Thank you all for your previous advise, I am 6'2, large build, weigh 230 pounds and i need to loose fat! I am not new to training, had a 4 year lay off, and now been going inconsistently for the last 8 months (not been for 2 months now...but have been doing 3 sets of press ups every day! no excuse i know!) My new year plan is to do a split weights routine (something like Day1: Chest/Back/abs, Day 2: Shoulders/Biceps/Triceps, Day 3: Legs/abs) followed by cardio, im gonna aim for 3 sets 10 - 12 reps for 3 exercise per body part (2 primary and 1 'burning', i.e. I would regard bench press as primary and flyes, machine pullovers as so called 'burning exercises as you can use them to tone?), im going to aim to do 4 weeks of this routine followed by 4 weeks of rep workout (i.e. body pump class, high rep workouts).

I would appreciate it if someone could advise what split is recommended (i.e. chest/back or chest/triceps), should abs we worked on each training session for some one who needs to loose the flabby gut!?, what rest time between sets is best for my goal? and what are the two best primary exercises per body part and the best 'burning' exercise also does my routine sound ok for someone who aims to loose weight and tone/build? (I understand the diet also needs to be right!)...and lastly is there any weight training exercises to loose flab of the chest?... phew!! thanks in advance for the advice...(Kalrog im betting you will be the first to reply?!)

Chest: bench press, incline bench press
Legs: Squats, goodmornings
Back:chinups
shoulders: (bench press, incline press) military press added to the exersizes in parentheses
Biceps/forearms: (bench press, incline press, military press, chinups) barbell curls, dumbell curls
Triceps: (bench press, incline press, military press) skull crushers
Abs: (bench press, incline bench press, pretty much all the exersizes listed above!!) Bicycle crunches, regular crunch or suitcase

The point I was attempting to put across was there are really only a few exersizes you need to hit every body part. For example, bench press uses your abs, triceps, pectoralis major/minor, biceps and shoulders/delts. So, if you did an upper body split one day as follows...
Upper body:
Bench pressx3
incline bench pressx3
barbell curlsx2
military pressx2
chinupsx2
...you would be doing 8 sets on your triceps already! Although they would not be worked directly with every exersize, they would still be worked. Too much more work on them could lead to overtraining. That's why there really is not much need for 3-4 exersizes to target a specific muscle, unless maybe you are stuck and trying to get the "gain train" rolling on its tracks again. So, these are exersizes that you can take care of many muscle groups at once,
Bench press and incline bench press
chinups
squats
deadlifts
military press
barbell curls

REST TIME
This all depends on the amount of sets, number of reps, intesity, ect.
Usually when I lift heavy sets I rest per set for around 3-4 minutes so I can lift AS MUCH as I possibly can. Lifting more weight=more hypertrophy. I usually rest around 3-4 minutes when I do sets of around 5-6 reps.

On the other hand, when I do light, high rep workouts I usually rest for around 50 seconds to 1 minute. The idea here is to keep my heart rate up and burn more calories while working the muscle group and building up the connective tissue...a circuit training workout pretty much.

AMOUNT
---around 6 sets for the chest---
---around 8 for the back---
---7 for legs---
---maybe 1 extra set with a target exersize a piece for shoulders, biceps, and triceps---

It really does not take many sets to induce hypertrophy, the idea is to damage the muscle just enough so it will grow.
scott

Scott,
Great post... that one should be a sticky!