Can someone suggest a good upper/lower body routine for me? I am looking to lose weight first, and then I will concentrate on building muscle.

Here is the epuipment I have:
Power rack
Lat tower
Bench with leg attachment
Olympic style plates
Dumbell pairs (10 to 25 lbs.)

I will cycle for my aerobic activity.

Wow. That's quite a topic to tackle. I'll do my best.

I suggest you try to gain muscle as you lose weight. Don't do one 'first' as I have found that meets with little success.

For one thing, weight training increases your metabolism for up to 2 hours after the workout. Some claim it's 48 hours, but I'm going to go with the more realistic version here.

Muscle tissue burns calories. Fat just hangs there.

Combine this with aerobic activity and good eatin' and you will burn fat faster than by aerobic activity alone.

It would be good to know just what experience you have in weight training/aerobic.

Now then: I bought a book called Body for Life by Bill Phillips, and I suggest you do the same. It puts in black and white the basic principles I will outline here. Others may disagree with them, but it's what I follow. I went down two waist sizes in eight weeks.

You will need to work all your major muscle groups, and obviously you have stated you want to. Cycle your routines. Do upper body on a monday and friday, with lower body on wednesday. On the second week, do lower body on Monday and Friday and upper body on Wednesday and so on. You need to give your muscles time to rest. Resistence training damages muscle fibres, and when they heal they grow back stronger. If you overtrain you won't progress.

Major upper body muscle groups are:

Chest.
Shoulders.
Back.
Triceps.
Biceps.

Major lower body muscle groups:

Quadriceps (front thigh)
Hamstrings (back thigh)
Calves
Abdominals

Work your muscle groups in that order during your workouts.

Do 12 reps of a given exercise, and wait for one minute. Then do 10 reps, but increase the weight. Then do 8 reps with an increased weight, then 6 with the heaviest weight you will do. Rest between all these sets apart from the last one. After you do the last six reps, change the exercise you are doing for that area, hitting the muscles from a new angle, surprising them and making them work harder. This will also warm your muscles up and enable you to lift a heavier weight than you could from cold. After you have completed a series of reps, rest for two minutes before moving onto the next muscle group.

So! All that sounds complicated.

But basically do something like this.

For your chest, dumbbell presses are a good start.

Do twelve of these with your ten pound dumbbells.

Then rest one minute.

Then do ten with the next set up.

Then rest one minute.

Then do eight with the next set up.

Rest one minute.

Then do six with the heaviest.

Instead of resting, go immediately to dumbbell flyes or inclined dumbbell presses and do twelve reps. I'm assuming you know what these are, and I don't want to treat you like you're stupid but if you don't know, just ask or preferably get a book on the subject. You will learn far more.

20-30 minutes aerobic is good.

Stay away from junk food obviously. Drink plenty of water. And I mean loads. It flushes your system and makes your metabolism do all kinds of good stuff like process fat and clear out toxins.

You will need protein but supplements aren't essential. Turkey, chicken, salmon, tuna, and egg whites are all a good source of protein. If you can stomach egg whites on their own you are a better man than I. I use Egg Beaters. Veggies are also good.

Eat lots of small meals. By small I mean a portion of protein and a portion of carbohydrates (baked potato, rice, natural yoghurt, wheat bread, whole wheat tortillas, etc) both the size of your fist. Have water with these. If you drink sodas the sugar will ruin you and make you retain water and you'll just be bloated. Have one day a week where you take a break from working out, and eat whatever you like. This stops you from chewing your own feet off in frustration.

I think that should be it. Any questions just ask.

BUNGHOLE,my friend,can I call you my friend?.....You sound like you should first develop a routine you can STICK to.....like a good cardio full body warm up(sweat)....stretch-then some major muscle group [url]exrx.net[/url]exercise.Chest,back,shoulders,the largest upper body muscle groups...your arms do the work right..then the parallel squats+stretch!.....

Mr. Avila, could you explain how to do these exercises:

DB pullover
Sitting DB presses
DB front raise
DB side raise
21's
Hammer curls

I am new to this so I don't know what some of these are.

Thanks

seated DB presses: Shoulder presses w/ dumbells.  If you only have 25lb DBs, you may want to stick to barbells for this.

DB side raise: also known as lateral raises.  Take a dumbell in each arm at your sides(start w/ a 10lb), lift straight up(to the sides)to about ear level and slowly return.  Don't use your back, keep your body upright throughout.

DB front raises: same as above but lift to the front to about eye level.

21's: a bicep routine involving 3 continous sets of 7 reps.  Usually not something you do every week, but rather to shake things up a bit and shock your muscles.

hammer curls: DB curls done with the forearms in the nuetral position(palms in)  A great variety that shifts emphasis more to the brachialis(small muscle b/n bi and tri).

DB pullover: hmmm, hard to explain w/out pics.  IMHO this is unneccessary for a beginner.  

Good luck, oh and go get a bodybuilding book w/ pics before you start.

Thanks for the help guys.