If you can only see your personal trainer once or twice per week, why not supplement your personal training workouts at one of the 24 hour gyms Jetts Fitness or the like. More and more people are working till late and can’t fit in their usual fitness in during usual gym hours. Of course I would alway recommend having a personal trainer as well just to keep you on track and build on your specific goals. Personal trainers also keep you motivated and compliant with your gym routine.
If you are thinking of joining a gym outside of usual hours then you might not have a personal trainer available at your 24 hour gym, so here’s a basic programme to get you on your way if you don’t have one.
Start off with:
1. 10 minute workout on a cross trainer, treadmill or bike with little resistance;
2. Break up your cardio with strength training using the free weight or machines, for bicep curls, tricep extensions, flies. Try to keep your reps low initially to 5-10 but the weight you are using should be very hard at rep 10. Heavier for bicep curls, bit lower for tricep extensions and flies so you might want to start off at 2-3kgs or lower. Stick to 2 sets of each and alternate between the three.
3. Cardio between your strength sets, get back on your cross trainer and pick up the pace, go on for 15-20 mins and use one of the programmes, set it for 15-20 mins, rolling hills, intervals or the like. You can do this on the bike, treadmill or x-trainer.
4. Legs and Bums – leg press, smiths machine for weighted squats, or fitball squats with some 3kg weights are always good as well as lunges. Keep your reps to 10-12 initially, but try to get to 3 sets.
5. Warm down with another cardio machine at a lower resistance for 5-8 mins.
6. Work on your abdominals, use a fitball for usual crunches, oblique crunches, etc, there are lots of abdominal exercises you can do not laying on your back but you’ll need to ask one of the personal trainers at the gym or contact me for more information on that!
7. Stretching programme is a must, basic stretches include, hamstring stretch, quad stretch, glute stretch, hip flexor stretch, lower back stretches, upper body stretches and neck stretches. See my earlier posts for a stretching programme or contact me for more information on this.
Remember that all exercises are not for everyone and you may have specific strengths and weaknesses so take care when doing all exercise to get your technique right.
Gym’s usually do provide an assessment but the 24 hour gyms may not always have a personal trainer on hand. It is worth consulting with a personal trainer to get a programme that’s right for you.
Angie Hazell is an experienced personal trainer specialising in women’s fitness and family fitness, please contact for more information on specific exercises or look through the blogs for more exercise posts. Create Health & Fitness personal trainers perth services the Perth metro area and surrounding suburbs including, Mt Lawley, Mt Hawthorn, North Perth, Subiaco, North Beach, City Beach, Floreat.