Yay I joined a gym...now what?

Try looking at Oxygen magazine for a beginner's routine and using Youtube to find videos of how to perform the moves on the machine. It may be trial and error the first few times determining what weight you should start at for the exercises, but 2 sets of 8 reps will be a good start and you can move on to 2 sets of 10, 3 sets of 8, or however you want to progress from there. If you are easily doing a set of 8, add 5 or 10 pounds until it feels like the last one or two in a set is struggle but still doable with good form. If you are struggling to move the machine or it takes stupendous effort to do one or two, lighten the weight until you hit the sweet spot described above. Pick 4-6 exercises to do for upper body and 4-6 for lower body. Planks, pushups, flutterkicks, and bicycles are great core moves.

See how you feel over the next two days after a strength workout. If you are super sore (hurts to walk, lift your arms above your head, can't brush your teeth) then you need to dial the workout a little bit. If you don't feel sore at all, then you need to add a little more weight to your routine.

You can decide how you want to split your training days. Some people like to do two days on and one day off to rest to end up exercising 4-5 days a week and still give their body a chance to recover from the workouts. I typically do some form of cardio everyday, even if it is a slow one mile jog or five mile ride on the stationary bike. I try to do kettlebell work or some type of strength training 3 times a week with ab work two days and yoga once a week.

Listen to your body and see what works for you and what you enjoy doing. Feel free to add me if you like.

well said debubbie we must have typed at the same time,,,

Looks like Planet Fitness will help give you a Design Your Own Program session for free: http://www.planetfitness.com/pepf

everything everybody already said, for sure..

Frank, specifically, hit on two good points: in order to reach a goal, you have to define it first. are you most concerned with dropping excess weight, or are you looking specifically to delve deeper into strength training? because the answer to that question will define your approach more than anything.

also - and i think i remember Frank pointing this out to someone else in another thread at some point - you may protest mentally at first, but in my own experience, i've found that i was much more successful with my strength regimen if i hit the weights first, and did my cardio afterward. you'll want to do some stretching/warmup of some sort before just walking in and plopping down on the lat pull bench, but you may find that you feel better on the way home if you reverse your approach and do your cardio last.

RE: what sistrsprkl said - there's some wisdom in those words, for sure. you should have a plan of some sort when you walk in, and while it's ok to kinda "try everything on" and get a feel for specific machines and motions and the like, you'll fare better, feel better, and get better results if you look towards a routine of some sort.

there's TONS of information here in the forums, and elsewhere on the internet to point you in the right direction. if you ask specific questions of the universe, you'll get answers...but you gotta decide what to ask...and that'll be dictated by what results you'll eventually expect from the work you're about to put in.

good luck!

Take advantage of the free training that is available at Planet Fitness. They will help you put something together to reach your goals! Congratulations on taking this step on the road to a healthier you!