Kenneth Gardner

A sound weight training programme should include exercises for all your major muscle groups. If you select your exercises carefully, your muscles will certainly develop in balance with each other and you will establish a firm foundation for future development.

Do not place emphasis on some muscle groups and neglect others as this may result in muscle imbalance injuries. For example, if you perform strength training exercises for the quadriceps and neglect the hamstrings muscles, this will produce relatively strong quadriceps and relatively weak hamstrings. This action will definitely increase the risk for hamstring injuries.

Start your weight training sessions by exercising your larger muscle groups first, followed by your medium and smaller muscle groups. For example, you may begin with your legs, and then work on your torso, arms, abdominals and neck. Exercising using this sequence enables you to train larger muscle groups when you're fresh and leave the smaller muscle groups or simpler exercises for last when you are fatigued. This does not mean that the smaller muscles are less important than the larger muscles, but it is physiologically and psychologically better to perform higher energy exercises before lower energy exercises.

Here is another list of exercises which you can add to your workout:

Standing leg curls

Stand facing the machine and hook your right heel under the roller pad.

Press your right knee against the restraint pad.

Use leg muscles to curl the roller pad up until your leg is fully bent.

Hold this position for a count then return to start and repeat.

Cybex seated chest press

Adjust machine so that you start in a seated position with the exercise handles at chest level.

Grasp exercise handles with your hands wider than shoulder width and your elbows bent.

Exhale as you press forward to a straight arm position.

Inhale as you allow the weight to return to the starting position.

Behind the neck press

Stand facing away from the weight stack with exercise bar in line with your shoulders.

Place your hands on the bar, wider than your shoulders.

Inhale as you press the bar upward until your arms are straight.

Exhale as you lower the bar to the starting position.

Lying barbell triceps extension

Take a narrow over grip in the middle of a moderately weighted barbell.

Lie on your back on a flat exercise bench with feet flat on the floor for balance.

Extend arms directly upwards from shoulders.

Keeping upper arms steady, slowly bend your arms and allow barbell to travel downwards to your forehead.

Reverse movementand repeat.

Standing barbell wristcurl (for forearms)

Place a moderately heavy barbell crossway on a high flat exercise bench.

Back up to the bench and take a shoulder width grip on the bar.

Stand erect with arms hanging straight down with bar resting across the backs of your upper thighs.

Curl the barbell upwards in a small semicircular arc.

Hold position for a moment then return to starting position and repeat.

Standing barbellcalf raises

Place a barbell behind your neck resting on your shoulders.

Balance the bar by holding each side near the collars.

Step onto a thick block of wood with your toes and the balls of your feet in contact with the wood.

Allow your heel to pass below the level of your toes.

Use calf strength to raise up as high as possible on your toes.

Hold position for a moment and then return to starting point.

Damion Christian, fitness instructor at Gymkhana, Hilton Kingston hotel, does bench press with 25lb barbell. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer