I am a competitive gymnast and have competed at national and international events, I train for over 20 hours per week and about ¼ of my training is weight training. Through my years I have learned a couple key components of working out that are essential. Eating right, keeping hydrated and staying motivated are among the most important. Something else to consider when trying to get an optimal experience out of your workout is that it is highly important that you vary your exercises. When trying to build muscle, lose weight or even just keep active you need to change the circuits that you do each day of the week so that you can properly work each muscle group. One last thing to think about is that if you are going to the gym for the first time you need to start off relatively slow until you are able to communicate with your body and find out when you have done “enough†for one day.
I know that many people have different views on how to properly work out, as they are entitled to, This is just my two cents worth on the topic.
I hope this was useful in some way, shape or form, Best of luck in your endeavor to achieve personal fitness.
-Ging