Hi guys, I have a fitness question for you

Okay, so I have lurked here recently, since I was linked over to the "never eat normally again" post. Anyway, I have noticed that you talk about fitness a lot and seem very knowledgeable about exercize and I need specific help on routines which is something I don't think the women can give me.  Anyway here goes: I want to start working out, including lifting weights, and am not sure how to go about it since I have not worked out for about four years now. I used to in Highschool and for a while after but then I gave up becuase I could never really lose weight doing it and eventually got super fat. Now that I have lost about 40lbs and am feeling more energized I would like to start again. Would it be too much to ask for someone to "create" a routine for me? I hear so much conflicting information that I don't know what to do. Some say do your aerobics after weight training, some before; some say this some say that blah blah blah! I just want to do the right thing, and commit to something and not feel like an idiot at the gym.  If it helps you any, here are some specifics about me: I am 5'3" and currently 181lbs. I carry most of my weight in  my arms and mid section, my legs are the most muscular part of my body and are fairly strong. I want to have a lot of muscle tone and lose weight. I am not afraid of "bulking up" as most women are because I doubt I will ever be able to life enough and commit enough time to "lifting" to actually have bulk. I had my surgery on May 21st of this year. If you need to know anything else, I will answer any question. Oh, and sorry for the super long post :)

First make sure it is OK with your surgeon to start lifting, mine made me weight until I was 9 weeks post-op to make sure I was fully healed from the lap RNY surgery. I'm not a personal trainer, but here is what I do: I always do cardio one day, then weights the next. I do a split routine with weights which means that I do exercise upper-body muscle groups one day, and lower-body muscle groups on the next weight training day.  Day 1 - Cardio- Treadmill - I try to walk 5k each time (3 miles + 1/2 lap) I warm up for two or three minutes at an easy pace then increase the speed to 3.2 miles per hour - every ten minutes I break into a 4.5 mph jog and continue that for as long as I can - anywhere from 1-4 minutes depending on how  feel that really gets the heart-rate going. I usually do the last half lap at a slow pace to cool down. Day 2 - Upper Body I choose to do higher repetitions with lower weight to encourage weight loss - 15reps at a weight that will cause failure at the 15th rep - in other words, if it is still pretty easy to get the 15th rep up then increase the weight. I do 3 sets of 15 reps at each station. Choose one exercise for each muscle group, there are so many different options just make sure you cover each muscle group: Chest Shoulders Upper Back Tri-Ceps Bi-Ceps Abdominals Day 3 - Cardio again Day 4- Lower body - same principles as above just different muscle groups: Quadriceps Hamstrings Calves Lower Back Day 5 - Cardio Again Day 6 + 7 optional Here is a link to a website that has a lot of examples of how do to do particular exercises for each of the muscle groups: http://bodyforlife.com/exercise/animations.asp Hope this helps...

Thanks so much Mike, this helps me out a lot!