I've been working out steady since January this year.
Over the past couple of months I've started incorporating more and more weight workouts into my regime where before it was mainly cardio and walking.

I workout at home do to my schedule. I'm usually gone from 6am to 530 - 600 pm.
I have a universal weight bench that has a preacher curl, lat pull down, and seated leg extension attachments. I also have several sets of dumbells that I add the weights to.
And a Bowflex Extreme that I mainly purchased for the wife.

So I have a few questions that I'll be adding to as time goes by.

One question for now is, I don't have a way to do cable cross overs, what or is there a substitution for this ?

Also on my bench it inclines and declines but the decline is at a awkward angle and kills my back.
What is a decent flat bench that will work as a incline, flat bench and decline at a reasonable angle that doesn't cost $400-500?

I hope to get one the Rogue stile cages in the near future so I don't want the bench to cost as much as the steel.

Thanks

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ETA:
Background:


I'm 49, soon to be 50.
I'm fixing to retire from a State job hopefully first of next year.
I've gotten excellent grades from my Doc on my physicals and blood work.
Keeps surprising us both both I think.

I used to work out 4-5 days a week regular.
I would do a lot of cardio, some weight training and run 3 - 4 days a week. ( hated to run but did it anyway )

My weight lifting experience came from having a friend who lifted and who's father-n-law had a gym so
another friend of ours and myself started lifting.
We would do the workouts he suggested which were basic body builder workouts.
He was pretty big so we figured he knew what he was doing.

I ended up getting layed off after and emergency appendectomy and since the gym was located in another town along with my job
I stopped.

I still kept up on the cardio, running and would do what I could with the weights I had at home, which wasn't much.
I used to hike quite a bit with ruck and weight packets I made up similar to the pic's I posted.
I have't run in years and after thinking, I haven't rucked in over a year.
Don't know why I could always carry a ruck sack but sucked at running, but could always carry a heavy load and liked it for some morbid reason.

Circumstances do to a live in girlfriends health soon put a stop to my workouts.
I could of still done some but the emotional roller coaster going through the health issues with her over several years was just to
draining. Sapped my motivation.

A couple of years after she passed away  ( still not motivated ) I got married.
Between my job not keeping me active enough and feeding me way to good and my wife trying to feed me way to good I ballooned.

I downloaded an app called Lose It,someone in GD i think recommended and started using it.
I weighed myself in December and weighed 291 lbs.

I didn't plan on starting this until January this year so I weighed myself again in Jan, I weighed 295.5 lbs. ( gained 4 lbs ! )

I started just walking, then slowly started adding some stretches, and then started adding some calisthenics and finally weights.
I was doing the same Body Builder type workouts that I did before.

I weigh almost every week, and log everything I eat in the Lose It app.
As of 8-15, which was last Friday I'm down to 231 lbs.

Anyway I tried to make it short but it still got a little long winded.

What program are you doing?

If you are just starting out no need for incline or decline.

http://www.amazon.com/XMark-Fitness-Commercial-Adjustable-Dumbbell/dp/B004XCLH6M/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1405559574&sr=8-5&keywords=adjustable+bench





Ive used this... it's about the best there is for <$500...  





Get a large set of bands...  Do "crossover" or flys with them if they're programmed.

What movement would you be doing on the machine?  Something like a DB fly, bent over or seated lat raise?

How useful they might be or how to program the movements may be up to some spirited debate around here.

I'm using some routines from fitness buddy and jet fit app's.
Wanting to drop some weight, increase my strength and bulk.
I've just recently started incorporating the weights, so I'm just going off memory and google app's for how to's.

I used to work out a long time ago so I'm kind of just doing what I remember. Workout routines seem to be more refined now from then but I don't know any of the new workouts or which would be best to do
so I'm improvising best I can.

I'm consider myself new at it again, I used to do the incline and decline back in the day so again it's just what I remember so that's what I'm doing.

The cable cross overs are part of a couple of different built in workouts on the apps and I was just trying to find something comparable to them.

I don't want to spend more then $150 at the most for the bench. I want to get the cage so I can start using heavier weights and start doing some squats.

Never did weights squats except for once, and almost hurt myself so I stopped.

You need to start out with a beginners program like Starting Strength. Google it. Buy the book.

You don't need to do all those extra exercises they will just slow down your progress.

Your workouts should focus on the 4 main lifts, bench press, squats, shoulder press and deadlift. You need to start out light and master your form. If you do this you will become very strong.

Starting Strength should take you though over a years worth of progress.

A cage is cool but not necessary. I would get a cheap bench setup with some safety bars that you can bounce the weight off your chest onto if you get stuck and a place for squats.

I would put my money towards a good bar and some bumper plates for doing squats, dead lift and power cleans. That way you can just bail on squats and don't have to worry about lowering the bar on dead lift and cleans.

This is my setup. Nothing fancy.  And by doing SS I added 65 lbs to my bench, 100 lbs to my squat and 150 lbs to my dead lift.

Got to clean up that workout area and get some mirrors.

As far as crossovers, which like Kaik said are for for advanced lifters, incline/decline dumbbell flys hit the same muscle in a similar fashion.



I'm into bodybuilding, so cable crossovers(low/high/iron crosses) are irreplaceable.  I get a pump from them almost instantaneously, more than even dumbbell presses.



It's funny, powerlifting= flat barbell bench is king.  Bodybuilding= flat barbell bench is the shoulder destroyer to be avoided.  It's all about your goals.

crossedsabres.........Goals are to drop some more weight and basically get back in shape.
I don't intend to be a power lifter so I don't want to look like one.
I do want to increase my strength and shape up my body. Not into body builder body but as good a shape and with as cut as I can get.

KaiK :...... Question, When I used to lift we done the bench, incline, decline, straight bar curls, preacher curls, some cable flies, leg presses, and some dumbbell work.
What I'm doing doing now is basically the same minus deleting some exercises due to lake of the equipment, or in the case of the decline on my bench, not doing doing it do to the awkward
position it puts my back in. I have been doing the Bowflex cable flies instead of crossovers thinking it was close.
My question is why just start doing the bench. squat, shoulder press and dead lift in stead of working the whole body?
Like I mentioned in my forst post, this has evolved a lot since I lifted and even then I wasn't die hard at it, so I'm wanting to know/learn as much as I can from others input.

I do have a lot of questions and more I want to/ have to learn.  

The workouts I'm using are from the Apps, Fitness Buddy and JetFit. Both are built ins and the JetFit is listed under beginners.

Any advice, recommendations or suggestions is appreciated from anyone in the know.

Those 4 movements DO work the whole body. Add in some smart accessory work and conditioning and you'll be gtg.


You won't look like a power lifter unless you eat like one.

Do I do only these exercises or do I progress to others later on ?

You never stop doing those 4 if that's what you mean.

The accessory work is the other movements you do. Could be front squats over head squats dips curls pull-ups cable crossovers if that's you thing...the main point is to treat accessory work as accessory work and not your main lifts which is what you're doing now.

Ok, these are the main exercises, what would be accessory to these and how far into this work out should I add them ?

The cable cross overs were just listed on a couple of the built in exercises on the apps I mentioned earlier, I was just trying to get as close to the exercise for that set as possible is all.
Nothing more to it then that.

Those are the ones that make you strong all over.  So yes you want to do them as you progress. You basically do other movements to either make those lifts stronger or move into body building which is a different game.


Starting out your whole body is so weak all over that you just want to do these main lifts because they pretty much hit everything and will give you the best results. You will also want to work chinups/pullups in, just because.

You can add them right away if you want, or you can wait. It's up to you.
You need to choose accessory work that's in line with your goals and fill in a weakness.

For example, I have weak triceps so for bench accessory I would do dips and narrow grip bench press.

You could do a lot of body weight exercises for accessory work too if you wanted. Push ups, pullups, abs, etc...

For someone just looking to get fit that doesn't care about specifically targeting a muscle like body builders do, I think you could choose a lot better accessory work than cable crossovers.

I use Jefit too. It's easy to program your days. So just program the novice Starting Strength workout in.

Day A
Squats 3 sets 5 reps
Bench 3 sets 5 reps
Deadlift 1 set 5 reps

Day B
Squats 3 sets 5 reps
Shoulder press 3 sets 5 reps
Power cleans 5 sets 3 reps

You can add chinups or pullups to one day or both days if you want. Or any other accessory work but those main lifts will strengthen you the most.

Make sure you warm up to your lift weights.

You look at the 3 sets 5 rep thing and think oh that's not much lifting at all. And at first it's not. But it starts getting heavy and you have to rest longer between sets. Soon you won't even be thinking about doing accessory work because you will be so smoked from the main lifts.

Like RoG and Kaik said, starting out and for quite a while, focus on getting strong.  You'll be amazed at the rate of your newbie gains.



Once you build a base of strength, then you can choose to go which direction you want.  Then you can worry about what's more important, muscle size or big lift totals.  Because there is quite a bit of difference between a bodybuilding routine or a powerlifter routine, but that's down the road.  



Focus on your big lifts and then see where you want to be.







 

Damn, Those bumpers are pricey.

Any recommendations on where to get them, sizes, set's ect. ?

Bumper plates?  

Best deal going.
http://www.muscledriverusa.com/Sale-Items_c_730.html

you don't "need" bumper plates
you don't need bumper plates at all unless you are doing Olympic lifts (meaning, getting coached on how to do them correctly at least initially)

From your posts, you just want to start doing the basics
Iron plates are fine fine fine and a lot cheaper

I was going to try the exercises that KaiK suggested and others +1 on.
Day A
Squats 3 sets 5 reps
Bench 3 sets 5 reps
Deadlift 1 set 5 reps

Day B
Squats 3 sets 5 reps
Shoulder press 3 sets 5 reps
Power cleans 5 sets 3 reps

The Power Cleans look a little intimidating after watching a couple of YouTube vid's, but I guess just going slow and starting with lite weight until I get the form down will be ok.

I LOVE olympic lifting.

I would not recommend someone do them without some coaching though...it just won't be worthwhile IMO. Oly lifting is not something you can learn to do even 75% correctly by watching videos...

Yeah, I just picked up a set of 55# bumpers.

Yeah, no you don't need them. But they are great for doing squats by yourself without a cage. I also love them for deadlift so I can drop the bar on the ground on heavy reps.

Cleans are the hardest to learn out of all the SS lifts. It would be great if you had someone there to show you how to do them. But it's not 100% necessary. Just start out with the bar and watch lots of videos. Then take a video of yourself doing them and post it here.  Mastering the deadlift gets you half way to doing a power clean. So make sure your form is good on them.

join a retro Gym 19.99 mo they have every thing...

Bumpers are just more versatile.  Yes, they're more expensive than iron, but for someone investing in equipment for long term use, they are a better buy.

It's also the cost of other equipment.  With bumpers I have a platform and two squat stands that I can move around.  I have more room and can do more movements than a guy with a squat rack and only iron plates.

that's what i thought, and you certainly don't need bumper plates to do any of those above.  Iron plates are cheap (buy used, always on craigslist)

Funny you should mention that.
I was in Ft Worth for a few days, just got back Yesterday.
I took extra cash because I was planing on doing just that.

I contacted several people with ad's for weights, bars and some fixed weight dumbbells.
One returned my text saying his items had sold.
Never heard from the rest.

Some of those ad's had over a 1000 lbs worth of weights, .50-.65 cents a lbs.

I'm looking at getting a 300 lbs set from Academy tomorrow or Tuesday.

I have some standard weights but doing some of the exercises mentioned I want a better bar and will need more weights anyway.

Better bar is a must. The bumpers are just icing.


This is the one I have. It's not top of the line but it's a great bar for the money. It's bigger than a standard bar.

http://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-beater-bar

I just noticed the link at the top of the fitness section.
I was scanning through and I noticed the recommended exercises.

Question is, would the Pendlay Rows work as substitution for the Power Cleans until I can get
some kind of in person guidance on doing them?
I'm a little intimidated in that I do no want to hurt my back.

http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:The_Program#Three_Flavors_of_Starting_Strength
There is a lot of info in the Wiki article.



FYI Muscle Driver is having a kick ass sale on bumpers.

http://www.muscledriverusa.com/Pendlay-Econ-V2-Bumper-Plates_c_311.html

Well, I bought a set of Olympic weights from academy Tuesday.
300lb set that came with a bar.
I will definitely be upgrading the bar soon.

Meet a guy this evening to see about buying a hex dumbbell set.
Supposed to be right under 300lbs worth with most being sets if two.

Think I found the cage I'll be ordering probably next month.
I'll post it up to get some opinions when I get ready to order.

I think I better get a little instruction before I start on the sets that were recommended.
Some are a little technical looking to me and I don't want to end up hurting myself and lose all my gains.
Hell, I've even been doing my benches wrong after looking at YouTube a lil last night.
No wonder my left shoulder has been hurting me.

Guess I have forgot a lot or most of this stuff through the years.

If anyone knows anyone in San Angelo Tx that does the personal trainer thing please pm me.

May may need to rename this thread to help the newb out with dumb questions.


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Nice!

Ask away, someone here will be able to help.

Weight the bar if you get a chance.

This, I bet it is way off.

The few that I've checked were 37-38#.

Not a bad bar to start with, but will certainly require an upgrade in the next 6-12 months IMO.

What diffence does that make. He is working out at home with the same bar everytime so it does not matter if it weighs 30# or 50#.

So you don't disillusion yourself and have an accurate measure of the weight you're using.........

EDIT:  But who was spelling?

The only thing that matters is that you get stronger from week to week and month to month.  So if he goes from benching the bar and 2-45# plate to benching the bar and 4-45# plates. The only thing that matters is he increased his bench by 90#s.  Whether that is from 130# to 220# or from 140# to 230#. Now if he was going to be competing that would be a different story you would want to be using a competition bar.

If you are worried about disillusioning yourself then you should probably weigh every plate then because they can be off 2-3# each if you don't use competition plates.

Yes, I was very pissed off when I found out my bar weighed 36#s instead of 45.

I use competition plates.

You got stronger so did the weight of the bar actually matter.  Would have gotten stronger faster if the bar weighed 45#

No, but my fitness tracking program wouldn't have 6 months of wrong numbers in it. Some people like to see where they came from and the progress they made and when. Now I don't have an accurate log of that.

It also matters when you go lift somewhere else and put weight on the bar and don't understand why you are having problems lifting it.

Once again the only thing that matter is how much stronger you got. Your log still acurately shows how much weight increase or the last 6 months.

Also if you go lift some where else unless they use competition bars and compition plates the weight one the bar will be different then at your house.

When i worked at LA Fitness one late night when we were bored we weighed a bunch of weights and DBs none of them were what they are marked. So every time someone came in unless they used exactly the same weigts on the same bar it was off.

People worry too much about little shit that doesnt really matter unless you compete.

It may not matter to you but it matters to me. That's why I buy competition plates and a good bar.

Damn, it's a nice to know for some people. If my bar is like 8# off I want to know it.

Not a big deal.

I have the MD Econ bumpers. They're are GREAT! You just missed a good sale 25% with free shipping. They'll run another I'm sure. Either way I have zero complaints about them.

Also their barbells are great. Very, very smooth.