first time exercising, hows my routine?

hi all, 6 weeks ago i decided to stop being a sloth, quit smoking, and start exercising....still havent smoked and exercise is going well - ive found a routine im comfortable with and i was hoping some of you folks could comment on it. my primary goal is general fitness i suppose, i dont really care to get particularly big, just want to be fit (im fairly slender ~5'7, 150, 25 yrs old).

anyways...

-5 minutes light jog @ 4.5mph
-1 set, 10 reps benchpress
-1 X 10 leg press
-1 X 10 pull down bar (lats?)
-1 X 10 - i dont even know, the thing where you tuck your ankles behind the bar and lift forwards/up.

-all of the above is done at about 80% max weight, and i make 3 trips around the machine so 3 sets total.

-then 20 minute run, right now min 2 miles, max 2.5...hoping to get to about 4 miles.

-then 1 more trip around the machine.


im doing this every other day and its going well, just want to make sure im not doing anything terribly inefficiently etc.

sorry for the long post, any tips are appreciated.

thanks.
 
First off, great job starting exercise and quitting smoking! That's really fantastic.

As for your routine, it's not great, but on the same note it's not terrible. You've got the right idea by incorporating at least 1 leg, 1 push, 1 pull in your routine.

I guessing by your description (a trip around the machine) that you have a universal. If so, try to add body weight exercises that too. These can be pushups, lunges, split squats, bench dips, etc (You can find descriptions of these exercises on the internet).

When you structure your workout try to start with your legs, then move on to upper body. If you search the forum you'll find a lot of great full body workouts.

You could try to rearrange your own workout into something like this (this is based on my assumption that you're working with a universal only)

1. Lunges
2. Leg Press
3. Pushups or Bench Press
4. Lat-Pulldowns or Rows
5. Overhead Press (if your machine has that capability)
6. Crunch
 
hey adler, thanks for the tips, i plan to incorporate them. you assume correctly that im on a universal...just using the facilities available in my apt building.

in terms of starting with legs, does it make any difference (other than tiredness) if i focus on one area and then move on to another? that is, is the lifting more effective if i do the 3 sets back to back to back w/short breaks vs. the way i've currently structured it? or does it make no difference?

also, do i have it right doing weights (w/the short warmup) then cardio? im seeing a lot of conflicting info in this regard.
 
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