Can someone help me design a routine given these constraints? (small apartment gym)

Question

I don't have a car and the nearest gym is quite a distance away and costs 80 dollar each month. I'd prefer to use the apartment gym (which is a 30 second walk away and 'free') if possible!

Here's what it has:

• Treadmills
• Stairmaster
• 2 benches (but no barbells)
• Dumbbells up to 50 pounds
• Ab wheel
• A life fitness dual adjustable cable machine (basically a chinup bar, dip bar, and 2 cables with adjustable weight)

Also, it's often completely empty so I can do circuit stuff pretty easily.

Here's some of the exercises that are recommended on the cable machine (but I'm not really sure which of these are actually worth incorporating)

Currently what I'm doing is a mix of the following (workout full-body 3 days per week):

• Weighted chinups/pullups/dips
• Bulgarian split squats
• Stairmaster for HIIT
• Cable lat pull down
• Cable crossover
• Cable bicep curls
• Pushups
• Hollow body crunches/ab wheel

One problem I'm having is that I'd like to be able to add weight to certain exercises, but I'm not sure how. Like, it's easy to stick a dumbbell between my legs for chinups and dips, but how would I do that for pushups? I guess I just have to buy a vest for that?

Also, I worry about scaling exercises. Once I get past 50 pound dumbbells in each hand for exercises like the overhead press and split squat, then what?

Lastly, I'm not sure what I'm neglecting. Are there any exercises you all think I should really add or take away for a more comprehensive workout?

Answer 1

Your program looks good. You might want to add some of the following:

• Diamond pushups are a more difficult pushup variation that you might not even need extra weight for. Single arm pushups are an even more difficult variation.
• Single leg squats (with optional weight added by holding a dumbbell in front of you or using a weight vest).
• Single leg deadlifts.
• 50 pound dumbbells are more than enough for front raises, lateral raises, and reverse flys (some pretty good exercises for front, middle, and rear deltoids).
• Face pulls for the rear delts.
• Dumbbell rows using a bench. If you are strong enough to do weighted pullups, you could probably easily do these with the 50 lb dumbbells. You could use the fullest range of motion (pull your elbow as far behind your back as possible) and hold at the top for a second or so to make it more difficult.