1st post...but im not totally in the dark.

[rOOster14]

Hey everyone...this is a great forum. so i have finally rejoined our ymca.... im sixteen. i am a highly athletic kid, but due to injuries for the past two soccer seasons they ahve forced me to sit out. i am not a flabby kid but i am over weight. i carry it well haha :P but like i said, i am very athletic. and not very concerned with my weight as i am with being fit.. i understand alot about lifting and proper diet, but i always find myself in the same boat when i go to the gym. I go in and i just dont know what to do, and i am a person of order, so a routine is in great order for someone like myself. i have a pretty strong core, but i need to work on my upper body. im looking to tone and gain muscle. most of it is in my upper body, pectoralis, abdominals, triceps, bicepts. lats..things like that.... i would just like to know how people go about getting a routine. that way i can go into the gym and not just wander around trying to think of what i should be doing. thanks alot for your help and i look forward to having a good routine.
-rOOster-

Welcome to the board, rOOster14.

You can copy a routine posted in lots of different threads on this board for starters. Look in the stickies at the top of this forum for ideas. Then after a few months you can start to develop your own routine according to your needs.

One of the best things you can do is to start keeping a journal of what you do in the gym. This way you will know what works and what doesn't.

[candyass]

You should plan out what you'll do at least the day before. Lets say you want to do chest, instead of just going to the gym and picking up exercises you might want to sit down and figure out what you want. Continuing with the chest example, you'll want to build your routine around a power exercise. So you would pick flat bench press as your power move. Then you might add incline bench, flys and pullovers as auxillary moves.

You can do the same thing with every body part. Then just try to figure out what to work on which day. Above all, dont be afraid to experiment; you'll actually have to if you want to keep seeing gains.

[rOOster14]

alright ive been thinking about it...and these were my initial ideas.
Mon: Chest, Triceps
Wed: Shoulders, Back
Fri: Legs, Biceps.

swimming in the odd days because i like swimming, its good cardio, helps breathing and all that good stuff.
but i have another question...im confused on waht exercises i want to do. using free weights and machines etc. i like free weights for bench pressing exercises and curls and squats. but thats about as far as i go. i just dont feel i get the correct burn from a machine...i just want some help on planning me exercises now. optimum exercises for the different muscles and that kind of stuff. thanks for the previous responses, i love the friendly forums haha.
-rOOster-

[candyass]

Don't go by "burn." You could arm curl a soup can, and if you do it enough times you'll feel the burn. What you'll want to do is look into the proper form of doing free weight exercises. There are plenty of sites and books around on that subject. Generally, "isolating" a muscle (what machines claim to do) isn't as beneficial as doing a compound movement. Another thing, some machines aren't desiegned all that well; you can actually hurt yourself while you're 'feeling the burn.'