Well I shouldnt have said pull ups. I don't know what to call them but they are kinds like pull ups except much easier. Basically I'm hanging from a horizontal pipe about 3 or 4 feet off the ground with my heels touching the ground. Then I pull my chest up to the pipe and back down.
I'm gonna try your advice on the lifting.
So when you say a few reps what do you mean? Like 8 reps? How many sets? How many times per week?
I only lift for about 20 minutes per day before work btw.
I'm sure Ron Mexico covered everything, but I'll tell you what I do as a semi-serious on and off weight lifter for the past 20 years.
If you're unconditioned, you'll get the best results by doing a full body workout each session, as opposed to muscle group splits. Whether you're doing full-body or splits, you need to work out these muscle groups each week: Chest (pecs), Back (lats), Thighs (quad and hamstring), and shoulders (delts). Most people also train their arms, calves, and occasionally glutes.
You can find many splits schedules on the internet, so I won't bother with that. I'll give you the full body workout that will give you the best results as an unconditioned body builder.
The goal is to reach muscle failure, NOT JUST FATIGUE, at the end of each set. This is very important. You will do these workouts 3 times a week, each time increasing the number of reps until failure (which you achieve by lowering the weights lifted). You should aim for 6-8 reps on the first day of the week until failure. So if you can do 10 bench presses until you can no longer do 1 more, you're not putting enough weight on. If you can only do 7 until the muscle fails, that's perfect.
So on the first day, you'll do your exercise for 6-8 reps until failure. Then you rest for at least a day (2 days if you like). Then you do the same exercises at 10% less weight, which would allow you to get in a couple more reps. For example, if you're bench pressing 150 lbs on day one, go down to 135 on day 2 of the cycle. Day 3 you decrease it 10% further, going down to 120. You rest, then go back to your 100%, trying to increase the weight a bit (say 5 lbs on each side).
You should do 4 sets each session of the following exercises (all with free weights):
1. Squats.
2. Barbell Bench Press (dumbbell is okay too).
3. Dumbbell Bent-over Rows (don't do pull ups).
4. Barbell shoulder press (or dumbbell).
5. Dead lifts.
6. Machine hamstring curls. Note: some people combine 5 and 6 into one by doing straight-legs dead lifts. But in my experience, that exercise does not achieve proper activation of the hamstring).
7. Bicep curls and calf raises, which are optional.
Remember, to build muscle, you need to be in a caloric surplus. So you don't need to do cardio. If you do do cardio, then you need to make up for the calories. I'd aim for 300 extra calories a day (over baseline). You also need to get 300 grams of protein a day, which is a ton.
Once your body becomes more conditioned and resistant, you'll need to switch to splits. Full body workouts will give you the best result for at least the first 6 months, and probably a bit longer. After that, you can get a lot more creative!
Here's a directory of exercises that I often look at:
http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html
But that's for the future. Stick to the big ones I mentioned for the time being. I would not bother with kinesthetics on off days, as you're trying to rest the muscle and give it time to recover.
