OMG - that is freaking fantastic.

OMG you just made my night!

How many days do you, or can you get to the gym?

If you can go enough, dedicating more time to strength training on a few days would be beneficial. This may mean dropping a class or two.

Regarding a home workout, do you have, or can you get dumbbells?

I think it would be beneficial for you to do a full body workout 2 x a week at the gym so you have access to barbells and then can 'supplement' those with a full body routine at home once a week.

Do you think you would be comfortable with barbells or would you prefer to start with dumbbells/machines get yourself more familiarized with weights/lifting routines?

I am starting, too, so thought I would join the conversation. I have access to gym- usually aim for 3x per week and do 30-60 mins of cardio on 2-3 other days. I started weight lifting with the husband last week, but he is on split routine. I've heard it's better starting out to do full body routine (like you mentioned Sara). I found the same site TrracyGirl did (http://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/12-week-beginners-training-routine.html) that seemed to be a good routine, although a little lacking. I wanted your opinion on whether this would be enough? As a beginner, I like having the crutch of a program to follow so I'm not just flitting around everywhere.

As a brand new beginner, pretty much anything that is not totally idiotic will be beneficial. However, I do not like that routine for a number of reasons including:

- does not focus on the compounds
- has a lot of unnecessary iso lifts (for the level you are at) - for example, do you really want to be working traps?
- it turns into a split from week 7 which is very sub-optimal
- rep ranges are a bit high
- number of sets is too low (ok for first few weeks to ease into it)

I would do the first 6 weeks to 'get into' lifting (you will see a benefit) and then transition to something like AllPro which is a 3 x a week full body that focuses on compound lifts.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=4195843&page=1

A Simple beginner's Routine
You will do 3 work outs per week on non consecutive days. The first work out is your heavy work out. The second work out is your medium work out, use 10% less weight for your work sets. The final work out for the week is your lite work out, use 20% less weight.

Do a lite warm up with 1/4 of your work sets weight. Do a medium warm up with 1/2 of your work sets weight. Do 2 work sets with the same weight. Choose a starting weight and start light.

These are the seven exercises you will be starting with.

Squats
Bench Presses
Bent-Over Rows
Overhead Barbell Presses
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts
Barbell Curls
Calf Raises

You will be running this program on a five week cycle as follows:
The first week do all 4 sets for 8 reps.
The second week do all 4 sets for 9 reps.
The third week do all 4 sets for 10 reps.
The fourth week do all 4 sets for 11 reps.
The fifth week do all 4 sets for 12 reps.
If you got all of the required reps on the fifth week then increase the weight by 10% and

repeat the cycle. If you didn't get all of the reps on the fifth week then repeat the cycle with the same weight. You shouldn't need more than one minute rest between the warm up sets and you shouldn't need more than one minute thirty seconds between the work sets.
Do some cardio and abs work on non weight training days.

I am assuming here that you want to lose weight while maintaining LBM and gaining strength. If you have other goals, then let me know.

Thank you so much!! I agree- as I began to do the program I posted up, I realized I didn't care for it too much. I didn't like the amount of reps or sets, so I've been doing a hybrid version of it with less reps and more sets.

The program you mentioned sounds great. I will get this started.
One quick question: for the warm-up portion (one set with 1/4 weight, one set with 1/2 weight), do these two sets count towards the four sets I'm supposed to do? Or are the warm-ups separate and then do the four sets with full weight?

And yes, you are right about losing weight while maintaining LBM.

Thank you SO much!

Hi! Warm ups are separate from the working sets.

Locking in order to keep track of active threads. Feel free to PM either myself or SideSteel, including a link to this thread, if you wish to add any comments or questions, and we will unlock so you can do so.