Hey, peeps. Within the last week I started doing some weight training to burn more fat and I'm looking for a good weekly routine.

A lot of my research has indicated that rest when strength training is extremely important so I'm thinking four days of training with three days of rest in between those training days.

Any advice or pointers or routines that work for you guys?

A little backstory: Started at 337lbs, I am currently at 257. So I lost 80 pounds basically doing lots of cardio and counting calories. I hit a plateau about three weeks ago and was stalled at 264 for two weeks, and so I started with the strength training a week ago and I smashed through the wall and I now love strength training. I'd like to continue to do cardio every day. Good idea? Bad idea?

I'm also a beginner at strength training, but based on things I've read I think it's fine to train almost every day (6 days a week or so) as long as you're focusing on different muscle groups each day. You can alternate between upper-body and lower-body days, or get fancy and have separate days for arms/butt/legs/core. Just make sure that you're not doing butt one day and legs the following day, because you won't give your lower body enough time to recover. Especially when you're starting out, be careful to never overwork muscles that are already sore. So even if it's supposed to be arm day, if your arms are super-sore, pick a different muscle group to exercise.

Recovery is just as important as training. Is there a reason you want all your training days in a row? As long as you don't train the same muscle groups back to back, it's probably fine... but you'd probably be less likely to burn out if you spread your lifting workouts apart.

Val, I think you've misinterpreted what she meant. I think she's saying that she wants to lift 4 days a week and alternate with rest days (which sounds good, OP.)

Lots of people, myself included, love the New Rules books--the New Rules of Lifting for Women or the New Rules of Lifting for Life. Those are books with full 6 month programs and really good explanations of why the programs operate the way they do. I love them.

Beyond that, read around in the Weight Training sub-forum. Lots of people have asked this question before you. You'll find lots of good info.

Thanks for the tips. Also, I'm a dude, lol!