intecel

Well, I finally took the leap.

I posted months ago about wanting to go to the gym and I finally did it. I felt great after the initial visit and was ready to go in the next day, but they were closed for memorial day.

I had a few concerns though, which have probably been brought up here already, but I didn't see them.

Let me start off by saying I'm 5'10" 190 lbs. I'm rarely active in my life except for canoing for 3 to 5 hours on the weekend.

Oh yeah, I'm also a 9 year smoker (I know.. .BOOOO heh). This is going to change real soon. I'm definately going to try the patch again in a couple weeks once I get my next paycheck.

I went with a buddy of mine. He was going to be doing legs on Sunday, so I tagged along to see what to do (since i'm 100% clueless). He started off on an Elliptical, 11 minutes with 3 minutes cool down? I did the same. My legs were like jello getting off it.

The machine records your heartrate. Mine was around 160 to start, then went up near 200 at times. Is this normal for first starting out? Should I have taken it slower or at a lower level to keep my heart rate from shooting up so high? Are there other exercises I should be doing to start out?

Anyways, we got off that and moved onto the machines. We did 5 machines, 3 sets of 10 on each machine. From what I could make of it, it appears that each of the 5 machines I was on worked different muscles. I only waited about 10 seconds between sets, and about 2 minutes between machines. Should I have waited longer, shorter?

Also, should I be working on more machines, more sets, more weight? Only reason I ask about more weight is because I felt like I could still do more after the 3 sets.

My main focus here is to slim down / tone up. I don't care to have huge muscles, I just want to look healthy.

Also, With this in mind, should I be watching my calorie count and eating more protein, since I'm really trying to lose a little fat?

After all the machines, we went back to the Elliptical for another 5 minutes / half mile. Should I not mix cardio and weights on the same days? I have read a little about this on some posts, but dunno if that's just if you're trying to build, or to tone/lose fat.

Now I gotta figure out what to do tonight as I have no clue. I think I'm gonna work on my arms, but don't have a clue where to start and I'll be there alone tonight. Hopefully the people working there will give a rundown on what I should be doing.

Any feedback is appreciated.... even the negative comments about smoking since I need it hammered into my head that it's bad for me...