The Total Gym is an exercise machine that you can adjust to perform over 120 exercises with it. You adjust the machine by changing the height of the bench from a flat position down to a decline or up levels at an incline. Total Gym exercises cover every major muscle group of the body including the legs, arms, chest, back, shoulders and core. For the purpose of body building, you should do low number of reps per exercise at an intensity that fatigues your muscles on the last rep. Three to five sets of six to 10 reps will build large muscles.
Chest and Back
The Total Gym has many options to work the pecs, lats and rhomboid muscles of the chest and middle and upper back. Some examples of back exercises include several variations of the lat row, lat fly, lat pull-down, reverse grip lat pull-down, a pull-up and a surfer lat pull.
The Total Gym can be used for a variety of chest exercises, too, such as the chest press and chest fly. There are variations of these as well. You can do a crossover chest fly, a decline and incline chest fly and a decline and incline chest press. Other exercises include the arm pullover and decline push-up.
The kneeling single-arm chest fly is a challenging exercise that allows you to train one side at a time. You should begin on a low level. Kneel sideways on the bench with your right shoulder facing the top of the machine. Grab the handle of one cable with your right arm. Extend your right arm at chest height to your right side. Turn your palm so that it is facing forward and your arm is bent slightly. Push your arm forward and across your body. This will make the bench slide upward. Return to the start position. Do an equal number of reps on each side.
Arms and Shoulders
Just as there are many chest and back exercises you can do on the Total Gym, there are also many exercises for your biceps, triceps and shoulders. Triceps exercises for the back of your upper arm include triceps kickbacks, lateral triceps extensions, overhead triceps press, triceps dip and a triceps press-down.
To do kneeling kickbacks for increasing the size of the triceps muscles, kneel on the bench facing the top of the Total Gym. Lean forward 45 degrees with your torso. Bring your elbows to your sides and bend your arms at 90-degree angles. Hold a handle in each hand and extend your arms straight behind you without allowing your elbows to come away from your sides. Bend your arms back to 90 degrees to finish the kickback.
Bicep exercises include incline bicep curls, kneeling bicep curls, forearm curls, preacher curls, supine concentration curls and supine bicep curls.
Shoulder exercises work the deltoid muscles. Cross-body shoulder raises, external and internal shoulder rotation, military presses, shoulder shrugs and front deltoid raises target the deltoid muscles. Other exercises like the reverse fly and upright row work the deltoids along with the chest and back.
Legs
Leg exercises include leg presses, calf raises, cardio pulls, hamstring curls, leg extensions, hip abduction and adduction, incline and decline lunges, skiing and several different types of squats.
Perform a regular squat by lying face up on the Total Gym with your head facing the top of the machine. Position your feet hip-width apart, with your feet pointing straight forward, parallel to each other. This will target the muscles of your quads and glutes. Bend your knees as the bench lowers toward the floor. Straighten your legs again to finish the squat.
There is also a toe-in and toe-out squat. These are performed the same way as the squat, except that with toes-in you turn your toes in so your feet are no longer parallel. This targets different muscles in the calves and thighs. Toe-out squats work the same way; simply turn your toes out.
Core exercises that work your abs and oblique muscles include incline sit-ups, cable abdominal crunches, cross-body pull-over crunches, lying knee raises, seated torso twists, jack knifes and trunk side bends.
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