You’re out of shape, and you know it. It makes you feel uncomfortable and you want to change your life.
You’ve never been to the gym and you don’t know where to start.
But nothing churns up feelings of anxiety like going to the gym and having people look at you while you try to start a new life. A better life for yourself.
Listen up! Who cares about those people?! It is your time now, do not hesitate. You cannot control what people do or what they think. You can only control your own actions and you must take action now.
With that being said, there are a few tips that will help you when you go into the gym for the first time.
Tip 1: Take a deep breath. Realize that after that first workout is over, you will be feeling better than you’ve felt in years. Each workout after that you will continue to feel better and get stronger and you will start living the life you’ve dreamed of.
Tip 2: Do a walk through. Prior to your first workout, do a walk through of the gym. Just to check it out. See the layout; watch what the other people are doing. Take a deep breath, your big day is coming.
Tip 3: Go home and make your game plan. When are you going? What do you want to do on your first day and how does that fit into your long term goals? Each journey begins with a single step and each goal is achieved the same way.
Tip 4: I would recommend machines. The best training you can do is with free weights, but this will come in time. We will start with machines, move onto bodyweight movements and then ultimately to free weights. Machines will keep you in a fixed path and start overloading your muscles more than they’ve ever been. So it will be good you don’t have to worry about controlling the weights. Walk down the line of machines and hit each one. One workout you can stick to all upper body movements and the next workout you do, focus on only lower body movements. Perform two sets of 10-15 on each one with a weight that doesn’t make you struggle too much. As the weights and workouts progress forward, so too will the volume you will be executing each time. You could progress to three to four sets of 10-15. Once you can handle this, we will move onto free weights. But that is a topic for a future article.
Tip 5: The next day you are going to be sore, but not as sore as two days after the workout! This is called DOMS, or delayed onset of muscle soreness. Do not do what you want to do, which is sit on the couch because everything else hurts! Get up and get moving. Take a walk, stretch out. This will help alleviate the soreness and get your ready for the next workout!
Stay tuned for more articles helping you reach your potential!
Jim Smith, CSCS
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