>decide enough is enough with overeating that replaced alcohol

>>40478414
Rest periods between sets should be real short. Like 2-3 minutes. Between exercises, that's more up to you, but you don't want to cool down. Walk over, get your next lift set up, chill for a second, then go to it.

What are your rep/set schemes? To begin, you should be doing 8 reps for two sets, then a set to failure. The failure set is by far the most important.

>>40479229
Yeah I was thinking 3-4, a site said 3-5 and I'd only been going for 1-2.
What I'm doing is probably shit, but 3x10 for:
Leg press 79kg
Chest press 41.5kg
Lat pulldown 39kg
Seated row 39kg
Shoulder press 39kg
He had me on half that for some reason, upped it gradually as it felt pointless at that weight.

We figured I'd start on machines because I'm hypermobile and want to get my joints/muscles used to actually moving more than body weight, then transition over to free weights. Also questioning this now.

Sometimes I've had to pause for a moment at about the eighth on the third set, but have attributed this to insufficient rest.

Speaking of cooling down, what heart rate would you say to stay above in-between sets?

2x8 + 1x to failure sounds like a reasonable transition. What might come next? 3x7 + 1x to failure?

>>40479333
That's not terrible, don't stress out about your numbers. Often, trainers start you out very low to try and condition your body a little bit. It's honestly never been effective for me, either. If you're looking for a good place to begin, you can just keep upping the weight until you're challenged in an 8 rep set or you can find your 1 rep max for an exercise and do 80% of that. I personally prefer the former.

You can start on free weights if you want, but kind of go easy if you aren't already an athlete in a high intensity sport. My body was already conditioned when I started, so I can't personally weigh in on this. Do what feels slightly uncomfortable for you, but listen to your body and don't push yourself too hard at first. You don't want to snap your shit up. Slow gains are better than no gains.

If you have to pause mid set, something is wrong. 2-3 minutes is sufficient rest for an 8 rep set, but probably not for 13! You would probably get better growth if you upped the weight a little and dropped your rep count.

Weights aren't like cardio, there's not so much a target heart rate, but you want to make sure your blood is still flowing. If you're feeling warm and your heart is beating above resting, you're good. When you're done with a set of your bench, stand up, check the clock, stretch your arms out a little, sip some water, change your song, whatever, then after a minute or so, sit back down and get ready for your next set. You'll learn the feeling of engaged vs disengaged from the exercise.

You don't want to up your reps and sets, you want to up your weight. When you progress your bench, you want to keep the weight/rep scheme, but add more weight. So if you're benching it should look like this:
3x8@ your challenging weight
2-3 minutes rest
3x8@ same weight
2-3 minutes rest
3xF@ same weight (find a spotter, tell him you're going to failure)

Squats are an exception in all this. Do those 3x5 and don't push yourself too hard on the xF set.

>>40479535
You're being really informative, more than expected honestly.

It did seem he wanted me to get used to the movements, but I probably just picked them up quickly. I am out of condition though, and don't want to hinder myself by overdoing it for a short period of time.

I do have a sense of what doesn't feel right, but actually doing these exercises has made me far more aware of muscle groups and posture. It's surprising that the early days aren't given more credit for that alone.

I felt inclined from what I've read and felt to lower reps and increase sets/weights, but haven't seen anyone really talk about more than 5 sets so set 5 as a goal. Apparently higher sets are for getting bigger rather than stronger, but aesthetics are just a secondary goal as it's only up from here.

I will be saving these posts, they're very helpful, so thank you.. Will be getting books also.

Do you know of any fairly customizable online calculators for calories burned through weight training? For tracking intake vs TDEE.

Rest periods are as long as you need them to be. Depending on your rep scheme and volume, it could be anywhere from 1 minute to 6. For example, one of the reasons people dislike the Texas Method is that Volume Day has 5x5 with (eventually) heavy weights for several lifts, and thus can take fucking forever.

I'm sure there are ways to shorten your necessary rest time (conditioning? cardio?) but I've never bothered to look it up

>>40479626
I'm happy to help. I made a post a lot like yours a long time ago and I got garbage responses. That shit irks me.

Learning the lift is super important. Make sure, when you're starting out, to do your lift with the bar first, and look in the mirror, and make sure you're getting the motions down perfectly before you start putting the weight on. This should, in theory, allow you to know when you're breaking form in a lift. It's good that you're starting to develop your sense of body awareness! It will really serve you well.

There's a chart with specific weight/rep zones that I don't have on my phone here but pops up on fit pretty frequently. Very low reps are for strength, very high get you endurance. 7-9 reps in a set is the golden spot for linear beginners. If you have a few dollars to spend, Greyskull LP is worth a read and can shed a lot more light on this. Building muscle and building strength should be done in parallel at the start. You'll reach a point where you're leveling out on strength increases and muscular growth and that's when you can decide to start doing stuff like 3 rep sets at 90-95%.

I'm happy to help. I'm not a Paragon of knowledge, but hopefully I've put you in the right direction!

It's not really reliable to try and track calories burned while lifting, but MyFitnessPal can help you track your food and you can build custom meals in it for tracking purposes.

What is your TDEE? What's your deficit?

>>40479697
I don't really mind taking the time, but have been unsure about gym etiquette. Sitting around could bother people? I wish they'd replace the leather/pleather couches with benches.

>>40479864
I'll keep that in mind. Taking the time to learn the form doesn't bother me as it guarantees long-term results.

He hadn't mentioned anything about building both strength and endurance, and was going to put me right towards the latter. Didn't seem right, but your various explanations seem to fit.

I've been tracking all of my food manually by weight and memorizing the calories in everything I consume to speed up the process. I round up to the nearest 10, and add depending on the calories per gram range. High estimates for unlabelled food. Admittedly a bit autistic about it but it helps with both motivation and confidence.

For my weight, TDEE is about 2350 sedentary according to Fitness Frog, seems to vary by about 50 from site to site. Found myself eating at around that, so, maintenance. When losing weight I was cutting at around a 600 deficit.

The gym routine raised my appetite to 200 over maintenance but at the same time raised awareness of blood sugar levels and the like, so it's almost under again. I imagine this will get easier as it gets more familiar.

My (obviously inflated) average calories for the last five months are 2300 as I'm closer to maintenance now (became self-conscious about loose skin).

So yeah, working on that new routine. Lots to learn.

>>40480033
If someone asks "hey, can I work in?" Say yes. If they do not ask you, do nothing. Even if they're staring at you from across the gym. Just stay put and get ready for your next set.

It sounds like you're on the right track for tracking calories. This is a process that only has to work for you. When you find something you like that keeps you growing and sheds fat, keep at it. Trying to bulk up at a deficit will probably be a trying task, though. This is something I won't be able to say much about, as I started out underweight and clawed my way up. I never had to worry about losing fat. But a good rule of thumb is that if you're feeling hungry all the time and you don't eat, you're not going to be building muscle. As you gain muscle, your weight will likely flatten out our potentially increase, this is why some people have dedicated cutting time. Does that make sense?

Any other questions or concerns?

>>40480358
I will essentially reverse my system when gaining muscle, round down, subtract as per calories/gram range, should work out.

Thanks for the rack etiquette tips.

If you told me about your experience in climbing back from being underweight it would still be of value, but honestly I got more than I would've asked for already.

Phoneposting at the gym now. Cooling down from cardio. About to give your weight advice its first spin.