Wanting to restart going to the gym

RightfulSin

Well, first off. Hello All. Now for a bit of back round. I used to go to the gym quite often within the span of a week, that changed due to an injury suffered, personal life/family affairs needing clearing up, and a financial situation (loss of job so no money to afford membership, still worked out a bit at home though). I mainly went for strength/size, with some cutting on a switch routine. My main goal was to build muscle and then later on tone the muscle/lose weight to make it look more defined.

I used to have a schedule all planned out, but that was on my computer that has since needed to be reset(I have a new computer now anyhow), and now I am at a loss for where to make/find a good routine schedule for this type of thing. Help would be greatly appreciated, and speed could help a lot too (I am planning to to and start this as soon as this coming Monday, if possible).

Thank you again.

milski

With exercise, it's important to know where you're starting from and what your end goal is. A 150 lb "skinnyfat" dude with no muscle who hasn't lifted weights in years (if ever) is very different than a 220 lb man who hasn't exercised, and they are both very different than the 220 lb ex highschool athlete who gained a lot of weight in college but still stays kind of active. It's also important that there's a lot more to getting results from the gym than simply going to the gym consistently and working out (though that's a huge part of it).

So two resources:

A solid beginner's guide to fitness in general
A recommended (haven't personally used) workout selection site

If you haven't lifted weights in a while, I'd recommend the beginner workouts; Starting Strength or Stronglifts are solid at gaining general strength and looking better, though I'd supplement them with dips and chinups/pullups, and doing cardio is a very good idea to supplement your gymgoing.

If you are not very muscular and want to gain muscle, track what you eat, eat a solid amount of protein, and try to eat 300-400 more calories than you would burn in a day (this will gain you 3-4 lbs a month). If you have more muscle and still want to gain muscle, y our caloric excess might need to be smaller since it's a lot harder to pack on more muscle, especially if you're older. Gaining weight much faster than this rate will get you a lot more fat than muscle, and it won't look better (though it may add a bit more muscle).

If you're trying to lose weight while looking good, track what you eat, eat a solid amount of protein, and try to eat 200-500 less calories than you would burn in a day (this will lose you 2-5 lbs a month). If you try to lose weight faster than this, you will feel bad, you will lose muscle mass, and it will be much harder to stick to a diet plan. If you're significantly overweight, you can probably afford to lose weight faster, but I don't have experience with it so I can't really give solid advice there.

I know this is a lot of advice, and pretty generic, but it's hard to recommend a specific routine and diet without more information, and in general you need to keep track of both your diet and your weightlifting in order to maximize the effectiveness of both. A moderately intense workout program with cardio and a great diet will leave you a lot better looking, better feeling, and healthier than a high-intensity workout with no cardio and a terrible diet.

Handgimp

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/198112/bigmen-strength-training

The duders in SE++ can help you out. Plus lots of good links in OP.