Where To Begin?

Paully D

Basically, after losing the weight I wanted to lose (thanks in part to some excellent advice regarding my diet on here), I've now decided that I'd like to start lifting weights, using machines etc with the end goal of getting my arms bigger, toning up, etc.

I have purchased a gym membership and will be starting next week, so my question is this:

Where to begin? What sort of lifting should I be doing? What machines should I be using? How often?

Thanks very much

top madra

Curls, goodluck popeye..

Robdude

I'd start with this: http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:Introduction or something similar.

Basically, most guys want a bigger upper-body/arms. So they go to the gym and do the exercises that hit that area - they curl a lot and they bench. After a few weeks they stop seeing any improvement, they get stuck around 15kg and a few weeks later they give up. Until the start of next semester or the next new years resolution and they repeat the same thing.

For some reason, they'll feel the need to curl in the squat rack (but that doesn't help).

They'll think they are 'hard gainers' or have 'bad genetics' but mostly they just have a bad program (and diet). After a few times of trying, they eventually give up completely on weight training.

Get a solid beginner program (like the one above), learn the lifts, work your whole body, follow it for a few months and then you can tweak it.

Paully D

Fantastic stuff, very informative

Much appreciated!