Weight lifting for dummies

I won't tell you everything, but I'll give you the basics. The rest you have to learn some on your own, buy a book or learn from your friends.

This won't be hard, but you need a gym, even a makeshift one will do. You have to learn the different forms of weightlifting, different exercizes to target the muscles.

For example, I will list the important ones :
Bicep curl - biceps ( pretty obvious)
Tricep curl - triceps
Deadlift - lower back , thighs
Squats - almost everything at the lower body
sit ups/crunch - abs
pull up - upper back, shoulders
shoulder press - shoulders
hack squats - thighs
bench press - chest

repetitions/reps : obvious, but it is the number of times you do an exercise at one go

Before you do weightlifting always check with your medical doctor for any underlying disease that might harm you.

First thing you should bring to the gym, is a piece of paper and pen, your workout drinks and yourself. Learn the proper form of all the exercises listed above.
Proper form beats heavier weight but bad form.

Go choose an exercise listed above, choose a weight (for example 10 pounds) that you feel comfortable with , test HOW MANY REPETITIONS YOU CAN DO until you are unable to lift it in PROPER FORM ( until you mess up/slant sideways, fail). Record the number if the number is in the range of 7-11 then it's a good weight. Note it down and go over the rest of the exercises ( you can add more if you want).

The thing you just recorded is your starting strength list, it should be updated every two weeks to check your progress/regression.
Let's say you recorded down a fail in ten reps for your bicep curl. Do 8 reps ( 10-2=8 ) , 4 times

I always go for volume, in the example above the volume is 4 times 8 reps ( 8x4 =32 ). Volume should always be around 25-30ish.

How long should I rest between exercises ?
Depends on how heavy/tiring the exercise is. For squats and deadlift, I reccomend 1 to 1 and half minute. For the rest I reccomend 10-30 seconds.

What muscles should I exercise in a session ?
I prefer you target both upper and lower body in a session. Just do 5-6 types of exercise in one session, and do not do squats and deadlift at the same time.

I have sore muscles...
I have said that weightlifting itself doesn't actually build you muscle, it's the recovery from your weightlifting that does. It's normal to feel sore at the beginning for a few days but remember not to exercise the sore muscles.

Remember to track your progress. Maybe you realize after one week you can lift more reps, you can try to increase the weight. One of the most obvious ways to check on your muscle building program is to check your improvement in the weights. The fact that you are stronger means that you have built muscle. Another way is to use measuring tape to measure your different muscles weekly.

Please remember to take your POST and pre workout drinks/meal .