includes warm-up sets and a 10-15 minute warm-up on an ellipse-machine). I could probably squeeze out a few more sets if it wasn’t for the fact that the gym is always very crowded and I am thus always forced to spend a few minutes standing in queue.

But even with this amount of efficiency I note that I am now spending 10% more time on training than I did before (5.5 hours per week compared to 5 hours per week previously). While a ten percent increase may sound insignificant, in terms of what effect it has on fatigue and over-training over-reaching is something that worries me. I know from experience that when I have gone up to six hours per week I have suffered symptoms of over-training over-reaching. Obviously I am talking about six hours of intervals based training at near maximum intensity, so whether or not the half-hour long Core session has much of an impact or not remains to be seen. In fact, the Strength Training session itself might have a larger impact than the added amount of time spent in the gym.

Overall my second Strength Training routine has been an interesting learning experience. I note that dumbbells, besides having mass, are also quite bulky and cumbersome to handle which means that handling them requires the utilization of more stabilizer muscles. This is a fancy way of saying that dumbbells are harder to use than cables and machines. Which, in a nerdy kind of way, is pretty cool. I knew this in theory already of course, but actually feeling it, gives this piece of knowledge a whole other dimension.

I also note that when I work out my lower back with the Cable Seated Row one day and do squats the next day (in Body Pump class for instance) my back just can’t handle the load even though the squat is mainly for targeting the glutes and quadriceps. This means that it may be wiser for me to opt for a Core Pulse or Spinning class the day after I have worked my lower back as compared to Body Pump or Power Step. Core Pulse still has quite a lot of squatting, but I can handle the body weight squat a lot easier. It is interesting and paradoxical how this doesn’t seem to have nearly the same effect on the dead-lifts, which in fact target the Erector Spinae (lower back) directly. That said, I’m very happy with how well the full range version of the Cable Seated Row has strengthened my back during the past six weeks.

Finally I realize that I too can fall into the “macho mentality” in the gym and put on too much weights, too soon, and completely loose track of what is “good form”. So for the next six week period I will start out by cutting off 10% on my current weights and work on my form a bit before I start increasing again. And when I do I will do it in smaller increments as well. Intuitively I think it doesn’t really matter how much or little you increase the weights in order to stimulate the muscles to grow stronger. What is important is that you keep increasing the resistances over time.

Speaking of “good form”. I feel confident with the motions one does with the lever-based machines and to some extent also with some of the cable-based exercises. However I think it may be wise for me to get the help of an experienced instructor before I start doing proper bar-bell squats and dead-lifts. While I have been doing these exercises in Body Pump class for nearly two years now, there is some variation in how these exercises are performed and instructed by different instructors and “good form” in Body Pump terms may not be defined as tightly as it may be for lifting very heavy weights. So I feel that there is some amount of uncertainty here in regards to how well I perform these motions. For this reason I am not going to include any more free-weights based exercises in my coming exercise routines until I have made sure I know I am doing these properly.

My second ever strength training routine works out the chest, back, lats, delts, biceps, triceps, quads and hamstrings. I will proceed with this set of exercises once per week for the next six to eight weeks. The lack of exercises for the core muscles is compensated by the fact that I finish the strength session with a Core class. Obviously I continue to attend Group Training classes four times per week, which means that I get various degrees of cardio and strength/endurance training in between each strength session. I think this is a good mix for me.

1. Lever Seated Fly	2. Cable Seated Row
3. Assisted Pullup	4. Cable Upright Row
5. Lever Triceps Dip	6. Dumbbell Curl
7. Lever Seated Leg Press	8. Lever Seated Leg Curl

Pictures from the exercise database at ExRx.net.

The images are self-explanatory, but I figure I should make a few comments on why I have chosen some of these exercises.

Note that my chest exercise is actually the Seated Fly and not the Lying Fly as depicted above simply because that is how the Fly-machine at Sats Jakobsberg works and the gif-animation above was the closest match I could find.

My previous back exercise was the Straight Back Seated Row and I am now expanding this into the full range version of the Seated Row. I believe it is wise to opt for exercises with a wider range of motion than more isolated once.

The Assisted Pullup machine quickly became my favorite in Kista because you can work your chest, your triceps and your lats all on the same machine just by varying your grip. Also, I find that there is something inherently masculine about being able to pull your own body weight into a pullup or chin-up. This has stuck with me ever since my days in the army as sort of a benchmark on raw physical fitness (besides Cooper’s test). The Assisted Pullup machine is great because it allows me to gradually work myself up to the point when I will be able to do the unassisted version of the exercise. Something I was unable to do in the army ten years ago, but which I feel much closer to achieving today. The problem I have here is that the machine they have at Sats Jakobsberg is different from the one at my previous gym. The one at Sats is of a type where you stand on your knees, which means more tension is put on the core muscles to keep your back straight compared to the machine at Kista where you stand on your feet.

I’m not sure if I will be able to do the Assisted Triceps Dip on the Pullup/Dip machine they have at Sats since I don’t know if it is possible to adjust the grip width. With a wider grip the Triceps Dip essentially becomes the Chest Dip instead, which is really not what I want. I don’t think they have a dedicated dip-machine either so I may be forced to use one, of, the, many body weight alternatives. I would rather not though, since it’s obviously harder to keep track of weight gains when only using your body weight.

EDIT [2010-03-01] I now know that the dip-handles are not adjustable so that means I won’t be able to do the triceps dip with the Assisted Dip/Pullup machine. However, it seems they do have a Dedicated Dip-machine so I’m going with that instead.

The biggest addition is of course the two exercises for the legs. The Squat is really a no-brainer exercise. The Leg Curl is there to balance things out on the push/pull side of things. I suppose an exercise for the calves would round this out even more, but I figure I get plenty of exercise for my calves from Power Step and Core Pulse class as it is and eight exercises is almost too many exercises for one session anyway.