New to using weights, any advice?

mmblarg
mmblarg Posts: 41 Member
edited November 21 in Fitness and Exercise
Hello everyone! I'm so excited for moving into the next stages of my weight-loss and looking for a little advice.

Basically the title says it all - I've never used weights before (aside from recklessly testing equipment when I was younger) and was hoping for some advice like what to try out either at home or on gym equipment, how to figure out the number of sets and reps I should shoot for, and healthy realistic goals.

Little background - I'm 29 years old, female, 213.8 lbs today (down from 230, yay!) and have been focusing completely on cardio for the last three months. The reason being, I was crazy out of shape - so just getting past the week long aches and pains was pretty tough. Now I've gotten the hang of getting in a good 300-700 calorie burn per day with either jogging, tennis, or hopping over to the gym for an elliptical/stationary bike/treadmill session.

My main goal for cardio, aside from reaching a specific calorie count, is to be able to run the mile without taking a walking break. Right now I'm at a 13 minute mile and generally can't keep up a good pace for longer than a minute at a time.

Now I'd really like to start adding some weight training to my routine. What I'd like to accomplish is strengthening my core. I want to avoid working the legs (my legs are pretty beefed up at the moment from getting all this pudge moving haha) I'm also not terribly interested in arm strength since my strength is adequate for my job and other activities that I enjoy. But the core, I want to work on tightening my tummy, sides, and back. As I lose weight, I'd like to do as much as possible to keep my tummy from retaining pudge and causing saggy skin since I started out needing to lose a good 90 pounds (and I know, how your skin recovers depends on a LOT of different aspects, but I'd like to keep a thumb on the ones I can control)

So there's my long-winded explanation! Any pointers, resources, or even your own anecdotes are more than welcome!

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