Pain after weight lifting

How much weight should a woman lift on machines. It was my first time to work out with weight. Is it common to be in so much Pain after weight lifting that you can barely walk or move your neck. I recently hired a personal trainer who had me lift 70 lbs., 15 reps, three times and running up the stairs and back in between reps. He said it would build my calves. We worked on several other machines as well. I lifted 80 lbs. with my shoulders 15 times and I feel that I am injured now. I knew right away it was too much weight and the trainer insisted I would be fine. I am not interested in building muscle bulk. I only want to tone my muscles.

you may have been over exerting yourself, some people think no pain no gain and thats what your instructor may have thought. you dont need this mind set just to tone though! the burning is from your muscles growing, when they grow, the tissue rips and then builds its self again, but stronger. you may have something hurt though.

your trainer sounds like a good one. i'm afraid their will be some pain after training, esp the fist few sessions. don't worry. Its not the muscle 'growing', woman struggle to 'build' as testosterone levels are too low. the pain is actually fluid lying over the nerve endings after 'tearing' the muscles. all very normal I promise! the muscle DOES grow back firmer. have faith in your trainer...some of us actually know our stuff!

You said you're a beginner and your trainer has you on that type of a regimen? Ditch him at once! Depending on the machine, beginners (especially women) generally don't go over 30 lbs to start. In fact, machines are used initially to teach you proper form before graduating you off to a barbell or weightbell so that you learn stability without hurting yourself.

To give you an idea of how much you're overworked, I personally am a 23 yr old female with many years of high intensity taekwondo training/conditioning. On a tough day, my coach would have us do about 6 sets of kicks, about 100 situps, 100 pushups, and then STOP. Then everything would hurt like I got hit by a bus for about 2 days and then feel ok again. But then again, you're not trained to take hits from 140 lb folks and used to sprinting a few miles a day. So go with your gut, and quit this routine!

Lastly, he wants to keep your heartrate up with the stairs inbetween sets, but beginners really do better with recovery instead. If you keep this up in the long run, your immunity goes down, you'll feel burnt out, and your joints will hurt like hell because your trainer is insistent on drilling speed and intensity without consideration over form.