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I joined a gym recently to start getting back into shape and get some exercise back into my life. I received some sessions with a trainer and he worked with me on my nutrition and some core/stability exercises then moved me to some weight lifting. Among my goals with the trainer were strengthen my core and lean out some. So far I have done all that and feel much better than I used to especially since I eat better, so far I have lost close to 12 lbs of fat and gained 6 lbs of muscle. But now I am done with the trainer and now trying to research for myself. He was leading me toward a 3 day split or muscle isolation days but since I have been doing some reading, doesn't look like that is the thing to do.

I am 31, 5'7" and currently 158 lbs. I currently have a calorie deficit but that is going to change. I currently eat 200g of protein and breakdown is 40/45/15 (not a guess, I logged it for the trainer). My goals are somewhat easy atm. I am loving that I am back in the gym but I do not want to try to really bulk up or try power lifting anything. I just want to improve myself. This forum might not be the best place for this but you guys seem to know what your talking about.

Since I have been beating myself to death with isolated muscle workouts I was leaning toward the beginners 5x5 posted on page 3 in the DFT 5x5 thread.

Monday – Heavy Day
Squat – 5 sets of 5
Bench – 5 sets of 5
Row – 5 sets of 5
2 sets of weighted hypers
4 sets of weighted Sit-ups

Wednesday – Light Day
Squat – 4 sets of 5
Incline Bench – 4 sets of 5
Dead lift – 4 sets of 5
Sit-ups – 3 sets

Friday - Medium
Squat – 4 sets of 5, 1 triple, back-off
Bench – 4 sets of 5, 1 triple, back-off
Row – 4 sets of 5, 1 triple
Weighted Dips – 3 sets of 5-8
Triceps and Biceps – 3 sets of 8 each

I do not know what my max reps are atm because the trainer was having me do 3 or 4x15 on a lot of exercises or pyramid reps going down as weight goes up. I would list the routine but I am sure you have an idea of a lot of little exercise to tenderize the meat.

Is this too advanced for me or my goals? I thought it may work well since it was explained to start out with light weight on the first set and work your way up, that way I get practice on my form. The trainer was nice enough to try to stay away from machine weights but I do understand I am a novice at this.

Since I am doing isolated muscle days, do I need take extra time off before starting or just start really really light for both form and recovery?

The dead lift and row that the trainer showed me was a stiff legged dead lift and a row where I help a BB underhanded but I held the weight the whole time. Do I need to make them the JS row and the standard dead lift for now?

Also I have ordered the book "Maximum Strength" because Wolf recommended it to someone some 13 pages back for mobility exercises. And can someone point to a good place to look at exercise form, thought Kane said there was something on GUS but I have only found a few there. Sorry for the book I just wrote but thought I would include some info.