If you are wondering how to start gym for the first time, then you’ve come to the right place. As somebody that has been working out for the last 5 years, I have some really important tips to share with you. I am sure they will help you and answer some of the questions you might have at the moment. And if you have anything else to ask after you’ve read this post, feel free to do so in the comment section below. I will be sure to answer them there. Enjoy!
1. Watch videos
If you’ve never properly trained at the gym before, I suggest you start by watching some videos about it on the internet. Fortunately, you can find pretty much any exercise or workout freely available on YouTube.
The goal is to watch the exercises and to try them out at home. You probably don’t have weights lying around the house, but you can try out the exercises without them. The idea is to prepare yourself as much as possible in order to get a feel of how and what you will be doing once you come to the gym. Having the right posture and technique during exercises is extremely important, or else you are risking to hurt yourself.
2. Consider getting a coach
If you’re thinking how to start gym for the first time, it might be a good idea to hire a personal coach. Even though I have never personally had one, getting a coach is a good idea, especially in the beginning.
As mentioned previously, when just starting out, you won’t know much about the training process. Things like which exercises to do, what machines to use, the correct technique, good posture, diet and supplements – will all be new to you. You can, of course, learn about all of these on your own, but it takes time and you are much better off doing everything correctly right from the start.
If you can’t afford a professional to teach and supervise you, you can get an online training program, such as the popular Ben Pakulski’s MI40 program. The benefits of such programs are that all of the needed information is gathered in one place and taught by a professional, such as in this case, by a bodybuilding professional called Ben Pakulski.
3. Make a plan
If you don’t have a coach, then I suggest you create a plan of what you are going to do before you get to the gym. You then take this plan with you to the gym.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people walking around the gym, having absolutely no idea what they need to do next. As a result, they do a bit of everything, which is ok, but not the most optimal way to approach a workout.
Apart from writing down the exercises, you also write down the weights you used, how many sets and repetitions you made per exercise. You will use this information again when you go to the gym next time. It will help you understand what you need to do and how much you are progressing as you continue working out.
Once you become more experienced, you won’t need to make a plan for every workout; you will intuitively come up with it during the workout. However, when you are just thinking about how to start gym for the first time, a plan is a must.
4. Stretch and warm up
When I just started going for the first time to the gym at the age of 17, I totally neglected stretching. As a result, I became stiff to the point where my arms would hang relaxed, but still be slightly bent at the bicep. This was caused by muscle growth and the lack of stretching.
Similarly, I never warmed up before workouts, which often game me muscle strains. If you’ve ever had one, you know that sometimes you can’t walk or move properly for a couple of days, let alone go to the gym. No fun at all.
At the age of 23, when I started taking the gym seriously once again, I totally changed my way of working out. Now I always stretch, before and after the workout, and I spend a bit of time warming up before doing any exercises. This prevents injuries and I don’t feel as stiff as a tree.
5. Don’t overdo it
One very big mistake that many people do when starting to work out is that they spend too much time in the gym. I am guilty of this myself.
I used to spend 3 hours every day at the gym, trying to get absolutely everything done. Sure, my muscles grew and quite fast, but that was only because I was 17, which means that I had a lot of testosterone to spare for muscle growth.
Well, as you probably can guess, I burned out after a year of such exercise. I didn’t want to go the gym anymore. I was so fanatical and obsessed with growing muscles that I made myself hate the gym, ironically. But apart from burning out, there is another problem with having too long workouts.
You are not going to grow more because you work out for longer. On the contrary, it has been proven by many professional bodybuilders that the optimal time is about one hour of intense training. During that one hour, you can push your limits, which is what you absolutely need for muscle growth. All of the exercises done after that one hour, considering that you’ve worked hard enough during the hour, won’t be executed with maximum effort, which means that they won’t really help your growth.
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6. Don’t miss body parts
Taking my young self once again as an example, at first I focused mostly on my upper body only. As a result, after a year of training, I had no legs but a strong upper body. It looked pretty hilarious. Don’t follow my example.
When you are learning about how to start gym for the first time, it is very important that you understand that all body parts must be trained, including legs, arms, chest, back, abs shoulders and even the trapezius (traps). If you are a guy and don’t train traps, you might end up looking a bit like a square (wide shoulders with a head attached). You don’t want that. For the ladies, it’s not really necessary.
You can break up your workouts in the following order:
- day 1 – shoulders and traps
- day 2 – chest and triceps
- day 3 – back and biceps
- day 4 – legs (all parts of the leg)
You can add abs to any of the days. I do them every workout as the first exercise to warm my body up.
The above four-day split is just an example. You can make your own program. Just remember to do all body parts, but on different days.
7. Do cardio and muscle workouts on different days
When you want your muscles to grow, it’s important that you focus only on that. That means that as soon as you are done with your workout, you should be able to relax, have a post-workout meal, and, if your lifestyle allows you to do so, have a nap. All of these things will stimulate muscle growth.
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On the other hand, if you do cardio right after a muscle workout, you will be exhausting your body even further, which is not what you want to do. This type of exhaustion impedes muscle growth.
If you want to lose weight, you do cardio on an empty stomach. If you want to grow, you need to have some food in you before you begin to train hard. That is where your energy will come from.
8. Start with machines
When you are just learning about how to start gym for the first time, you probably don’t have much muscle mass, which means that you will grow from pretty much whatever you do in the gym. With time, as you progress, muscle growth will begin to slow down. This is normal.
However, because you are new to the gym, I suggest you avoid getting hurt for as long as possible. In my opinion, the best way to do this is by using machines instead of free weights.
The machines, unlike free weights, won’t allow you to break yourself, which is a good thing of course. After a month time, once you have a bit more strength and know what to do in the gym, you can go and start using free weights. They are more effective for muscle growth, but they also have the potential to hurt you. Take your time.
9. Watch your diet
Believe it or not, but if you want to look good, the diet is more important than the workout. I am sure you have/will see people who work out many days a week for years, but still look a bit.. saggy. Why? Because they don’t follow the right diet. They keep eating whatever and whenever.
Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t eat chocolate of hamburgers every once in a while. You can. The keyword here is “moderation”.
So what’s a good gym diet?
- Proteins – you need a lot of protein. Proteins are what your muscles are made of. If you don’t eat proteins, you won’t grow muscles, regardless of how much you work out. On the contrary, if you work out and don’t eat proteins, you will lose muscles.
- Carbohydrates – this is where you get energy from. If you don’t eat any carbs, you won’t have the energy to lift weights, which means that you won’t be able to grow properly. No energy = weak training = no muscles. If you’ve ever been on a diet without carbs, you know that the weakness can get really bad sometimes.
- Fats – these aren’t from the fitness/bodybuilding perspective as important as the other two, but they are absolutely necessary if you want to stay healthy. Just make sure you don’t consume transfats or too many saturated fats. The healthy option is unsaturated fats.
Vitamins are also an absolute must in any case.
I highly recommend you read this book for more info: Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body.
10. Sleep and rest
There is not much to say about this other than your body mostly grows during sleep. This means that if you are working out hard, you need to get plenty of sleep, even more than you would normally. If you don’t get any sleep, you won’t grow, just like you won’t grow if you don’t eat enough.
11. Morning vs evening workouts
My last but not least tip concerning how to start gym for the first time is more of personal advice to you.
I am pretty sure you love to sleep, just as we all do, right? However, I really recommend that you at least try working out early in the morning, before work, while the rest of humanity is still asleep. There are a couple of very good benefits to this.
First of all, there are few people at the gym in the morning, which means that you don’t have to queue to the machines and you can get through your workout faster if you need to. Nobody will be on your way and nobody will distract you. You will have quality time with yourself at the gym. You can even take selfies for Instagram without feeling awkward, if you’re into that kind of stuff. 🙂
Secondly, by going to the gym early in the morning, it means that you won’t have to do it in the evening after work or school. No extra stress. Also, if you leave it until after work or school, there will be more chances of you skipping the workout because either you will be too tired or something else that is more important will suddenly pop up.
Finally, by going in the morning, you can eat for the rest of the day without feeling guilty, as you will know that all of the food is well-deserved and will be used to make up for the lost calories, or, if it’s your goal, to help your muscles grow.
Hopefully, you found my 11 tips on how to start gym for the first time, useful. All of them come from personal experience.
But before I end, I would also like to add that going to the gym has completely changed my life. I never even considered that this hobby can have such a powerful and positive effect on my wellbeing.
Whenever I feel stressed and go to the gym, it is as if the negativity in my mind dissolves. By the end of the workout, I hardly remember what the stress was all about. The act of lifting weights, sweating and pushing your limits is truly a healing process. It’s like meditation, except you use your body instead of the mind.
Don’t take my word for it, though. Go and try it out for yourself.
Thank you for stopping by and good luck!
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