Home Gym POF Routine

Q: How can we home-gym rats incorporate Positions-of-Flexion mass training into a very basic setup? I only have a barbell, a rack for squats and benching and a dip/chin station; I don’t have dumbbells. Is it possible?

A: It’s difficult to do full POF routines without dumbbells because most finishing contracted-position exercises are single-joint moves, like laterals for delts or bent-arm bent-over laterals for midback. Still, you can improvise some effective near-full-range bodypart programs.

Quads: Squats (midrange), sissy squats (stretch) and old-style hack squats, heels elevated and bar behind your butt, with a quad flex at the top, lockout spot on every rep (contracted)

Hamstrings: Stiff-legged deadlifts (midrange and stretch); for contracted-position work you would need someone to give you resistance on leg curls with a towel around your ankles or rig an elastic band to a stationary post to hook your feet into so you can lie on a bench and do leg curls

Delts: Military presses (midrange), close-grip upright rows (stretch), wide-grip upright rows (contracted); pull all upright rows to the lower chest only so your shoulder joints don’t become impinged

Chest: Decline-bench presses (midrange), wide-grip dips (stretch), low-incline close-grip bench presses (contracted)

Lats: Chins (midrange), pullovers (stretch), undergrip rows (contracted)

Midback: Bent-over rows (midrange and contracted), one-arm T-bar rows—one end of the bar in a corner with the bar between your legs (stretch)

Triceps: Close-grip bench presses (midrange), overhead extensions (stretch), dips or bench dips—use a plate on your lap for extra resistance and flex your triceps at the top (contracted)

Biceps: Curls (midrange), barbell concentration curls or spider curls—that is, preacher curls done on the vertical side of the bench—(contracted); stretch position isn’t possible, as incline dumbbell curls is the exercise; add reverse curls for brachialis work and more unique biceps targeting

You may get more ideas from the POF analysis of the various muscle groups in the e-book 3D Muscle Building. That’s the current POF mass-building manual and includes many complete workouts. It’s available at the X Shop at www.X-Rep.com.

Editor’s note: Steve Holman is the author of many bodybuilding best-sellers and the creator of Positions-of-Flexion muscle training. For information on the POF DVD and Size Surge programs, visit www.Home-Gym.com. Also visit www.X-Rep.com and X-Workouts.com for info on X-Rep, 4X and 3D POF methods and e-books.  IM