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.