I'm finally at the weight I think I should be after my intense weight-loss diet (went down from 160 to 133) and am thinking of ramping up my workouts to increase strength and muscle. While losing weight I was doing some martial arts, first, and then mostly Tabata cycling or some sprints and the occasional strength work, but not really intense strength workouts.

I have read here about the positives of the 5X5 program and think that would be the way to go. I also read alternatives involving sandbags, rocks and sleds, but those are not really feasible as I am space constrained.

I have free access to the gym in the apartment complex where I live. I can't really afford a gym membership right now so I would like to make the most of what I have.

Being the typical small gym it has only limited equipment:

- A few cycles, ellipticals and treadmills.
- A couple of benches with assorted dumbbells (upto 80 lbs or so if I remember correctly). The benches can be adjusted for angle from flat to virtually upright.
- A few machines for isolated exercises such as: biceps, triceps, row machine, leg press and some other one.

The 5x5 routine I found for beginners is:

Workout A: squat, bench press, inverted row (3XF), pushups (3XF), reverse crunch (3x12)
Workout B: squat, overhead press, deadlift (1x5), pull-ups (3XF), prone bridges (3 x 30 secs).

http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-training-program/

Issues I have:

- Don't have equipment for pull-ups. I could probably get some materials and make my own at home or just buy a bar, but even then it would not be at the gym. What exercise could I replace pull ups with?

- For bench presses I would be using dumbbells and most times I would not have a spotter as there is rarely anyone at this gym. Is there an effective way to manage this? The few times I did bench presses I felt like I could not push hard on the last couple of reps or use more weight because I lacked the rack and spotter. The floor is rubber, so I could just drop the dumbbells, but I'm concerned about wrist strain if dropping them. Any advice on how to bench press with dumbbells and no spotter? Or should I replace the exercise?

- Inverted row: I think I could set a bench in a way that I would be grabbing the handles of one of the machines to do this exercise. I'll check it out.

Additionally, feel free to chime in if you think I should follow a different routine or try something else.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks a lot for your help! karma added.

I have a couple of follow up questions:

- when you talk about concentric speed for bench presses, do you mean the speed when "pushing up"? That's what would make sense to me: fast up and slow down.

- when moving from one exercise to the next, should I rest only about 60 secs as I would in between reps for each exercise or should I slow down some more and then start the new exercise?

By the way, those Janda situps look nasty!

Thanks again.

Grerat advice above.

If you are new to strength training...

Tendon and ligament strength takes a litte time to develop so I would start at a weight that isn't maxing you at 5 reps for a month or so (like a weight you could get 7 reps with but do 5)... then start working your way up.