I have a question and I may sound horribly ignorant asking it, but I am horribly ignorant when it comes to resistance and weight training. I have never really learned what kind of weight training to do. I live on campus and my college is in a really small town, so the only gym in the town is the one provided by the campus which I have free access to. Having said this, the only machines I know how to use are some of the big resistance machines (like the ones where you pull your legs up or down and the ones where you work out your chest and arms by looking like you have a beach ball in your arms and going in and out, i dont know how to explain it lol). I was always told that girls need to do more reps at a lower level, so I was doing something like 3 sets of 15 reps. However, I dont know if any of what I am doing is right. Are these type of machines good? or should I do free weights, and if I do use free weights, how many reps etc... If someone knows of a book that explains all this so that someone doesnt have to explain it all to me, I would be very grateful to know the title of it. I just feel totally lost when it comes to resistance training. I was planning on getting a membership at a gym this summer while im home and maybe hiring a trainer for a couple of sessions to teach me these things, but I feel like I should be doing something now at school for the next 6 weeks. I can already tell that I have lost some strength from losing some muscle as I lose weight, so I want to get into weight training to try to stop this somewhat. I sound so pathetic lol cause I know absolutely nothing about this stuff. I have read some of the other posts about exercise, but I still feel lost because there seems to be contradicting information. Can someone help me?

Somethingnew I would look into buying the book New Rules of Lifting. It is very simple, gives great explanation, and should answer all of those questions you have. Here is a link to it.

Amazon.com: New Rules of Lifting: Six Basic Moves for Maximum Muscle: Books: Lou Schuler,Alwyn Cosgrove

Thanks. Is it a good book for a girl who just wants to tone? The cover of the book is quite intimidating lol.

Well first let me say that "toning" just means losing body fat to show muscle.

Regardless yes I know it may look very "manly" but I can assure you as a femme woman it is for both sexes.

Oh ok thanks so much! Yeah I just want to have a little more muscle underneath the fat so I will look firmer as I lose weight.