Thinking of joining a gym?
Great, well done!
If you are like most people you probably find it a bit intimidating at first, plus don’t really know what you are doing.
But there’s no reason to be intimidated, just remember everyone was new at some stage and a lot people don’t really know what they are doing either, they just pretend they do.
I remember the first time I went to a gym. It was this old school bodybuilder gym in London and I had no idea what I was doing. All the guys there were seasoned lifters and I made a total fool of myself.
After ten minutes of walking around trying to figure out what everything was, I did the same as most new guys do when they don’t know what their at, decided I would bench press.
Put way too much weight on the bar, somehow managed to get 2 reps and needed the bar to be lifted off me by some guy who could barely hold in the laughing.
Luckily the only thing I hurt was my ego.
Here are some pointers to make your first experience of the gym go a bit more smoothly than mine:
1.Have a Goal/plan/program.
The worst thing you can do is walk in not knowing what your goal is or how you are going to achieve it. You will end up walking around like a lost sheep and doing very little.
Know what your goal is and then have a program that will get you to it. You can find some programs here.
However, I would recommend hiring a trainer to get one designed specifically to you for best results and to make the most of your time in the gym.
There is a form at the bottom of the page if you would like a free consultation with myself.
2. Learn gym etiquette
A lot of gym etiquette can be covered by just not being an ass, like don’t sit on a bench for ten minutes on Facebook between sets and share equipment during your rest period if the gym is busy.
Here are the non negotiables everyone should do:
- Bring a towel to wipe down the benches and equipment,
- put the weights back after you use them,
- don’t do your sets in front of the free weights rack,
- wear clean gym gear,
- Respect other members, staff and equipment.
If everyone follows common etiquette the gym is a better place for all.
3. Don’t go heavy too quickly
Your body needs time to adjust to the new stress of exercising. So give it time.
Keep it to a relatively light weight and use higher reps for the first few weeks to let your joints, ligaments and other connective tissue get stronger.
Then you can progressively increase the weight as long as your technique is good.
4. It will get easier
What seems impossible today will be your warm up someday.
If you stick at it and follow a program that progressively challenges you there is no limit to what you can achieve.
Beginners can see massive improvements in relatively short periods of time. I’m not saying you will be ripped after a week but you should see noticeable changes after 4-6 weeks.
If you are not, you are doing something wrong. Never give up, be as consistent as you can and you will get the results.
5. Be guy number 2
There are 2 types of guys I see when it comes to starting training:
- The guy who wont get help, thinks he can do it on his own, spends months even years going to the gym making little to no gains for the time invested, eventually gets fed up and seeks help, has to relearn proper technique which can be harder than learning it right in the first place, realises he should have done it sooner and is pissed off he didn’t. Unfortunately I was this guy many years ago.
- The guy who understands he doesn’t know it all, gets help, learns proper technique, principles, what he needs to eat for his goals, makes massive gains in a short period of time and can continue training correctly by themselves after the initial learning phase.
Invest in yourself and your training at the beginning, it will save you lots of time, believe me I learned the hard way.
Hope this helps make your first experience of the gym more enjoyable.
Feel free to share to anyone you think need to see this.
If you would like a free consultation and gym session to get you started fill out the form below and I will be in touch soon.
Happy new year!
Shane