General gym questions for a beginner

They aren't fixed categories. Most of the variables deal with your diet, not so much your routine.

1. General fitness: Emphasis on cardiovascular conditioning and circuit training. Calories are irrelevant.

2. Cutting: Not dependent on workout routine; caloric deficit. Training and eating to lose fat. (Ideally, but some muscle loss is inevitable.)

3. Bulking: Not dependent on workout routine; caloric surplus. Training and eating to gain muscle. (Ideally, but some fat gain is inevitable.)

4. Sport-specific training: What it sounds like. If you're training for basketball, you train for lateral movement, start-stop acceleration, vertical jumping, etc.

Increase your weights when it becomes too easy. This will depend on your training routine as well ... there really isn't a general rule for this. Looks like the routine you posted has mostly sets of 10 reps. If you finish your set of all 10 reps, increase the weight the next time.

Without you telling us how much you're eating daily, it's hard to give concrete assessments. You tighten up your body and lose weight when you're eating less and training hard. That's really the bottom line.

Energy bars are usually junk. Clif bars are okay, but probably overpriced. Personally I don't like eating before I go to the gym just in case I throw up hehe, but there's no rule here either. If eating gives you energy to workout harder, eat beforehand. If it doesn't, eat afterward.

I apologize that this wasn't really helpful but a lot of the minutiae doesn't make a difference. HOWEVER, I recognize that analysis paralysis is a possibility so if that is a problem...

1. Cut.
2. Increase your weight when you can complete the required sets and reps.
3. Yes, the workout routine is fine.
4. It will last for as long as you continue working out and eating right.
5. Protein shakes are fine.
6. Protein bars are not.
7. Clif bars are expensive.
8. Eat afterward.

For me (and at 47 my knowledge of workouts goes back a few decades and things change so take this for what it's worth) I found 5 set pyramids to be the best. I typically worked out either heavy or light depending on what I was working at the time (heavy to bulk up and light to cut up). My puyramids generally took this form:

Heavy Bench:
Set 1 -- bare bar or 135lbs (I was benching 350 max so bare that in mind) -- 12-15 reps very slow concentrating on the stretch
Set 2 -- warmup set -- 6-8 reps
Set 3 -- heavy set -- 3-6 reps
Set 4 -- heavy set -- 6-8 reps
Set 5 -- cool down set -- bare bar or 135lbs 12-20 reps concentrating on stretch

Light Bench:
Set 1 -- bare bar or 135lbs
Set 2 -- warmup set -- 12-15 reps
Set 3 -- heavy set -- 10-12 reps
Set 4 -- heavy set -- 12-15 reps
Set 5 -- cool down set -- bare bar or 135lbs 12-20 reps concentrating on stretch

In general when bulking you increase weights to a level where your 1st heavy set is close to max with the best scenario being a 3rd or 4th rep failure (benching to failure). On the other hand when trying to cut more and tone it's better to increase the reps and lighten the weights.

The only time I ever trained with more then 12-15 reps when when I didn't have enough weight so I'd add reps to compensate.

I recommend, however, that you increase your weights gradually and record everything! Start a log and note how many reps you did with each exercise and each weight. That way each week (train each muscle group only once or twice a week -- once for heavy, twice for light) you will know what to start with.

Also, there are compound movements that train multiple muscles (groups) which are: bench press (chest, arms, back and shoulders), squats (legs primarily but even your abs will get a workout and the rest of the body is involved), deadlifts (back and legs and really everything else).

So I usually try to incorporate those as my 'mass' movements and then add a few other shaping movements mixed in like incline dumbell press and flat dumbell flies when doing chest, or leg extensions and curls for legs etc.

Lastly, you really only have about 45 minutes to 1 hour of energy reserves for good training sessions so try to plan around that.

I'm guessing general fitness is referring to recomposition where you're attempting to burn fat and gain muscle at the same time. You basically eat at your maintenance calories(daily calorie intake that won't change your weight). This is slow and inefficient and I wouldn't recommend it.

Cutting is when you eat at a caloric deficit of 10%-20% below your maintenance calories. Cutting is recommended if you have excessive body fat. You will lose much more fat cutting than you will doing a recomp. Cutting at a deficit of more than 20% below maintenance will cause a significant amount of muscle breakdown along with fat loss and is not recommended.

Bulking is where you eat at a caloric surplus of 10%-20% above your maintenance calories to build muscle. Bulking is recommended if you have a low body fat and are looking to build muscle. A bulk is usually followed by a cut, because it is impossible to bulk without gaining a small amount of fat along with the muscle. Bulking at a caloric surplus of greater than 20% above maintenance will cause a significant amount of fat gain along with muscle gain and is not recommended.

Sport training is where you are training in the gym and striving towards performance goals rather than appearance or physique goals. Sports training is very high intensity and is unnecessary unless you are involved in sports.

As for when to increase your weight, the general guideline is you want to choose a weight that allows you to do 8-12 reps to failure. If you can do more than 12 reps without failing, your weight is too light, if you can't do 8 reps before failing, your weight is too heavy and you should adjust accordingly.

As for protein and energy bars. Do not worry about the timing of your food when it comes to body composition because it doesn't make a difference. The most important thing is the total number of calories you eat every day, and that you eat a minimum of .75g/lb of body weight of protein per day, and at least 0.4g/lb of fat a day. The protein minimum is for muscle building and muscle preservation while cutting, and the fat minimum is for hormone regulation. Believe it or not, dietary fat does not make you fat, eating at a caloric surplus makes you fat.

When should I increase my weight? I am currently lifting 40 lbs when I am doing barbell lifting, and 20 lbs when I am doing dumbbell lifting.

Do you mean curls? When I first read this I didn't catch exactly what you meant -- can't advise on weight anyway since I have no idea what you are capable of but it would be good to know what you are doing here?

1) I have read that there are 4 types of training routines. General fitness, Cutting, Builking, and Sport training. My questions is what are the differences between the 4 types? I am pretty sure I can figure out a few of them, but I'm not entirelly sure about them all, so a description would be helpful.
these are all self explanatory. Otherwise google.

2)When should I increase my weight? I am currently lifting 40 lbs when I am doing barbell lifting, and 20 lbs when I am doing dumbbell lifting. When should I start going into heavier weights? Is 40/20 a good area to start in? When doing legs I do 40 lbs while leg extensions and barbell routines, and 90 lbs when doing leg press and calf raises. I struggle a bit on the last couple reps of my set, both in arms and legs. I am doing 10/10/10 with a 30-45 second break between sets.
we don't know if 40/20 is good b/c we don't know how strong you are. A general rule is if you can do 15 reps of one exercise you need to up your weight by 5 lbs. If you are doing 3 sets of 12 reps the last 3 reps should be very difficult to complete. If you are trying to gain serious strength then you can do 8-10 reps of 4-5 sets. But the general rule is the last 3 reps should be very difficult to complete. If you do the lower reps, rest around2-3 minutes between sets. If doing the 12 rep range you can rest about 30sec - 1 min or so.

3)My question is this: is this a good start to lose weight and tighten up my body? My weight has remained the same for the last 2 weeks, but I have started to see some definition in my arms, so I am assuming the weight has converted into muscle. How long does that usually last?
It's always a good start to weight train. Resistance training is a crucial health building/keeping activity. It will take longer than 2 weeks to see results so what you're seeing is water retention and swollen muscles. Not a bad thing, but I'm just saying.... have realistic expectations... we're talking more than two months to START seeing results. How long does what usually last? muscle? If you always weight train then it'll always be there. It is harder to lose muscle than it is to gain fat though so if you stop weight training it'll take your body a while to lose the muscle but it will happen. Obviously not all of it will go away though.

4)Last question: Protein bars and shakes. Are things like the Clif protein bars and energy bars good to eat? Should I eat the protein bar after the workout and the energy bar before?
Cliff bars are not for weight trainers. They're more for long distance runners or hikers to keep their energy up. Weight trainers don't need that type of sustenance. You need a whey protein shake immediately after your workout to help with muscle recovery. You don't have to go crazy with protein shakes/bars/etc... If you want you can drink a casien protein shake in the morning, just helps you feel satiated during the first part of the day so you don't go for bad snacks.

I'm also an advocate of pre-workouts to help with your weight training. Keeps your energy up, keeps you focused and helps you push harder. Also some of them have a testosterone booster in them and some of them have bcaa's to help with muscle recovery.

I've started drinking Cryosports protein shakes you can buy at Costco for a pretty decent price. 27g protein and 140 cals

Right now, I am only doing cardio -- treadmill. I usually walk between 3 and 6 miles a day (might be 3 sets of 2 miles at different times). In probably 40 or 50 more pounds Ill start adding in light resistance training and then work from there.

Bumping to read later!

Commenting to say I like the goodkind pic! Read the first 2 Sword of Truth books and am hooked (stupid library has like 1 copy of each book for like all of minneapolis though). Also protein bars are probably bad, but I do sometimes eat them out of convenience if I need the extra calories (although there are probably other convenience foods that would accomplish this and are better for you).

Yeah, sorry totally off topic BUT

I'm also just commenting to say YAY to Terry Goodkind! I absolutely love the Sword of Truth series. I've read the entire series a few times now. :blushing: