I have been doing this routine for 1 month now.

A trainer at the gym designed it for me, I have only been lifting a short time and I feel its too much as I finish completely exhausted.

4 day split upper-lower
3x12 reps

Upper body

High row(machine)
seated row(machine)
chest press(machine)
bicep curl(machine)
tricep extension(machine)

Lower body

Leg press(machine)
Leg curl(machine)
Lunges(free)
Swiss ball hip extension(free)
Ab crunches(free)

WOuld you eliminate any or add any? any suggestions welcome. Thanks.

Do you mean that you do upper twice a week, and lower twice a week? That is, lifting for 4 days? Do you take a day off in between?

It appears that he/she has you on a fairly basic machine workout, hitting each body part. Use this time to focus on your muscles and how they work, so that you can isolate the feeling in your mind. Machines are used for beginners for safety reasons, until they get used to the movements, before they start with free weights.

You may be feeling exhausted because you are not yet used to the routine. Or you may be trying to lift too heavy for the 12 rep range. For variety, do the three sets in a straight order at times, and at other times, do one set of each before going back to start again. Remember, to allow for recovery days.

Personally, I feel the machines are too restrictive, and there are many isolation exercises in the workout (only two that I would consider compound). I prefer free weights and compound exercises. A compound exercise is one like the squat, the lunge, the bench press that work a number of different muscle groups at the same time.

Workout routines are not meant to be used forever. Some people change the exercises every time, others change every 4-8 weeks. There are different rep ranges (and the associated weights) that work on strength, mass and endurance. The workout can consist of 100% compound exercises, or 80% compound and 20% isolation, or any variation in between; but should always focus on compound.

At this point, I would advise you to keep at it for another month or two. Learn all you can about your body through this process. Do some research on your own. Talk to your trainer about varying your routine. Also watch your diet; as a beginner, you are adding activity you haven't done before. Make sure you are getting good nutrition, not necessarily high calories. Make sure you have enough recovery time; you don't say whether you do cardio also or not.

Hope this helps...

I second everything NorthernBelle said, and add that there are no core exercises in your routine. Working your abs is fine, but you also need to work the rest of your core muscles, or you end up straining them. These are the muscles that we use every time we move, so we need to take care of them. I do the plank and the superman for my core. I'm awful at explaining these, so just go to the shape or self website and type those exercises into the search - they'll have images and explanations on how to do them. Otherwise, stick with this routing for awhle longer and see how your feeling. Maybe part of it is that you'r bored - I do a lot of my strength training in a class, and find that far more interesting than sitting on the machines at the gym, so you could look into that. Good luck!

If you are feeling EXTREMELY exhausted after doing 3 sets of your workout, maybe start out with just doing one set for one week then 2 sets the next week and then the third sets the week after till you get used to it. If you've never worked out your poor body is just wondering what the heck just happened For the time being take a nice bath after you exercise, get losts of sleep and eat healthy to fuel your workouts.

My GF and I were talking about this just today on how tired we used to get with just a fraction of the workout we do today, so with time your body will get used to it and your body will crave the workouts... HONEST

Thankyou everyone for you helpful replies.

Great advise!

To answer your question northernbelle.

I do a 6 mins cardio warm up, weights and then finish with 15-20 mins cardio then stretching.

I did 2 sets instead of 3 today and felt less exhausted.

With the core exercises should I add them to my upper or lower routine? thanks.

Where to add core exercises: since you are not doing things like different deadlifts, it doesn't matter where you add some core exercises. You could even break them up to add one to each workout. If you try to keep the number of exercises relatively even, each workout should last around the same time.

Thanks northenbelle!