Q: Hi, I read your article about losing fat. I want to say thank you. It was well put and to the point.
Now I know what I have to do, but not sure how to go about it.

Weight training:
Should I do circuit training and if yes, what's your version of circuit training?
How many times a week and what muscle parts for the same day, sets and reps for the days of the week?
Or
Should I just do regular weight training, if yes please explain set, reps, muscles to focus on each day and, etc...

You mentioned do cardio 3 times per week. Do you think its better I start with cardio prior to weight training since my goal is to loose fat and build muscle. I have been told start with cardio first since its harder - get tired faster and burns more energy than weight training ~
For me, I like doing the weights first then cardio cause it gets my muscles nice and ready.
Especially if I am working on legs that day, after when I do cardio it seems very easy.
Please explain and why.

A: I generally don't recommend circuit training. As I mention in http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/how-to-lose-fat the real benefit of weight training as far as losing fat and building muscle comes from stressing your muscles with high loads (meaning using weights heavy enough that you reach muscular failure -- when you are physically unable to do another rep -- in 12 reps or less on most sets). Circuit training on the other hand is doing dozens and dozens of non-stop reps. It in effect becomes more like cardio than weight training. Cardio is great for you but it simply does not have the same fat-burning and muscle-building potential as heavy whole-body weight training.

So while variety is always good and throwing in a month or two of circuit training somewhere along a year of weight training is perfectly fine, the core of your program should be heavy whole-body weight training.where you traing between 2 and 5 days/week, between 10 and 30 sets per day, between 6 and 12 reps for most sets with weight heavy enough that you come to or close to muscular failure on most sets, and between 1 and 3 minutes rest between sets.

Why such big ranges for all these numbers of days/sets/reps/rests? Simply because doing the exact same exercises, sets, and reps will stop giving results after a while. You need variety. I generally recommend changing programs every two months. A typical progression throughout the year might be:
- 2 months of heavy volume volume and low intensity -- 4-5 days/week, high sets (up to 100 sets/week total), high reps (10-15 range), relatively low weights so you finish the reps before reaching failure, 60 seconds rests between sets
- take a week or two off from weight training
- then 2 months of medium volume and medium intensity -- 3-4 days/week, 60-80 sets/week total, 8-12 reps/set, reaching failure on maybe third or half of the sets, 90-120 seconds rests between sets
- take a week or two off from weight training
- then 2 months of low volume and high intensity -- 2-3 days/week, 30-50 sets/week total, 5-8 reps/set, reaching failure on most sets, 2-3 minute rests between sets.
- take a full month or even two off from weight training to let your body recover and then start over (but with higher weights since you should be significantly stronger by this point in time)

Such progression from high volume and low intensity (and low specificity to the sport, if training for a particular sport) to low volume, high intensity (and high specificity to the sport, if applicable) is common to all professionally designed athletic training because, quite simply, it works better than other approaches. So anybody lifting weights can benefit from the same basic design idea. But even if you don't follow such a structured program (and you can make great progress without doing exactly this), the basic idea is to change your program and the stress on your body throughout the year.

As far as what exercises to do, it's always emphasis on big compound exercises of the largest muscle groups: legs, back, chest, shoulders, and of course core. Nobody who only does bicep curls will ever get much out of weight training. The best exercises are the biggest ones: squats, lunges, deadlifts, rows, pulldowns/pullups, bench presses, shoulder presses, as well as crunches and planks for the core. If you have been lifting for a few years you would also benefit greatly from incorporating power exercises such as cleans, jerks, and snatches into your routine -- but if you are a beginner you don't need to worry about those yet.

If you read http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/weight-training you will find more detail about how to structure a weight training program plus a number of sample programs. You can simply choose one of those sample programs or customize them to the equipment available to you (e.g. if you don't have dumbbells, it's perfectly fine to do barbell bench press instead of dumbbell bench press. Or if you don't have a cable row machine it's perfectly fine to substitute it with dumbbell or barbell rows or even chinups which target largely the same muscles). Just remember that there is no one ultimate program -- variety is the way to go so change the program you are doing every couple of months.

Finally, as far as your questions in which order to do cardio and weight training... First of all, it's not a big deal either way. If you really feel good about doing cardio first before leg weight training you can still make great progress that way. But I always recommend to do weights first and to do cardio either on a separate day or at least after weights. The reason is, once again, that weights ultimately have far more fat-burning and metabolism-boosting potential than cardio does. So your emphasis should be on the weights and you want to be as fresh and as strong as possible so you can hit weights and give it your all. If you exhaust yourself with cardio first you simply won't be able to lift as heavy and consequently you won't get the benefit out of weights that you could otherwise. If you find for yourself that this is not the case and that you still have plenty of energy after cardio to do weights, then by all means go ahead and continue doing that. But if you are tired after a heavy cardio session, then inevitably your weight training will suffer.

And, continuing on that subject, ideally right after your weight training you would have a good protein- and carb-rich meal to provide nutrients your body needs to start repairing the muscle damage that you just inflicted in the gym. Remember, your muscles only get damaged during exercise -- they get stronger and bigger while your are not exercising as your body repairs the damage. That repair process requires a lot of nutrients (which is why weight training is such an effective fat-burner!) so you want to provide them as quickly as possible after the exercise. But, once again, if your schedule requires that you do cardio and weights together, you can still make great progress. Do weights, then cardio, and then have that protein- and carb-rich meal as soon as possible.