I am 50 and have been on a 1500 calorie diet since June 1st. Started at 267 and now weigh 234 and I am 6ft 1.  I just joined a gym and have been trying to devise a work out. I read that I need 2 to 3 days between lifting workouts. I also read that one set is all I need to do on each machine. Find a weight that is a gut buster to do 10 reps and once you can do 12 move up the weight. Keep in mind I am 50 and my goal is flexibility, stamina and strength gains.

Beware of injuries particularly to your back.  Swimming is great exercise if you have access to a pool you are less likely to injure yourself there.  At 55 I started gradually on an exercise program about 9 months ago and had a back injury an my joints are not what they once were.   Use cautiion when it comes to your knees and back.  Good Luck getting old sucks.

congrats on what sound like pretty good results so far

>I read that I need 2 to 3 days between lifting workouts.

That is 2 to 3 (or up to 6, depending on how intense) days between weight lifting workouts that focus on one group of muscles. the particulars of how this should be put together vary, but it usually ends up with 3 or 4 lifting workouts a week.


>I also read that one set is all I need to do on each machine.

I dont know where that is coming from, but its pretty much completely wrong. fitness people disagree over everything, but i have never heard of this business. Whatever your goals, 3 to 5 sets is going to be where you are at. Alot of people are going to tell you to ditch the machines, i agree but i know its hard, especially if you workout alone and dont know much about lifting. Still, you should know that it is pretty much unanimously accepted that machines are inferior to freeweight workouts both in terms of effectiveness and in risk of injury.


>Find a weight that is a gut buster to do 10 reps and once you can do 12 move up the weight.

Lots of schools of thought on this, for brute strength the usual is lower reps more weight, something like 5 sets of 5 reps, at a weight that makes 5 reps difficult. I like to pyramid up, though. start off with an easy 10 reps, and add weight each set, decreasing reps as necessary.

Asking workout advice (anywhere) is like the 9/40/45 debate on GD.  You'll never get one, solid consensus.



Personally, I've always found that when starting off, taking 5-7 days between a muscle group is about right.  For example:



Monday - Shoudlers

Tuesday - Back/Bi's

Thursday - Chest/Tri's

Saturday - Legs



Next week, repeat, pretty much any order except for starting with Legs or Chest/Tri's.



Due to the physiology involved in the deltoid (shoulder) muscle, you can incorporate anterior/meadial head stuff into your chest day and posterior into back day.



As far as the one set stuff, if you're doing 1 set on 1 machine, but 3-5 machines per muscle group, you might could do that, but 1 set per muscle group isn't going to cut it.  What you've described sounds similar to the Mike Metzgar HIT type workout.  But since you're just starting out, you will see gains with just about anything, so I wouldn't start looking into the specialized routines until you're body is acclimated to the gym/lifting and your body has hit a plateau.  



For flexibility, obviously you'll want to be stretching after your cardio warm up and also after lifting.  I'd suggest stretching in the morning as well if you workout at night.  I think stretching is one thing that most "typical" weight-lifters will neglect.



Stamina.  Are you refering to cardio or muscular?