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...

dirtyrascal7

first of all, there are virtually an infinate number of theories as the best way to work out. some are better at producing muscle mass, some are better at producing endurance, and some are better at helping to lose weight.

since your main goal is to trim down and develop toned muscles, i'd say that doing lots of cardio is the best route to take. and when you do lift weights, do less weight and more reps.

i'm not sure what the actual cardio formula is, but i want to say that it's to raise your heart rate to 80% of your max for 15-20 minutes. this is what i follow at least and it's definately shown results. it sounds like you got a pretty decent workout from the elliptical... just keep increasing the duration and/or intensity at your own pace.

personally, i do cardio everyday before actually lifting. three days a week i do heavier cardio (following the formula i mentioned above), and two days a week i do a lighter cardio workout to just warm up the muscles. this helps get your blood flowing to the muscles and should produce faster results.

also, i only focus on one muscle group per day. mondays i focus on chest, tuesdays are back, wednesdays are legs, thursdays are shoulders, and fridays are arms and abs. if you work out each group really well, you really don't need to work on them more than once a week.

as for the time in between sets, that's basically a personal preference, but anywhere from 1-2 minutes is typical.

since you aren't trying to bulk up, you don't need to increase your protein intake that much, although it couldn't hurt. just follow a balanced diet and cut out unnecessary fatty items like chips and pop and sweets as much as you can stand... just doing that will make a huge difference.

Cowman

Dirtyrascal was right on, except for a few things.

First of all, yes, split your body up into parts and do the different parts on different days. Like rascal said, once a week is great, some argue any more will only harm you, some argue that you should do each muscle group twice a week...if you're trying to slim down, just do once a week.

However
This is incorrect. You always want to do more weight, low reps (should be tiring around the 6-7-8 range for the bigger muscles, and around the 10 range for the samller muscles ). The whole "less weight more reps will tone your body" myth has been around for a while and..it's not correct.

As well, you should still be trying to eat high protein meals. The reasons: 1) to maintain your muscle. You want to lose, fat, not muscle. Losing muscle A) sucks, and B) will harpen your fat burning because muscle burns a lot of calories. 2) Protein makes you feel fuller then fat or carbohydrates. If you feel full..well..you're going to eat less. If you eat less..you tone down.

To sum up: Eat a moderate-high protein diet (however much you can eat without getting too many calories or too much fat). Try to lift 3-4 times a week, using different muscles each time. And also try to get in 3-4 good cardio sessions in a week..

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You don't like my point of view..but im insane

intecel

Thanks for the advice... So far, I am loving feeling sore as crap... Makes me feel like it's going to be worth it.

I am definately planning on going to the gym at least 4 times a week. I went tonight and did the crosstrainer for 15 minutes to start. My heart rate was a little lower this time, even though I was going a little faster on it. I think it stuck around 180 for the majority of the time.

Afterwards, I asked a guy there what I should be working on. He had me get on about 5 more machines to build my arms... I did 3 sets of 10 on all of them, making sure that I was barely getting the last few down.

Then I ended for 10 minutes on the crosstrainer.

I'm definately hooked... I just started and I feel like I could go every day. I'm wondering if I should go in and hit the crosstrainer for like 30 minutes on the days I don't lift...

Any other advice is definately welcome. I want this to be worth my while in the longrun.