Workout routine

[New_to_Sports]

I am 37 yo guy , 170 pounds "77 kgm" , 5.7 feet "174 cms". never worked out regularly in my life.

I've just joined gold's gym and started my own "personally-designed" workout routine. Some friends tell me it's no good , can I have your opinion please?


My ultimate goal is to tone myself , get in shape and look good in a swimming suit . I am NOT AT ALL interested in becoming a body builder or getting massive muscles "no offense to anyone please".

I go to the gym 7 days a week. I get on the treadmill for a 20 minutes very brisk walk. I then go around all gym machines - around 30 machines all in all - and perform 4 sets , each set consists of 40 repetitions. I perform the first set with the 1st weight on the machine , the second set with the second weight , the third with the third , fourth with the fourth. I must stress that I use each and every machine there is. I plan on moving up the machine weights in a few weeks.

I never use free weights "honestly , they intimidate me" . I then go to the treadmill again , do another 20 minutes , and that's it

My whole gym visit would last between 1.5 and 2 hours.


Is this routine any good ? would it achieve my goals?.

Thank you very much

 

[Guinness5.0]

Your workout will burn a lot of calories, that's for sure.

As you have "modest" goals (not discounting them in any way) you may feel that it's OK to use lots of machines and that only dudes who wanna "get swole" should be hitting the free weights. However, your goal is to look better in general. That will require an increase in muscle and a decrease in bodyfat. The degree to which you want to take both is gonna be up to your taste, discipline and knowledge.

My suggestion woud be to take the same approach as a person whose goal is to get "huge/ripped/jacked" because those type of changes don't occur overnight. You will have plenty of time to assess your physique and the changes you are making while going about adding muscle in the most efficient way possible.

So, just to get started I would ditch the machines ENTIRELY. They serve minimal benefit to anyone, especially someone new to lifting.

For a specofic recommendation I'd advise that you reasearch HST (or Hypertrophy Specific Training). It's basically a full body workout 3x/week with varying rep schemes that change every two weeks. Specifically as a new lifter I'd say you'd want to stick with the 10's for longer than perscribed by the program (this sentence will make sense once you read up on HST).

Hope this helps. Hopefully some of the others around here will chip in.

 

[Jim Ouini]

I pretty much agree with Guinness (surprise!). You'll definitely burn calories and you may see some results at first running a machine circuit (although I think 40 rep sets are really just working on your endurance - you may want to increase the weight and cut your reps ) - in fact the fitness chain 'Curves' is based on this entire premise I believe.

But if you're going to be in it for the long term and seek any functional strength and so forth, I think it's best just to get past the mental block with free weights and invest the time to learn the basic compound moves. It's more efficient for your goal anyway, I think.

Here is a nice program and info for someone just starting out:

http://elitefitness.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5212030&postcount=1