Exercise, increasing body tone, and fitness.

Bob The Monkey

So! The time has come where I feel it'd benefit me to work out a bit, exercise, and generally take a proactive approach to my fitness. For Christmas, I got myself a servicable set of weights. Important: I am not under any delusions that weights are the be all and end all of exercise/working out, they rather serve as a physical symbol of my need to work out.

Anyway! With that out of the way, here is what I'd like advice with.

1) What is a good exercise regime to increase upper body tone? Abs, pecs, biceps, triceps, whatever the hell else there is up there.

2) What's a good regime to increase overall bodily fitness?

3) What is good practise using weights, what weight should I start with, so on and so forth?

Hocky27

There have been a lot of threads made with this type of theme so a quick search should find you a plethora of information regarding your questions.
Here is a handy site that I have used when I started experimenting with the idea of seriously working out. Site

I found it to be a good way to learn how to do some basic exercises.
Remember that proper diet and sleep patterns are also really important aspects of working out.

PirateJon

Bob The Monkey wrote:

I am not under any delusions that weights are the be all and end all of exercise/working out

[spoiler:5f0db98cbd]They pretty much are.[/spoiler:5f0db98cbd]

1) What is a good exercise regime to increase upper body tone? Abs, pecs, biceps, triceps, whatever the hell else there is up there.

2) What's a good regime to increase overall bodily fitness?

3) What is good practise using weights, what weight should I start with, so on and so forth?

1) Tone is something you hear. When people think "muscle tone" they really mean "low body fat". Low body fat is 99.999% diet. Remember this.

2) You body directly responds to stress only where the stress occurs. You've had a tan line before right? Same deal with training. "weight training for overall body fitness" is vague enought to mean anything. What SPECIFICALLY are you training for? Wanting to squat 800lbs is a different goal than wanting to look like an abercrombie model. Once you know you can tailor the stresses to create adaptation towards that goal.

3) Buy the book "Starting Strength". I can't stress this enough. It is what you need. So go buy. Did you get it yet? have you ordered it?

Madcow wrote:

BEGINNERS: Do yourselves a giant favor and just order the book, Starting Strength. I'd need to write a book to teach you what you need to know and Mark Rippetoe has already done it better than I possibly could have. Save the $30 on whatever bogus supplement you were going to buy and do something that will pay dividends for years and get you the fastest results possible now.

http://www.startingstrength.com is the best intro to lifting ever. Worth every penny.

http://www.crossfit.com is a good overall fitness site.

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=402978 is a wonderful intro into getting strong.

http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/7habits.htm is the base for athletes to create their diets.

Food?

My workout typically consists of:

-sit-ups on an incline (do an additional sit-up each day you work out)
-sit up on the incline and pass a medicine ball over your body (does the abs on the side and stuff)
-leg raises (lower abs)
-peck deck
-curls
-run at least a mile
-bike at least 4 miles

then i come back to my room, stretch, shower, and relax