Joined a Gym a few weeks ago, have lost around 8 lbs (lots of questions)?

[steppinthrax]

I'm a 34 yo male. I weight right now around 232lb. My goal is to get my weight now. I recently joined a gym and I've been doing the following.

1. I'm in the gym almost every day roughly 1.5 hours (on average).
2. I initially do around 3 - 4 miles on the treadmill at 6.0 mph with a 1% incline
3. I started since last week doing weight lifting, but I'm lost on what do and how do it.
4. I've read somewhere that you should be able to do 8 - 10 reps of a weight, that is if you overshoot 10 then you need to increase the weight and vise versa.
5. I've been mainly on Cybex machines, I started on the Abdominal Crunch and I do around 10 - 12 crunches @ 90lbs, then I rest for a few minutes and do another 10 - 12 crunches. I do this 3 times. So is this considered 3 reps of 10 - 12?
6. I've been working on other equipment using the 8 - 10 rule. (i.e. Overhead Press, Vertical Press, Fly/Rear Delt, Arm Extension). But I'm not sure which equipment is useless and/or the sequence or order???
7. After I finish the gym I hit the Sauna for round 10 - 15 minutes.... Does this do anything, I like how it causes me to sweat out fluid, maybe detoxifying affect?

I haven't asked for advance from anyone yet, but I think I need more assistance with weight lifting etc... Am I on the treadmill too much, too little? Should I be lifting free weights instead? Also I heard you should never work on one muscle group more than once within the same week?

Thanks

 

[Trusylver]

for your crunches you did 3 sets, however, your selection of lifting exercises is very unbalanced and has a high chance of causing problems long term. and you are missing large muscle groups.

Is there a qualified trainer at your gym who can take you through and show you how to use each piece of equipment ? as there is a lot of info your missing and it best to learn face to face.

the Sauna does not do anything for weight loss other than a temp loss of water but can be a benefit for CNS recovery if you are lifting heavy enough to stress that system.

 

[steppinthrax]

for your crunches you did 3 sets, however, your selection of lifting exercises is very unbalanced and has a high chance of causing problems long term. and you are missing large muscle groups.

Is there a qualified trainer at your gym who can take you through and show you how to use each piece of equipment ? as there is a lot of info your missing and it best to learn face to face.

the Sauna does not do anything for weight loss other than a temp loss of water but can be a benefit for CNS recovery if you are lifting heavy enough to stress that system.

Thanks for the information

I can try to get a trainer but there is a waiting list. Just to clarify I'm not using every single piece of equipment every time I got the gym. I'm usually using one or two weight lifting equipment a day. I use the treadmill every day though. I've watched YouTube videos on how to use the equipment and make sure I'm copying those moments carefully.

 

[Trusylver]

the main problem I am seeing is that most of the exercises you listed are targeting the delts but without anything to strengthen your rotator cuff to prevent shoulder injuries. a lifting program must be balanced to avoid injury, so for example if you train Triceps, Biceps must also be trained to prevent an imbalance which may cause elbow problems. Abs and core in general should be balanced with lower back. they don't need to be worked on the same day but they need to be targeted at some point during your training week.

there is no exercises on your list targeting middle or lower back, chest, gluteals or legs.

exercise order should be from largest muscle size down to smallest and 2 days between training the same muscle.

Free weights are generally better but without supervision while learning the safest option is machines.

 

[steppinthrax]

the main problem I am seeing is that most of the exercises you listed are targeting the delts but without anything to strengthen your rotator cuff to prevent shoulder injuries. a lifting program must be balanced to avoid injury, so for example if you train Triceps, Biceps must also be trained to prevent an imbalance which may cause elbow problems. Abs and core in general should be balanced with lower back. they don't need to be worked on the same day but they need to be targeted at some point during your training week.

there is no exercises on your list targeting middle or lower back, chest, gluteals or legs.

exercise order should be from largest muscle size down to smallest and 2 days between training the same muscle.

Free weights are generally better but without supervision while learning the safest option is machines.

Ok thanks
I did get into contact with a trainer at the gym. So he said that the best thing for me is to work my upper body one day while working the lower body the next. So I alternate between upper and lower. He also said that I should concentrate on machines first before going into free weights. He gave me a run down on the equipment.
He did say something that's hard to swallow. He indicated that I should do the treadmill for 5 minutes or so then do weights. Then go back to treadmill then weights. So really I should only be doing 20mins of cardio. However I've been averaging about 35min of cardio a day. Also so far since I've started this thread, I've lost 20 lbs!!!!
My thinking is I should do 30 -40 minutes of cardio then finish it all off with weight lifting that group?