New to Weight Lifting

Hi everyone, I am a newbie here on this forum and to weight lifting. I just startd working out at my local YMCA. I have had certain health problems so i was under dr. orders to take it easy on excercise for a few months. I just recently started working out. Very out of shape, but need to lose the weight to get healthy now that i am able to workout. At the Y i start by doing 7-10 minutes on this walking machine. Not a typical treadmill. I can't really explan it. Theni go to the nautilus room where there is a circuit of 11 weight machines, that work out the arms,abs,and legs. I usually go around the circuit twice and each time do about 10 of each move. The weights range from 30-50 depending on the machine. What i don't know is how many times should i go around the circuit and how many reps should i do on each machine. I have been doing it this way for two weeks. I go about 3-4 times a week. I found out the hard way that you should wait a day in between lifting weights. I did it 2 days and was in so much pain. Sorry this is so long. Any and all help or ideas is appreciated.

Hi, Welcome to the forum! It's good to hear you are getting better medically. I hope it continues for you. As far as how many sets/reps it is totally up to you. I usually do 3 sets of 10 reps. If at the end of the 3rd I didn't get to failure, I will increase the reps on the last set or do another set with a heavier weight to failure. Also, switch things up when you start feeling like its too easy. Add more weight or find new ways to exercise that muscle. Good Luck with all you are doing.

I also do 3 reps of 10. Do what feels right for you, start small and work your way to big. Do a weight you know you can handle for 1-2 weeks straight, then when you fully adjusted to handle that weight, increase it the next week. You can still tone up without entirely bulking up to the max on the weights!

Another tip is to perform each repetition slowly. 2 seconds out(exertion)/ 4 seconds return.

Welcome to weight lifting. It's amazing and empowering!

You really need to take the muscle to failure every time- it sounds awful, but it doesnt mean that your whole body 'fails' just the muscles that you are training with that exercise. As a real ball park I would suggest finding a weight where you can do between 8 and 12 repitions.
So if you can get more than 12 increase the weight and if you cannot get 8 then reduce the weight.
A repetition should be like a breath - inhale as muscle lengthens and exhale as you squeeze the muscle shorter (eg like a bicep curl). If you follow your breath then the speed of each repitition will be the same and the movement will be controlled.
If you stretch afterwards you wont get quite so sore :0
joannelee.com

That makes sense. I do like 10-15 reps with 10-15lbs until my muscle gets tired.Thanks Joanne!

i find that if i work out just one area of my body per day it's easy to manage workouts on consecutive days. ie: legs on monday, abs on tuesday, arms on wednesday etc... that way you give yourself time to heal but you still get to excercise every day.