Well it's been about six months since my workouts began, and my total weight loss is at around 10 lbs.  Funny how little weight I've lost over such a long time and many workouts. 

Well, I’ve been working out at the gym for over a year now, working out regularly.  While I am definitely a lot stronger than I was a year ago, I would have thought that I would look even stronger with the amount of time I’ve spent there.  I think most of my most notable strength gains game about 3-6 months in.  With that said, my general goal when I started was fat loss, and I have done that; I weighed about 215 at the beginning and weigh about 200 now, but with plenty of added muscle.

For people starting out weight lifting, I would advise:

1) Approach it like a devoted hobby. If you enjoy the nuances of it, it will foster a better attitude. At the end of the day, if it’s not something you enjoy, you might as well find a different primary form of exercise.

2) Don’t go too hard if you can’t. It doesn’t matter if you think people are looking at you because you aren’t lifting much.

3) Be prepared for possibly getting injured while lifting. Hopefully, any injuries will be minor and will heal in a week or so. In such a case, continue to work out other body parts while you give the injury locations a chance to rest.

4) Change up your routine every so often. Half the fun of weight lifting is finding new exercises that you can add which attack your muscles in different ways.

5) The more you go to the gym, the more you will want to go; the less you go to the gym, the less you will want to go.

6) Do bodybuilder poses in the mirror at the gym. This will help you to gain confidence you need to succeed.

Again, my general goal for starting back up at the gym was to lose fat.  Because I had that in mind, I didn’t worry too much if I didn’t max out at bench press all the time (which was a focus of mine earlier in life). Perhaps you have a different goal that motivates you, which is fine. But I think it’s good to have a reason for lifting weights so that you can call upon it in times when you ask yourself why you’re doing this (at times grueling) form of exercise.

By the way, if you’re still reading this, #6 above was a joke…don’t be “that guy”.

I thought you might take issue with my “hobby” designation. I used it to distinguish it from something which is overly serious (a competitive “sport”) since a hobby is something you take an actual interest in and enjoy learning about. I find it neat to read articles on proteins, food, different exercises, etc., but I don’t go as far as some people who treat it more seriously and eat 6-8 meals/day, measure exactly what they eat, and so forth. That’s too much for me, and probably for most people. Better to do what you can and enjoy doing it than go all out and lose interest after a few months.

Incidentally, I tied for my best bench press ever today. I may have to try to max out even higher soon since my gym membership expires in about a month!

Ok, you have a point about leg day.  It's not quite as fun….but I suppose it does feel good once it's done!  I have found that the more I regularly lift weights, the more I want to eat healthily to help my body.  This is part of the appeal of lifting weights to begin with - it helps to order your life in more ways than one.  Now, I feel good eating a dinner of steak on a bed of spinach.  When I wasn't lifting, that kind of dinner would not have appealed to me.  I'm not sure eating 1/2 lemon meringue pie would have ever appealed to me, though.