This past Wednesday, I had my first gym workout in about six months.  I go to a small (free!) gym at one of the workplaces in the organization I work for.  It has a variety of resistance machines, free weights, bench press station & Smith machine, etc..  pretty well-equipped, for a small gym.  I did very well, considering..  I can tell I worked some muscles- I definitely have DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness).  My DOMS usually peaks at around 48 hours after I train.

I have log sheets which I usually take to the gym, with my exercises listed, so that I can keep track of my progress.  But since this was a warm-up workout, to get back into it, I didn't use a log.  I'll attach a sample log sheet for one upper-body routine that I've used.  I try to mix it up and throw in different exercises at each workout, for variety, and because the body responds better, and progresses better, if you surprise it with new movements, or new ways of doing the same exercises.

If I remember correctly, my workout lasted about 45 minutes, and I did the following:

(lbs x reps listed for each set)

EZ-bar bicep curls - 20x15, 40x5, 30x5

Rear Delt Machine - 5x12, 5x8  (on this machine, 5 is not weight in lbs, but the number of plates I used)

Lat Pulldown Machine - 5x14, 6x7  (same as above, number of plates, not lbs)

Mid-Row Machine - 7x12, 6x10 (same as above)

Smith Machine 20-degree incline presses - 90x10, 90x7  (lbs in this case)  Note: because of an intermittent shoulder problem, I haven't been able to use the weights in pressing movements that I'd like to..  gotta visit the physical therapist and see if they can help that.

Cable Tricep Press - 6x12, 5x10  (plates, not lbs)

Pec Machine (which is the same machine as the Rear Delt, but with different settings, and seated the other way) - 6x12, 6x8  (plates)

Dumbell Pullovers - 40x5, 30x5  (I like this one a lot- it stresses the entire front of your upper body- lats, abs, pecs.  It was one of Arnold's favorite movements)

I generally rest 60-90 seconds between sets.  Sometimes I superset exercises together, but since I'm just breaking back into it, I took it easy for this workout!     I've noticed that as I get more used to an exercise, I have to work harder to get the same level of DOMS.  DOMS (muscles are stiff and sore for a few days) is not a very pleasant symptom, but I welcome it, because it's an indicator of how effectively I've hit a muscle group.

More notes later..

Lunges holding weights will work the hamstrings and glutes on the upward motion I think.  Suze

Good points- yes, I had forgotten that lunges and squats stress the hamstrings as well as the glutes.  thanks, folks!

I think that stiff-leg deadlifts also hit the hamstrings, in addition to the lower back.. 

Regarding DOMS - Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.  I've seen a couple of interesting articles online about this phenomenon, although, in addition to providing some information about DOMS, they raise some questions.. for example, there doesn't seem to be a reliable way to shorten the length of time that DOMS affects you after exercise.  About the only thing that will lessen DOMS is to do warmups before eccentric exercise, and to perform repeat bouts of the same exercise several times over several weeks, and as the body adapts to the exercise, the DOMS will be less severe, and will go away faster. 

One article is here: http://www.drlenkravitz.com/Articles/doms.html

And another one here:  http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/1077-muscle-soreness.htm

DOMS seems to be especially prevalent after eccentric exercise, i.e. allowing the muscle to lengthen against resistance, as opposed to concentric exercise- shortening a muscle to overcome resistance.  As in the practice of doing "negatives" - lifting the weight with help, then lowering it slowly against the resistance.

My main question about this has to do with the relationship between muscle hypertrophy and DOMS.  Does one have to wait until DOMS is completely gone before doing another workout for the same muscle group, to get maximum gains in muscle size and strength?  Or is it possible to exercise the muscle group before the DOMS is gone, and still get the muscle hypertrophy you're seeking?  If the second scenario is true, then perhaps I *could* do a workout every 48 hours, and will experience greater muscle hypertrophy over time.. 

Intuitively, though, I would think that waiting until DOMS is gone (or almost gone) would be a better strategy, because DOMS is probably the result of muscle tissue damage.  Waiting until the body has repaired the muscle tissue all the way would make sense, because the muscle has then been completely repaired, and is a little larger (hypertrophy) and stronger than it was previous to the exercise that damaged it.  Therefore, you could progress to a greater weight, once again incurring DOMS, and the muscle will repeat the cycle of repairing and getting stronger. 

The first article cited above states "...in a muscle that is experiencing DOMS, continued eccentric exercise is still possible without further muscle damage. When dealing with DOMS it is important to differentiate it from muscle strains, recognizing that continued exercise is still possible with DOMS, but not with muscle strain." -- This seems to indicate that it is okay to exercise a muscle that has DOMS, although it is not clear if the muscle will benefit from the exercise in its incompletely-repaired state. 

I think for the time being, I'm going to wait until DOMS has almost completely vanished from a muscle group before exercising it again.  For one thing, it doesn't sound like a pleasant prospect to do maximum-effort workouts while muscles are still experiencing DOMS from the previous workout.  Until somebody can convince me that working out while still experiencing DOMS will get me muscle gains faster, I'll wait until my DOMS is gone before doing the next workout for a particular muscle group.

After work yesterday, I went for a nice wog (a term I coined for my practice of combining walking and jogging).  My energy level was high- felt great!  I went a little longer than usual- about an hour, even though it was quite warm out- in the 80s.  I don't generally carry a drink with me, unless it's in the 90s.  I felt fine for the whole route.

My wogging route consists of hills and some flat areas.  The route has a loop at the far end; I'm not sure what the distance around the loop is, but it takes me about 15 minutes to go around it.  So, if I want to extend my wog, I make an additional lap around the loop.  The loop is on a rather steep slope in a canyon, so it's a good workout.

Re: wogging- it is similar to 'fartleks', speed play.  I vary my speed on the route intuitively, and at uneven intervals.  I'll typically start out at a fast walk, then after a few minutes, break into a jog.  Then, whenever I feel like it, I'll step up the pace for an arbitrary distance, like up to the next traffic sign or street intersection.  My stepped-up pace can be a moderate jog, up to a sprint.  Then I'll bring it back down to a slow jog, or walk for 30 seconds or so, then jog again, etc.. 

I feel that this speed play, along with the up-and-down terrain of my route, gives me a good workout, and it's probably similar to a paleolithic hunt.  I also think that merely jogging at a steady pace on flat terrain, or running on a treadmill for x minutes at a steady pace, isn't as good a workout as what I do. 

I feel just as energetic today- if I weren't at work, I think I'd go hike up a mountain or something.   Btw, mountain hiking is great exercise, and probably less pounding on leg and hip joints than running.. depending on the slope, and your walking pace, it can be every bit as strenuous as fast jogging. 

When I was stationed in Japan in the Army, we used to go to the city of Kure, in Southern Japan, a couple times a year, and on my time off I'd hike up the trail on Mount Haigamine, which was right next to the town.  Altitude gain was about 3,500 feet, from the town, which is a port city (at sea level).  Here's a photo showing a view from the top of Haigamine..
http://www.jnto.go.jp/tourism/en/69.html

While in Japan, I also climbed Mt. Fuji, hiking from the town of Gotemba on the coastal plain, to the top of the famous peak, and stayed overnight in one of the little "hotel" shacks.. quite an experience!  Took me 11 hours of steady climbing to reach the top, an altitude gain of over 12,000 feet.  And it gets steeper and steeper as you approach the peak.  Whew!   
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2172.html

You don't need your car to check the distance.  http://gmap-pedometer.com

Went for wogs on Saturday morning and Monday afternoon.  The 1-lap route, which is about 4 miles.  Felt good both times..  on Monday's wog, I also did some pushups, a set of 20 and after a break of 10 seconds, another set of 10.  I also did about 8 chinups on a tree branch at the same place along the route.

I probably won't do a gym workout until Thursday.  But I may go out for another wog tomorrow morning (July 4th) before I get all involved with setting up the charcoal grill for our cookout.

A few notes about this past week's activities:

Thursday July 12th I had an excellent workout at the gym.. my workout ran about an hour and 15 minutes, whereas I usually go for an hour or so before I "run out of gas".  Some days, I have higher energy than others; I guess this was a good day!  I worked my upper body with about 12 different exercises, and achieved good muscle pumps.  I can tell I've gotten a good pump when I shower afterwards, and can hardly lift my arms up enough to use the shampoo..   

Saturday was a very active day; I wogged in the morning, taking my 5.5-mile route (two laps around the loop).  Felt great.  I've been taking my T-shirt off during my wogs, to get the sunshine.  I am careful to not get so much sun that I burn.  I hope I'm not making passersby ill with my bare top, but hey, I don't look that bad- just a little flab spare tire, but that is shrinking as I progress with my paleo eating and exercising..  Besides, I'm doing this for me, not anybody who might happen to be looking at me. 

As I've mentioned before, I play bass guitar in a band, and loading the equipment in and out of the house, and in and out of the car at the gig site, is almost a workout in itself.  We had a gig in the evening on Saturday, so I got the workout of loading and setting up/tearing down my equipment, in addition to the wog in the morning.  My muscles were still quite sore with DOMS from Thursday's workout, but it didn't seem to hinder me much.  I love it when I get a strong case of DOMS- it's a sign that the workout was an effective one.

Then, on Sunday morning, I ate quite a bit of food, and it wasn't long before I was starting to get hungry again!   That's one thing I like about being physically active- you burn a lot of calories, and you can eat almost anything without gaining any fat.  Especially with paleo foods.  In fact, if you stick with paleo foods exclusively, and stay physically active, you are almost guaranteed to lose most of your excess fat and normalize your weight with time.  Since I relax my dietary regimen and eat mostly non-paleo foods on the weekends, the fat loss is not as rapid, but I'm still slowly slimming down.