weight training for dummies

So I've recently started lifting weights again, which I haven't really done religiously since I was a teenager. The weight bench that I purchased was a great deal, and it is very sturdy and chunky and offers lots of different positions and adjustments for working out different muscles. I'm using some old plastic-encased concrete weights from a former weight set and they seem to work out okay.

I remember all of the guys bragging about how much they could bench press when I was younger. One of my cousins claimed to be able to bench press like 200 pounds when he was only 17 years old. He used to joke around that he could bench press his mother if he wanted to. I didn't have nay reason not to believe him, but I also never asked how many sets of 200 pounds he could press, either. Of course, he's grown quite chunky over the years and now looks like he has gained about half of that weight instead.

I remember when I was only thirteen, and a friend of mine had this great idea that we could go out for the cheerleading team, and that we would get to peer up cheerleaders skirts while we were holding them up in the air. It sounded like fun at the time, but we soon realized that we couldn't even lift the 70-pound empty bench press bar, let alone a sixteen year old girl. So it didn't last long, and we quit, our dreams being smashed of ever seeing older girls at such an angle.

Nowadays, I wonder how much I'm supposed to be bench pressing at my age. I basically added as many of the largest weights as I could to the bar, which I think added up to about 120 pounds, not including whatever the bar itself weighs. I can do a set of 12 each night, which seems to do the job and effectively wear me out. My muscles look great for a while after I workout. Of course, it's disappointing the next morning when I wake up and the "ripped" effect has gone away. So how long before this "ripped" effect actually sticks? I just don't know. I also don't know when the belly weight that I've accumulated over the years from my lethargic deskjob will start to go away.

Of course, I realize that it takes time to get back in shape...probably as much time as it too to get out of it...or more.