Hey John, be careful you don't overtrain. What I found that helps when I made the decision to build some muscle is when you first start out give yourself 2 days to recover. Do that for the first week-week.5 until you can do a fair workout without being really sore the next day. You don't want an extremely heavy buildup of amino acids, it'll eat away any progress you've made. Basically your muscles go through 3 stages looking for fuel. They begin with what your body has available at the moment, once thats through they'll turn to the fat, after that they'll actually begin eating the nutrient rich muscle around them. Cardio is ok for every 3rd day but I prefer to use muscle to burn fat. Cardio is also a huge culprit when it comes to actually losing muscle. If you run faster and further than your body is capable of its called anerobic (without-air) and your blood will soon become catabolic which is basically an acid that'll burn away parts of of your muscle. This is why runners have that long muscle and are thin. You'll never see a true runner on the benchpress . Do relatively heavy weight training and you'll build larger muscle. That larger muscle, when worked, will scream out for more fuel (fat) and you'll lose it faster. Its always best to have a buddy to workout with, get someone who goes to the gym already if you can, they can help motivate you. Also, form is way more important than number of reps. Its better to do 20 correct pushups than 40 flawed ones. 11min mile isn't horrible for someone not used to working out. When I finally got off my lazy @$$ I ran 2miles in 19.31 could do 31pushups and 38situps and only weighed 175 at 6ft. Today I weigh 200lbs and can do 2miles in 14.28, 85pushups and 76situps in 2minutes. Just keep on it, when you get tired of going to the gym or running think about why you started in the first place and step on the scale again if you have to. Good luck with it man!

Great advice, I'd second that. Also if you are getting burned out come on to the site and we'll pump you up to stay motivated!!

I been working out on the Universal at work for a few weeks now (4 or 5 maybe). Took about a week and a half to get past the sore point. And, I've finally noticed a little less gut, my ***** don't jiggle as much, and I managed to up the weight one notch last week.

Yay for me...

Give me some of that weight. I NEED IT!!

Awesome!

ok, update....

Did a profesional weigh in and body fat percent...

I'm at 139 lbs. and 24% body fat, not bad when it is recomended to be eather low 20'* or high teens..

Still pretty sore, it'* hard to go down stairs, but still comited..

Haven't had a coke in 2 days!

Thanks for the support and advice!!!!

Keep up the hard work.

Rockin'

OK, 4 week checkup!

lost 5lbs. to make me at 235 lbs
lost 1.2% body fat to make it 22.9
cut my mile time down by a 1 min. 12 sec. to 10.28

slow, but steady....

Good job john keep it up