20 pounds in 30 days sounds like a bit much..
I agree. I'm not really looking to lose weight, I am really just wanting to do some decent strength training in the safety of my own apartment.
I never know what to do with weights and things at the gym, so I always just end up doing cardio. I have like zero upper body strength!
Congrats on your weight loss! That is a huge accomplishment, and good for you for doing it the right way.
Ten pounds of the 20 pounds would probably be water weight, and 10 pounds of real weight loss is entirely doable on a Jillian style workout (woman is a beast motivator! I imagine her yelling at me when I'm doing HIIT workouts)
Do you want to know how to use weights and things at the gym? because if you want to know how to use them, it's not difficult to find out. Youtube is a tremendous resource in terms of demonstration videos, Crossfit.com has tons of videos showing proper form and execution of free weights but they are more oldschool, preyoutube, so everything is in QT or RM.
but the absolute best you can do is just buy the DVD Starting Strength. The DVD shows you how to do the five basic free-weight lifts, and it shows it with a variety of body types and people, from underweight, overweight and average girls, both older and younger including girls that are obviously already fit, to those that are obviously not, guys that are hefty, scrawny, old, ripped and average. So it runs a fairly balanced gamut of showing that anyone can do these exercises.
The video really emphasizes proper form and lifting safely and intelligently. You find out lifting is not a boring exerise, it's going to use your brain a lot because there's a lot to think about and a lot to focus on. I find it clears my head way better than cardio. and imo it is absolutely essential to see it. Seeing it locks in the visualization of the exercise in your minds eye, imo, and its so much better than a tiny size or heavily pixelated youtube video or QT file.
Additionally, body builders have decided that they need to do some sort of vast gamut of free weight exercises to get any benefit. They are wrong, most of them don't even execute the primary lifts correctly, and the variety exercises are mostly just poor substitutes that do not work large muscle groups as efficiently or as directly as the primary lifts. or they're isolation exercises that are designed to make some sort of manly muscle pop (like biceps, triceps, pecs). So girls, for the most part, don't need to bother with anything outside of the four-five primary lifts and pullups, dips, back extensions, and chinups (those latter four don't need to involve weights, though they can, and are usually done in the free weight area)
The five primary lifts are as follows:
Squat
Dead Lift (used to be known as the Health Lift, funny how the name changed)
Press
Bench Press
Clean
Squat and Dead Lift are whole body exercises and the two essential lifts that should be part of every exercise program, imo, they contribute so much benefit to everyone if they're done correctly, however they're also the lifts most likely to be done incorrectly, so they're not as popular as the easier Bench and Press lifts. These two latter lifts are closer to isolation exercises, because the although the Dead Lift works the back and forearms a great deal and the Squat hits the back as well, primarily in both lifts you're using your arm muscles as stabilizers rather than lifting. These two lifts target the upperbody, the Bench Press hits the triceps and chest primarily and the press works the shoulders and triceps. The best bicep exercise there is that is known to humankind is chinups. pullups also give some of the best whole arm workout there is, dips are sort of like a bench press, chest and triceps. Back extensions, obviously, target the back. The clean is your explosive lift, it shouldn't be done without coaching, or at the very least a very solid squat rack, but you can do the exercise with just a pvc pipe or an empty bar safely and get the benefit of the movement--it's a hell of a lot of fun too, I just added it back into my workout and it's a treat to get to the clean because its the end of the workout and the most fun.
Lifting free weights will not make you look like female body builders. It will increase your strength, lessen backpain, and help your overall health. Traditionally the only free weights exercise women do in their life is lifting and carrying infants and toddlers a few hundred times a day, that definitely makes them stronger (the baby keeps getting heavier, like adding weight to your workout sets) but I don't think you see a lot of ripped mommies out there.
The one thing the dvd does not do is provide a workout program, that's laid out very ably in the book Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. If you're interested at all in the anatomy, physiology and science behind the five primarily lifts and what health benefits they confer, what muscle groups they work and the professional explanation of why this form is essential and that form is a problem this is absolutely the best book there is.
But to save you some time and money his workout program is basically
A Day: Squats and Press (or Bench Press) and pullups
B Day: Deadlifts and Bench Press (or Press) and chinups
and every other deadlift workout he either adds a set of cleans or subs deadlifts for cleans but again, the Clean is an optional lift.
the workout target is 3 work sets of 5 repetitions.
A workout is a heavy set, it is preceded by at least 6 warmup sets
2 sets of 5 reps with just the bar (to practice your form and to warm up your brain to focus on the exercise)
1 set of 5 reps with about 40-50% of your work set
1 set of 5 reps with about 50-65% of your work set
1 set of 3 reps with about 65-80% of your work set
1 set of 1-2 reps with about 80-90% of your work set
3 work sets of 5 reps
the only exception is he puts deadlifts as the second exercise on days that exercise is performed. and he eliminates a few of the warmup sets (because deadlifts are exhausting) and only has you do 1-2 work sets of deadlifts)
rest about 1-2 minutes between warm up sets 2-3 minutes between work sets.