My current routine is 5 days/wk, 3 days of strength training (Mon-Wed-Fri) and 2 days of cardio (Tue-Thu). Strength training workouts usually take 60 to 80 min, and cardio days about 60 min. On cardio days I usually run one day and workout on an elliptical machine, stair climber, or bike for the other.
When I run I do one of the following:
- Interval run for 50 min, usually varying between a jog pace of 10 min/mile and a run pace of 8:30 to 7:30 min/mile.
- Hill climb for 50 min, usually at a faster jog pace of 9 min/mile.
- Steady run for 50 min, usually at a run pace of 8:30 min/mile.
- Sprints for 30 min. Usually I do 2 x 110 yd (1/16 mile), 2 x 220 yd (1/8 mile), and 2 x 440 yd (1/4 mile) with 2-4 min rest periods in between.
- 5 min warm-up on cardio equipment at moderate intensity (to get heart rate to 130-140)
- abs - I do a circuit of 3 abs exercises twice, focusing on obliques as well as top, mid, and lower abs. Usually includes v-sit ups, raised leg crunches, alternating leg raise & crunch, hanging leg raises, weighted machine crunch (with rope pulley), medicine ball sit up, throw, & catch, medicine ball sit up and twist, side raises, and head/leg side raises.
- lower back - I do a circuit of 2 lower back exercises twice, usually roman chair raises with weight, leg raises on an exercise ball, straight leg dead-lifts, and a plank exercise where you raise and hold opposite arms/legs at the same time.
- legs - back squats, front squats, overhead squats, db lunges, db squats, split db squats, leg extensions. I don't do a lot of back squats and pretty much stopped doing leg press because both exercises bother my lower back.
- chest - bench, incline bench, decline bench, db bench, db incline bench, db decline bench, machine flies, or db flies. I mix the db exercises with bar exercises as much as possible.
- back - wide grip pullups, wide grip pull downs, close grip machine rows, db rows, standing pulley rows, wide grip machine rows.
- shoulders - front military press, db military press, lateral raises, front db raises, front bar raises, cable side/overhead raises.
- legs - another exercise from above.
- chest - another exercise from above.
- back - another exercise from above.
- shoulders - another exercise from above.
- calves - inner, outer, and straight weighted calf raises.
- triceps - skull crushers, push downs, rope push downs, overhead db raises, dips w/weight
- biceps - db curls (varied between standing, sitting, incline, laying forward, etc.), bar curls (inside and outside grips), hammer curls. I usually try and vary my db grip placement and avoid doing preacher's bench, as I did too much of that in my youth and it now bothers my arms a lot.
Regardless of whether I'm doing cardio or strength training, I try and keep it as varied as possible throughout the week (meaning I never do the same exact exercise twice within 1 week). For example, for chest I might do incline bench and machine flies on Mon, regular bench and incline db bench on Wed, and decline bench and db flies on Fri. I also try and make it as much like interval training as possible by minimizing rest periods between sets. When using weights I vary the # of reps, sometimes going for 12-15 reps with lower weight, sometimes doing a pyramid style workout building up from lower weight to only 2-3 reps at the heaviest weight, or something in between. Days when I do pyramid sets for strength training are the longest.
