this was my first day doing free weights other than bicep curls and the like in YEARS. and even when I did free weights it was always a minor part of my workout compared to the amount of machine weights.

Bench Press 10 reps @ 20 lbs
incline bench press 12 reps @ 15 lbs
supine flyes 20 reps @ 5 lbs {each arm}
leg extensions 24 reps @ 25 lbs
leg curls 8 reps @ 25 lbs
calf raises 20 reps
standing tricep extensions 20 reps @ 5 lbs
single arm lying tricep extensions 24 reps @ 5 lbs
barbell curls 7 reps @ 15 lbs
preacher bench curls {hand weights} 20 reps @ 5 lbs each arm
reverse wrist curls 10 reps @ 5 lbs
side twists w/ empty bar 20 reps {10 each side}
single arm dumbell rows 12 reps each arm @ 5 lbs
incline dumbell rows 2 sets 10 reps @ 5 lbs

47 views and no replies?

I walked to my polling place and voted.

mkat, what is your question? Are you only doing 1 set each?

I'm not sure if you've set up a routine and what you want to do. Are you planning to work out every other day? Are you interested in doing full body workouts every day?

Well, I'm no expert, but it looks to me as though you need an actual program. Are you only doing 1 set of everything? And so many exercises! My inclination (and wiser heads might have better suggestions) would be for you to start with a 3x10 scheme, always going as heavy as possible while still completing 3 sets of each exercise. Also, if you intend to do full body workouts, you might be better off doing 4 or 6 compound exercises rather than so many little isolation exercises. Compounds are things like squats, deadlifts, bench/military presses, pushups/pullups, rows, etc--exercises that work large groups of muscles at once rather than single muscles in isolation. I don't see the advantage of doing 1 set of a dozen different exercises when you could do 3 sets of 4 or 6 exercises.

Perhaps one of the others will add their opinions.

Everyone else jumped in while I was posting! Nelie is right, we need more info about your goals and plans. That said, that workout looks very inefficient to me.

We don't know exactly what you want to accomplish from your routine or what equipment you have available to you. If you provide that information, we can probably give you better feedback.

A couple of quick points:

1. The reps are incredibly high. I'm not sure what your goals are but I am 99.9% sure there is a better rep/set scheme to accomplish them than these hyper-rep sets.

2. Your workout is all over the place. Large muscle to small muscle, back to large muscle....

3. You will need to pick a split that fits you goals and likes. Here, you have a full-body workout, but you have so many small-muscle exercises that really do not belong in a full-body workout. You cannot get that fine with a full-body workout. If you want to do full-body, then eliminate things such as wrist curls and stick to major, compound movements. Go heavy with 4-5 compound exercises. Throw in an ab movement and perhaps a favorite isolation exercise and repeat on three non-consecutive days. On the other hand, if you really want to try to do an exercise for every body part imaginable and really must do those wrist curls, then you really need to go to a body part split.

Can you provide us with some information:

1. On a scale of 1-10, what importance to you place on the following in regards to your workouts:
a: Fat loss
b: Muscle gain
c: Muscle endurance
d: strength

2. What equipment do you have available to you?

3. What exercises do you know how to do?

4. Do you have any physical limitations/injuries that would affect any suggestions/advise that we would offer?

If you are trying to grow muscle strength (and no, I'm not talking about getting bulky) you need to do low reps of high weights. 12 reps max on any weight near exhaustion is going to do alot more to grow your muscles. What you're working on is stamina or efficiency, but you're not building/increasing strength. Pick up a good book on strength training by Human Kinetics (and not a hollywood type trainer) that will give you the science behind this, and it will make sense. Your high reps take a lot of time and result in, well, a long workout! I suggested a good title in the chat thread, you might want to see if your library has it.

Sorry my post wasn't so clear. Now that I've gotten some solid sleep I can somewhat function again I'll try to clarify.

1. On a scale of 1-10, what importance to you place on the following in regards to your workouts:
a: Fat loss 10
b: Muscle gain 10
c: Muscle endurance 10
d: strength 10

seriously, I'm tired of being fat and weak. it sickens me considering I used to practically toss entire fence panels like they were frisbees and work expert bull riders on practice barrels without breaking a sweat.

2. What equipment do you have available to you? two benches, 1 with leg station and curl bar stand, one without, both with incline option, 1 25 lb weight disk {on leg station currently}, 2 5 lb 'walkfit' hand weights, 2 hand weight handles with 4 7.5 and 4 2.5 disks for those, 1 curl bar with hand pads. Picking up a friends old press bar and 40 lbs of steel weights for same and a new ball on Friday. also have the little 3.5 [?] hand weights that came with the Firm dvd set

3. What exercises do you know how to do? without instructions, I'm pretty limited. The majority of the moves I listed/did were from the Tosca Reno workout book. Without that I'm pretty much limited to flyes, leg extensions & raises, seated & incline rows, calf raises, sit ups {which I can't do, sadly. See above about being weak} crunches, push ups {military and girl style} squats, lunges and some minor stretching activities.

4. Do you have any physical limitations/injuries that would affect any suggestions/advise that we would offer? limitations: fat, low energy. injuries: none but I do have a couple joints that get sore when the weather changes {elbow, knee and ankle}

Some of your goals are not compatible- for example, sheer strength and muscle endurance are two very different goals. As a beginner, you can accomplish a lot, but a bodybuilder (muscle growth) cannot be an endurance athlete (muscle endurance).

My suggestion is to read, read, read. Big, multi-joint exercises will give the the most bang for your workout buck for almost all your goals.

Mel

As Mel said, all four of the goals are not compatible. I should have been more clear when I asked you to rank them in importance. However, since we do know that all of them are very important to you and of equal importance, then that still gives us something to base our suggestions on.

Luckily as someone who is returning to resistance exercise after a very long absence, you will benefit from "newbie gains" and you will be in a period where it is possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. You seem to be doing great and moving towards your goals nutritionwise, so let that (and whatever cardio you are doing) account for the fat loss and lets make building muscle the focus of our resistance workouts.

Starting with the equipment you have available and what you know how to do, I would recommend something along the lines of a 3 day (nonconsecutive days) full body routine:

1. Military pushups (3 sets of 8-10). Elevate feet for added resistance if needed.

2. Seated Rows (3 sets of 8-10)

3. Shoulder presses (3 sets of 8-10)

4. Standing tricep extensions (3 sets of 8-10)

5. Squats (3 sets of 8-10)

6. Lunges (3 sets of 8-10)

7. Crunches (3 sets of 8-10) (use a weight plate or 2 if these are too easy)

Find a weight that allows you to do at least 8 reps on every set but no more than 10 on the final set. If you can do 10 reps on all three sets, then you will increase weight for the next workout.

I would also suggest trying to learn one new movement per week. You can use a broomstick or very light weight while you learn the form. I would recommend something like a stiff-legged deadlift:

http://www.global-fitness.com/exerci...ercise012.html

Also, your available equipment limits you a bit. For example, it is hard with the available equipment to do a true vertical pulling movement. I would suggest expanding your available options with a set of resistance bands and perhaps a stability ball.

Hi mkat,

I am in no way an expert, but what I did was I bought a book & tried to follow that, and when it went stale I got another book.
I started with Pam Peekes first book, and since then I have done stuff from the body for life bookes and Peekes other books. Right now I do New rules of weight lifting.

The way I see it, as a novice, you do not have to invent the weel, and after you have done some of the lifting books you have more ideas to eek out a personaluise program of your own.

Good luck !

Rabbit

question, how would I do the seated rows without a cable pulley? I am assuming I could do them the same as incline rows or fold reverse rows but want to make sure my form is right and I can't find anything on the google.

Sorry, I thought the seated rows was listed under the exercises you were doing, but looking back I see it was under the exercises that you knew how to do.

In that case, do you know how to do one arm rows? If so, you could do those as well. I actually prefer them, but I was trying to build on what you already did/know rather than trying to throw a bunch of new stuff at you all at once and overwhelm you.

the kind kneeling on the bench I can do, but the ones where you stand and lean partway down and do a single arm row while bringing the opposite leg to meet it, I fell on my face doing that one in a bootcamp classa at the Y and am not about to try that again