Ok to be honest I am worrying about the intensity of my workout. How much intense a workout should be? My workout program consists of:

20 minutes bike
10 minutes on the rowing machine
5 minutes on the lifting weights machine for hands
5 minutes on weights machine for legs
20 minutes elliptical Nordic isle.

Ok in the bike I take it slightly slowly and build up speed, while in the rowing machine is intense. The same goes for the Nordic isle but at the last 2-3 minutes I go a bit slower to cool off.

Well I do feel my exersice is intense mind you. I sweat and heave and want to stop but I don't. But when I see myself compared to other people in the gym, I feel like a slug next to a cheetah. They go so fast!

I am a newbie in terms of "earth" exersice as I used to swim a lot but now whenever I try to become faster I feel I am not breathing at all and huge headaches start (mind you, I cannot breathe from left nostril as I have a broken nose).

I wonder how to approach my exersice. Shall I try to make it faster by the weeks or make it longer. By the way I have noticed that though I do not become any faster, I have raised the resistance of the machines a lot. I am very confused, I ranted and feel better but I welcome any advise.

PS: Don't tell me to talk to my personal trainer. I don't have one as my gym is like a "do-it-on-you-own" gym and I plan to go to a personal trainer one after my studies and when I get a job.

How often are you doing these? Wouldn't it make sense to distribute the various kinds to different days? What I mean is, for example, on one day, do elliptical only but increase the time. Or do the weights. Give yourself (and your body) some break between the same exercise, you are not supposed to be doing the same thing on consecutive days. (I am no expert, of course, but this is what I would suggest).

What I do is I exersice day-by-day (one day, then off, etc) So my body does have time to "recover". But I am not sure if what I am doing is enough. I hear people saying things like "my bike showed I burnt 800 calories per hour" and mine is never so high. I wonder, if this means I am not exercising vigorously enough to have results. Plus I have heard people saying that women with POCs have to work more than other women to achieve results.