Now that you have decided that you are going to start doing weights and doing them at home I am sure that you are starting to think of all of your options and when and how and how oftern. Well I can answer those for you.

The best way to get started lifting weights is to setup a schedule. For most people starting to lift weights the best time to start lifting is Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings or mornings. Mornings have to be the best bet because as we all know the day seems to have it’s own way of breaking up our plans for the evening and consistency in lifting weights is the key.

I find in getting started lifting weights you should do a bit of circuit training. The turbulence training program talks about how to do this but in essence this is what you do. Make sure that you stretch and warm-up and get yourself nice and loose and then do 10 reps of each of the following as one long set.

1. Bench press (for chest)

2. One armed rows (back)

3. Military dumbbell presses (shoulders)

4. Lunges (legs)

5. Curls (biceps)

6. Tricep extensions (triceps)

7. Situps or crunches (abs)

That should take you about 5 to 7 minutes and after that you deserve a bit of a rest. After you have done them all like this once you will be winded but after a 2 or 3 or even 4 minute rest you will be able to go again and do the same thing.

Try to do three sets of this routine. It should not take you more than 20 minutes to half an hour. If you do not know how to do each exercise then go to youtube and find the exercises.

After you have done this I hope that you feel a great sense of accomplishment. Doing weights like this is a great way to get yourself into better shape and after doing this three times a week for a couple of months you are going to feel stronger then you have ever felt in your whole life and your metabolism with be moving faster therefore helping you lose more weight. Another thing to remember about lifting weights is that any muscle that you gain will force your body to burn a lot more calories just for maintenance so you will have a bit of a double whammy to aid you in your weight loss.

One last thing. The day after your first few workouts like this your muscles may be sore. If they are very sore then you can take some aspirin to take away the pain but as the day progresses the muscle pain will go away. This is natural but if it is really bad soreness that you are feeling then it is important not to push yourself quite as hard as you did last time.

If this workout causes more then just soreness. There is a chance if you are not warmed up properly that you can pull a muscle. If this is the case I really urge you to go to a doctor and make sure that you are not hurting yourself. Doing weights is about making your self healthier not hurting yourself.

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There are two main ways to do a workout, you either do cardio to raise your heart rate or you use weights to raise your strength. Every type of exercise is based on either weights or cardio�well all except one. Circuit training is a way to do both weights and cardio in one quick workout.

What circuit training is

When you decide to do circuit training what you do is a series of exercises all in a row with very little time between sets. The best way to do a circuit is to have all of the weights set up ahead of time and then do bench press, lat pulldowns, military press, squats, leg curls and then bicep and tricep extensions, and then rest. When you do one long set like this as a circuit training you want to have next to no rest between sets, this would really turn into one long set. After you have finished this 10 minute or so set you should be really winded and your muscles will be sore. Take a drink and do this long set two more times. The key in circuit training is to hit every major muscle group while doing as many compound exercises as possible.

One important thing to remember is that although you are doing the big set really quickly it is important not to rush through each exercise in your set. Remember these sets should take 10 minutes not five and your muscles need to be really sore by the end of this set. At the end of this all of your muscles should be shaky.

Circuit training is incredibly tough to do because you are taxing your muscles and at the same time your are getting winded and have your heart rate really high. What you are going to find when doing circuit training for the first time is that by your third set you are so spent that you have trouble lifting much weight at all as you are breathing so heavily.

What circuit training is not

Circuit training works well for hitting all of your muscle groups at once but it is really just a way to further confuse your muscles. It is difficult to really make yourself bigger muscle wise when doing circuit training because you do not get a chance to go to exhaustion very quickly with one muscle group and by doing compound muscles you do not get to really isolate those muscles either. What you are going to find is that by doing this type of workout it seems like a bit of a break in your regular schedule, a break is great because when you get back to doing your regular workouts you are going to be that much stronger from the change as well as the rest of not going to real failure.

How often should I do circuit training

How often really depends on your fitness goals. If you are trying to lose fat then circuit training can be done three times a week one or two weeks each month. If you are trying to gain muscle then this is just only for shock and you should not do circuit training more than three times a week one week every three or four months.

There is a weight loss and exercise gym franchise called Curves for women and as a fitness routine this is all that they do for exercise. As well as Curves there are several weight loss programs that emphasize circuit training as the extra muscle mass that you gain from these workouts, as well as the recovery period from these workouts burns a lot more calories then just biking or doing weights would on their own.