acidfast7

Hi!

I'm 36/M, 6'2"/188cm and 175-180#/78-80kg.

I spent roughly 6 months of continuous traveling/moving this year and am finally set-up in my new place for the next few years (northeast England). I now have access to a reasonable bike and haven't missed a day of commuting since it arrived

I also have access to a new 5 million £ gym with all kinds of free weights and showers, etc...

Anyways, I've got back some of my fitness by being able to cook (not easy while traveling) and by being able to cycle (however only it is only 20km RT).

Becoming a 40yo is creeping up on me and I'd like to add some really basic weight training to my morning commuting routine.

I'd like to do something after cycling in and before showering and it should be shorter than 20mins (that's all that will fit into the schedule).

I was hoping for upper body only to start (shoulders/arms/chest/traps/etc...) and I'd just jump on a machines rather than competing with the students that jam up the free weights in the morning.

Could someone recommend a quick brief programme that I could use in the morning (starting from January 2014) as it would be easiest to start after returning from Xmas holiday, which I assume will be filled with excellent Bavarian beer and Schwäbisch-Hungarian fusion food.

I will have the MTB and XC skis for some exercise over the holiday

edit: grammar

HardyWeinberg

alternate lat pulls, pushups
(assisted) chinups
cable machine for triceps, rotator cuff
5-10# dumbbells for abduction (arms down by your side out to make you a T-shape w/ the arms parallel to the floor), and whatever it is when you move your arms from down by your side to out in front of you parallel to the floor
low row cable weight thingy (not the aerobic rowing machine thingy)

GeoKrpan

I got a lot of upper body and abdominal fitness by riding a fixie. I live in a hilly/mountainous area and have to stand half the time or more.

acidfast7

I'm riding single-speed now (44/16) and I feel like I'm getting a much better workout than with my geared bikes. However, I only have one large hill right at the beginning (a 12% grade) which I do need to mash/stand. Maybe I should find a slightly longer loop with a few more hills.

e0richt

workout requires 1 to 2 sets per exercise

machines:
chest incline press / chest fly
lat pulldown / lat row (should alternate from one workout to another)
lat raise (for shoulders and don't need a front raise because the chest incline press works that group)
arm curls (for biceps)

order exercises from bigger to smaller muscles (like I have it set out)
start off with 1 set for 15 reps if you can make 15 then next time add some weight
at some point you will not want to add weight, so start adding another set

why no abdominal exercises? they will build the muscle and make you look heavier... but if you feel the need...

fietsbob

Lift more Furniture , maybe a 2nd job at a furniture shop selling couches and Fridges..

At 66 I have to accept im old.

ThermionicScott 

Free weight squats would do a lot for your core, legs, and back -- consider at least doing those in addition to your other stuff. When I work out, I prefer the larger compound movements for functional strength and efficacy over isolation exercises like curls.

If the gym has rowing machines (and they ought to if they spent 5 million squiggly things), I love those because they work darned near everything in your body and you can shift the emphasis as you go.

GeoKrpan

Yes, and if you do that for the same time that you would spend in the gym you wouldn't need the gym. Besides, riding is a whole lot more fun.

treadtread

Pardon my ignorance, but how does riding fixed gear exercise muscle groups different from a singlespeed/geared bicycle? I mean, apart from the mashing - and even that shouldn't affect upper body muscles, right?

GeoKrpan

No, you have to use your abdomen and upper body to stabilize the bike while standing. You can get the same workout regardless of the bike, fixie, SS, geared, if you stand. And, what I mean by standing is riding the whole hill standing in a biggish gear, 70+ gear inches. The op rides in the low 70s GI.
Riding SS/FG removes the possibility of cheating yourself and you probably couldn't get up many hills seated anyway.

Leisesturm

You wish. The publisher of every Men's & Fitness magazine in America and several other places is going to put a contract hit out on you if they see this. The promotion of abdominal exercise in men's magazines is a 2 billion dollar a year industry. Six-pack, washboard, ripped, whatever you call them, gnarly abs will get you raises, promotions, super-models, whatever your heart desires. You just spit on all that. Dude, you are so toasted. My advice, change your ISP. Better, leave the country. Hell, for all I know they got you already. All my good advice is for nothing. Oh well, I didn't say it. I'm in the clear. 6'2/180? Sheesh, I'm 5'10" and weigh ~185. "Heavier" isn't the worst thing the o.p. could look. IMO, of course. I dunno... just seems like a waste of time to go to a gym and only hit it for 20 min. I mean, unless the joint is downstairs in your condo-complex it probably takes longer than 20 minutes to get there. I like the free-weight squat idea. Twohundredsitups.com has free-weight routines designed to target every muscle group in your body. I would work those programs for six months to a year before I decided on a machine program. Even then I would just get a set of dumbells. Those selectorized systems are pretty cool. If you decide to buy a weight-stack multi-position trainer, check Craigslist first! FWIW.

H

jyl

To keep it simple, do bodyweight - pushups, planks, and pull-ups. Pushups for chest, triceps, shoulders, elevate feet to make it harder. Planks for core, includes front and side and back. Pullups for biceps, back, shoulders, forearms, grip.

You don't really need to do these in a gym. In my basement I have a set of gymnastic rings hanging on straps from the overhead joist, with the rings near the floor. Doing pushups with those is extra hard because your arms and shoulders have to stabilize as well as push, and if you do a plank while positioning your hands out in front of you, your core will scream. Another set of rings is hanging at waist level, those are for reverse pull-ups and more core exercises. Finally, a pull-up bar bolted above the door. Total cost is about $100, and I can walk downstairs and do some push-ups or pull-ups whenever I want. Then again, there are no hot coeds in my basement. So maybe you should go to the gym after all.

Spld cyclist

+1 on compound movements. If you only have 20 minutes, don't do exercises that isolate just one muscle group.

Bench presses hit chest, shoulders and triceps. Pull-ups hit back muscles and biceps. I would do 3 sets bench presses, 3 sets shoulder presses, and 3 sets of pullups if you want to get everything in one session. Do it 3 days per week. Or split them up into alternating days and think about adding in some squats and deadlifts.

wolfchild

I recommend a 3 times per week ( every other day) full body workout. Don't try to follow all these complicated bodybuilding routines... keep your workout simple. Do some research on strength and conditioning, there are many different workouts. Free weights are better then machines, bodyweight excercises are also better then machines. Stay with basic compound excercises such as, squats, deadlifts, military press, bent-over rows, push-ups and pull-ups, these excercises have been proven to build strength. Low reps ( 3-5) are best for building strength. For building mass 6-10 reps is good.

Darth Lefty 

I really enjoyed weightlifting before I had to stop. I think there are plenty of plans out there, the important things are...

do it like you mean it. Work an exercise until it makes you stop.
don't work a muscle again til the ache has stopped
don't get discouraged after the first-time ache
keep track of what you do and try to beat it next time.

bmontgomery87

If I were only doing upper body training I'd probably go with a push/pull split.
Each day go in, do the first exercise with 1 or 2 light sets as a warmup (you'll kind of be warmed up from the ride, but it's not good to just jump into heavy weight)

example

Monday- Push Bench Press, Overhead Press, Triceps pushdowns or dips if you can do them. (Obviously the machiens will very, but find whatever machine that closely mimics these movements.)
Tuesday- Pull Lat Pulldowns, seated rows, DB rows, curls (optional). Eventually try to incorporate some pullups if you're able to do them.

Wednesday- OFF DAY let yourself rest

Thursday & Friday repeat the days, but maybe switch up the machines a bit, and throw in a few core exercises on one of the days.

A simple 3 sets of 8-12 works fine. You should be able to get a few more reps, but the last rep should be challenging. Once the weight becomes easy, add 5-10 pounds the next week.
You're going to hurt the first few weeks, and it may make your commute a bit uncomfortable, stick with it, your body adapts

kookaburra1701

+1 - if you do no other lifting exercise, do squats. They get EVERYTHING, especially squats to push-press. If you can do two exercises, add deadlifts.

rumrunn6

20 mins? find some stuff you like and try 3 sets of 5, meaning go around your stuff and lift, push, pull, whatever, 5 times then switch. do like 10 things, then do then a 2nd time, then a 3rd time. that should take 20 minutes. reps over 5 are wasted, use a heavy enough weight so that 5 is all you can do at a time. many ppl forget shoulders have 3 parts front side & back. elevated press is better than a flat bench press cuz it also works the serratus anterior, often overlooked. if the incline bench is busy put your feet up on a bench and do inclined pushups. don't go crazy on the curls, biceps come with everything else. look for a dip station, also often overlooked. start with just a few and not too deep, don't blow out your shoulder. after a while you'll get the feel for how low you can go and how many you can do. like I said in 20 mins try to do 3 sets of 5. lat pull downs can be tricky don't go crazy to start and don't start with your arms fully extended. grab the bar and sit down bringing the bar with you, and never behind the neck, don't know why, just what I read. shoulder stuff to the side can be hard at first, so just use a little weight. do 3 sets of 5 and see if you can hold the weight up for 10 seconds each rep. you want to get winded and sweat. if you're breathing hard and sweating by the end you're not working hard enough.

g0tr00t

Mon - Spin 50 minutes, abs
Tuesday - Back, biceps and abs; bike to work.
Wed - Spin 50 min, abs
Thursday - Chest, tri's and abs; bike to work
Friday - Spin 50 min., abs

Somewhere in there, I do shoulders, traps and forearms too. I also created my routine using Vic's workout routine.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNwgXivmou8MFoWNNi5Imbw

Darth Lefty 

20 minutes a day is not a lot of time for weightlifting, which can be time-consuming. 3 sets of 10 exercises in 20 minutes implies 40 seconds per set including doing the exercise, setting up the next machine or swapping your dumbbells or whatever, and taking notes. And he hasn't said anything about changing, if needed. So that sounds kind of ambitious to me. Personally I'd figure 2 minutes a set which means there is time for 10 sets, so probably 3 exercises x 3 sets.

acidfast7

Yeah. Sorry, busy week.

I was thinking I'll ride in and just use the equipment in my cycling clothes. Then shower, change and to the office.

I was considering maybe 3 exercises with 3 sets and change it up every day. I just want to build a little base like with bike commuting. Just general fitness and not really building of mass, just enough to build a little upper body strength.

I'd like to dedicate more time to it, but I think it's important to get it built into the daily routine then to expand on it rather than going from nothing to 1 or 1.5h per day. It's also important to see how my body will respond, especially with the teaching duties starting (in February ... 12h of lecture in 6 2h segments and 9 hours of lab in 3 3h segments).

bmontgomery87

agreed.

if i could only do two things, I'd probably just squat and deadlift. That hits just about everything, with a lot of emphasis on the posterior chain.

rumrunn6

doesn't take me 40 seconds to do 5 reps of anything, even 10 pushups only takes 20 seconds. I see a ton of guys spending all nite at the gym, they spend most their time sitting and I don't know what they are waiting for they aren't doing anything. they aren't even breathing hard or sweating. I'm in and out and I'm maxed. maybe they have time to kill, I don't. but I was referring to 20minutes of weight training not including anything else like changing twice & showering, etc.

I only suggested this routine cuz that's what I have time for at lunch, at night I'll do 5 sets, not 3. even then I'm outta there in under an hour. sometimes I'll run the treadmil for 20mins then do the 20 min of weight training

bthemonarch

Go get some bootleg cds or download P90x off the internet. Then get a pullup bar and some resistance bands. After your first round of p90x you can break off your own routines as you should be pretty good with calisthenics which help a lot (i've found) with cycling.