Before you hit the gym for your weight training session, you should always keep in mind safety. The most important thing about exercise is that you do it consistently. If you get injured because you were a little careless, that can really put your efforts to turn your fat into muscle back quite a few weeks. Here are some simple, yet important pointers for you to follow:

Breathe

The number one rule here is that never, ever hold your breath. If you do hold your breath, you could experience light headedness, or even faint for a few seconds. That can be very dangerous when lifting weights.

How should you breathe?

It's really easy, breathe in when you lower the weight and breathe out when you lift it. After a couple of workouts, you will get used to this and it will seem natural (if it doesn't initially).

First Workout

For the first every workout, you don't want to strain yourself too much. Your body is not used to lifting heavy weights so you need to ease it into a routine. Here's a couple of simple rules for you to follow if it's your first time:

• Do only one set of each listed exercise in your routine (to get a feel of it)
• Use a lighter weight than your maximum. Test to see what sort of weights you can lift for the number of reps you have targeted according to your exercise program.
• With each succeeding workout, add 2-3 sets until you are at the recommended amount
• By its nature, the first workout is a trial-and-error, getting the feel of the workout situation. Don't stress too much about it. Just stay committed to coming back for your next one.

You will definitely feel sore, but that's a good thing. It means you are working out. You just don't want to feel pain.

To ease post workout soreness you should definitely cool down.

Warm Up

You have to do an initial warm up set before you start an exercise for each new body part. If you're in a rush, you'll be tempted to cut the warm-up short. Don't ever do that. This is an absolute must, and will succeed in not only ensuring that you will prevent injury, but that you will be able to workout with better form and more weight.

Remember, the goal of weight training is not to lift weights; it's to give your muscles a workout. Warming up and subsequently stretching prepares the muscles to handle the stress you put on it during a work out. This ensures that you will not only have a safer workout, but also a better workout.

Cool Down  

Cooling down should only take 5-10 minutes. Just do some basic stretches, especially around your working muscles. This not only increases flexibility, but encourages greater blood flow to the irritated region, which helps to remove the lactic acid and other waste products (that are responsible for the workout soreness) that are there as a result of your workout

Again, these are basic, but very very important tips for you to follow. Make sure you are doing the fundamentals right, and protect yourself. Your body will thank you.

So thats some tips about keeping safe during your training, but I know some of you want some more detailed information on creating an exercise program itself:

So where can you get that?

As far as particular exercise programs go for controlled, long lasting weight loss, I recommend two programs.

Tom Venuto's "Burn The Fat" ebook is the first recommendation because apart from containing a great section on exercise (he's a natural bodybuilder and personal trainer), he also has the best overall book on weight loss - from the many I've reviewed.

If you're only interested in the exercise section, then I believe Craig Ballantyne's "Turbulence Training" is best for you. His nutrition package may not be as comprehensive as Tom's book, but his exercise section is just killer. It is the best one I've seen that's targeted for weight loss. He even covers bodyweight exercises in his course (which is using your own bodyweight to simulate weight training without the weights).