In today’s world, the gym environment has become so complicated because everyone is now an influencer on social media, sharing their own thoughts. As a result, youths often become confused about what to do and where to start, wondering if the information they encounter is right or wrong. Even intermediate-level athletes sometimes face confusion. Amid all these uncertainties, it’s tough to find a clear and reliable roadmap.
But don’t worry! In this article, we will provide a complete guideline for beginners. We will cover everything a beginner needs to know with a detailed step-by-step guide on how to progress effectively.
Select the Right Gym
First of all, choose a gym that is near your home or workplace, so you can maintain consistency. Ensure that the gym has all the facilities you need, as this will help make your journey smoother.
Find Your Motive
Set a realistic goal before joining the gym. Determine your motive for going to the gym; otherwise, you may feel directionless. Are you aiming to lose fat, get a lean body, build muscle, increase strength, or improve general fitness to stay healthy and fit as you age? To define your motive, one essential step is to assess your current condition. Let’s talk about that next.
Current Health Condition
People usually decide to join a gym under two common circumstances: first, when they become obese, and second, when they are too skinny and struggle to gain weight. Generally, fit individuals also join gyms, but their numbers are relatively low.
Do you know why it’s important to understand your current health condition? It’s because your entire fitness journey will be designed based on it. Your workout split, sequence, prioritized exercises, and even the inclusion of specific exercises to address any lagging muscle groups—all these factors depend on your current physical condition. Additionally, understanding your health condition helps reduce the risk of injury.
Not only that, but your diet plan also depends on your current health condition. Diet accounts for 80% of how your physique will shape up. The composition of nutrients in your diet—how much of each ingredient is required, what to include, and what to cut down—entirely depends on your current health condition.
Additionally, knowing your current condition helps you track your fitness and measure your progress. It boosts your confidence, keeps you mentally peaceful, and eliminates worry when you are aware of your starting point.
Here are the essential aspects of your current condition that you need to know before heading to the gym:
- Your body type
- BMI (Body Mass Index)
- Fat Percentage
- Hip-to-shoulder ratio
- Testosterone level
- Weight
Strength Development
Whatever goal you want to achieve, you must first focus on developing your strength. Whether it’s muscle hypertrophy, powerlifting, or general fitness, increasing your strength is essential to building a strong foundation. It also makes everyday activities, like climbing stairs, much easier.
Strength development is crucial to prevent injuries during future progressive overload. It also supports joint health and improves body alignment. Additionally, when a beginner develops strength, they experience quick and measurable progress, which boosts confidence and helps maintain motivation. Improved strength enhances workout form, helps maintain proper posture for the core and back, reduces back pain, and promotes a healthy, comfortable life in the long term.
To develop strength in the initial days, focus on bodyweight and compound exercises such as:
- Pull-ups/Chin-ups
- Parallel bar dips
- Push-ups
- Planks
- Lunges
- Burpees
Get Your Physique in Shape
No matter your current condition, your goal for the first three months after joining the gym should be to get your body in shape. But what does that mean? If you observe the physical profiles of regular gym-goers, you’ll notice that most have a specific shape called a V-shaped athletic physique. This typically involves a wider back, reduced fat around the waist area, and a slightly toned chest and arms.
Why is this important? Achieving a V-shape early in your fitness journey can significantly shorten the overall process. Working on each muscle group separately will tone them over time, but achieving a V-shape this way can be a long, challenging, and monotonous process.
During your first 90 days, while you are in the learning phase, focus on doing pull-ups regularly, incorporating cardio, performing core exercises, and maintaining a balanced routine with other body workouts. This will help your physique transform quickly. As you start noticing changes in your body, your fitness journey will become far more enjoyable and easier to stick to.
Start with Lightweight
To prevent injury and prepare your body, it’s important to start with lightweight. Your body is not yet accustomed to this level of activity, and starting light helps it adapt to the process. As a beginner, your joints are still weak, and your muscles and bones may not be strong enough to handle heavy loads. Additionally, the first year is when a man typically gains the maximum amount of muscle.
Starting with lightweight allows you to perform more reps, which helps your body respond quickly. It also increases blood flow, delivering nutrients to muscle tissues and promoting faster growth. Using light weights enables you to stretch your muscles through a full range of motion, which is essential for hypertrophy. Remember, always listen to your body.
Stick to the Basic Exercises
Do you know why you shouldn’t try any fancy exercises during your initial days? The reason is simple: these efforts won’t be effective. You’ll only end up wasting your time and energy without being able to establish a proper mind-muscle connection.
Always keep in mind that advanced athletes have well-defined and thick muscles. For them, it doesn’t matter much how they train—they can maintain a solid mind-muscle connection and perform exercises with full contraction. However, your muscles are not ready for that yet, so such exercises won’t be beneficial for you at this stage.
Additionally, many of these fancy exercises are designed to target specific muscles. When a beginner performs them, they may think they’re doing it right, but they unknowingly neglect other muscle groups. This leads to what is called junk volume, which unnecessarily increases the risk of injury. Moreover, it can result in a weak foundation, demotivation, and slower progress.
Familiar with the Machinery
Since we’re talking about beginners, it’s important to stick with the basic primary exercises. That’s why we’ll focus on understanding the primary equipment.
To be honest, if you understand the functionality of the essential equipment, you’ll naturally learn about the rest over time simply by observing others in the gym. To ensure you don’t feel awkward during your initial days, we’ll focus on familiarizing you with the essential equipment.
Upper Body
Chest
- Bench Press: You just need an adjustable bench that can be used as a flat bench, and also adjusted for incline and decline to target your chest. However, most gyms have separate bench press setups that are already fixed in place. You’ll only need dumbbells or barbells with weights to perform this exercise.
- Pec Deck Machine: This is a great isolation machine for training your chest. By adjusting your sitting position, you can target different parts of your chest (upper, middle, and lower).
- Cable Machine: This can also be used as an isolation tool for the chest, but it can train different parts of your body as well. For the chest, you can perform cable flies, cable close-grip presses, cable crossovers, and cable low-to-high flies.
Shoulder
- Shoulder Press Machine: Simply load the machine with weights according to your strength and press the bars upward. This exercise primarily targets your deltoid muscles.
- Dumbbells: Most shoulder exercises require free weights. With dumbbells, you can perform shoulder presses, front raises, side lateral raises, reverse flys, and Arnold presses. Dumbbells allow you to target both isolated and compound movements for your shoulders.
Back
- Lat Pulldown: An old but still highly effective exercise for targeting your lats and upper back. You can adjust your grip position to vary the focus.
- Seated Row Machine: This is a compound machine that allows you to target your middle and lower back. Additionally, it also works your traps.
- Pull-up Bar: Using a pull-up bar, you can train your entire back by performing pull-ups or chin-ups.
Arms
- Cable Curl: This is an excellent exercise for beginners due to the negative tension throughout the movement. It provides maximum stretch, which helps promote hypertrophy.
- Dumbbell, Barbell & Hammer Curl: These are isolated exercises—basic but super effective and essential at every stage of an athlete’s journey.
Core
- Ab Roller: An effective tool to strengthen your core. It’s a simple machine where your entire core is engaged, helping to stabilize the muscles.
- Roman Chair/Hyperextension Bench: This machine helps build a stronger lower back and can prevent lower back pain as you age. It also trains your core muscles.
- Plank Variations: No machine is needed—just a mat. Variations like side planks or standard planks target your core and obliques.
- Hanging Leg Raises: All you need is a pull-up bar. Hang your body and raise your legs to target your core. By raising your legs from the side, you can also engage your obliques.
Lower Body
- Squat Rack or Smith Machine: Squats are key to developing half of your body composition. As a beginner, the Smith machine can be helpful because it’s smooth and easy to control. Since the paths are fixed, the risk of injury is lower with this machine.
- Leg Press Machine: This machine allows you to target every part of your legs (quads, hamstrings, calves, glutes, inner thighs) by simply adjusting your foot position.
- Leg Curl Machine: An isolated machine that focuses on your hamstrings.
- Leg Extension Machine: Another isolated machine, this one targets your quads.
- Hip Thrust Machine: This machine primarily targets your glutes but is also beneficial for your hamstrings.
Cardio Machines
Cardio machines are essential for cardiovascular health, keeping your heart healthy and your blood vessels flexible. They are especially helpful for burning calories and improving endurance.
- Treadmill: A running machine where you can adjust the speed for walking, jogging, or running. It engages your entire body, with a focus on your legs and core stability.
- Exercise Bike: Simply sit down and start cycling. This machine is especially beneficial for people with knee issues.
- Stepper/Stair Climber: This machine mimics the action of climbing stairs, strengthening your lower body.
- Elliptical Trainer: This machine helps train your full body, mainly targeting your legs and arms, while improving cardiovascular fitness.
- Rowing Machine: This machine works your entire body (legs, back, arms, and core). You can adjust the resistance level, making it an excellent exercise for burning fat.
Warm-up and Cooldown
As a beginner, your joints may not be very flexible, which increases the risk of injury. Warm-up refers to preparing your body for the upcoming challenge. When you warm up, you’re gradually signaling your body to get ready for action. This increases blood flow, supplying more oxygen and nutrients to your muscles. A proper warm-up not only prepares you physically but also ensures mental readiness for the workout ahead. As your body temperature rises, your muscles become more flexible, reducing the chance of injury and preventing muscle stiffness during the workout.
Cooldown is the process of bringing your body back to a normal state, reducing muscle tension, and increasing flexibility, which helps your body relax. If you suddenly stop after a workout, you might experience nausea or dizziness. Cooling down helps remove lactic acid accumulated during exercise and reduces muscle stiffness. It makes your muscles more flexible, helping calm both your body and mind. Without proper cooling down, you may experience muscle soreness later, and suddenly stopping a workout can cause a sudden drop in blood pressure.
Drink Water Between Every Workout Session
Staying hydrated during your workout is crucial, or your muscles may start cramping. Without hydration, you won’t be able to maintain proper contraction and coordination. It will also lower your strength and endurance. Water helps regulate your body temperature, preventing overheating. Taking a sip allows your body to supply oxygen and nutrients to your muscles, helping you relax.
Some people may advise against drinking water during a workout, but I recommend taking a sip between every set. This will help maintain your muscle and joint effectiveness.
Workout Duration
If you think that more exercise equals more effective results, you’re absolutely wrong. This is called overtraining, and working out too much will not help you lose fat; it can actually cause weight gain. The ideal duration of a workout for a beginner is 30-45 minutes, 4-5 days a week. Split your workout into three sessions:
- Warm-up: 5-10 minutes
- Main workout: 20-30 minutes
- Cool down and stretch: 5-10 minutes
Advanced athletes don’t extend their sessions beyond 1:20-1:30 hours. Remember, do not overtrain. As a beginner, your body needs more rest to recover, and overtraining increases the risk of injury since your joints may not be flexible enough.
Follow Proper Breathing Technique
As a beginner, starting with lightweight, it’s important to follow a proper breathing technique from the very beginning. It will increase the intensity of your workout and enhance your core stability.
Additionally, proper breathing helps establish a strong mind-muscle connection, supplies more oxygen to your muscles during the workout, and helps prevent muscle fatigue and reduce the risk of injury.
What to Carry
It’s time for packing. Before heading to the gym, there are some essential tools you’ll need. Without them, you might miss a workout, or as a beginner, you may not be able to use your full strength or stay comfortable. Here are some essential items to carry:
- Gym Bag
- Comfortable Clothes
- Gym Shoes
- Towel
- Water Bottle
- Gym Membership Card
- Safety Gear (gloves, knee/elbow support)
- Deodorant (for post-workout refreshment)
Track Your Progress
It’s essential to track your progress. Log your workouts to see how much you’re improving. Record what exercises you’re doing, how many reps and sets, the rest time between sets, and how much weight you’re lifting.
You can also use progress photos to track your journey. Take photos every week under consistent lighting and poses. Additionally, take measurements of your chest, waist, arms, thighs, hips, weight, and body fat percentage. However, make sure to take these measurements at least after one month, as you won’t see significant changes overnight.
Join a Support System
There are many ways to join a support system, such as:
A Personal Trainer
Each individual’s physical condition and needs are different, so their workout split and nutrition plan should be tailored accordingly. By hiring a personal trainer, you can have a specific plan designed for you. A trainer will also guide you to maintain proper form and technique, ensuring your safety and preventing the risk of injury. However, if you don’t want to spend money right now, there are other options available.
Join a Physical or Online Training Program
You can join a community with hundreds of people, where everyone shares their problems and offers solutions. You can also find answers to your own questions. These programs often require less money, and sometimes your gym may even offer them. Training with a community can motivate you to push yourself harder than you would alone.
Alternatively, you can join social media groups for free, where members post their thoughts, share their problems, and offer solutions.
The Bottom Line
Let’s break the entire article into small points:
- Fix your goal: Why do you want to join the gym?
- Assess your current condition. Measuring your current status will help you create a clear roadmap.
- Focus on building strength first in your initial days and work on getting your physique in shape—it will shorten your journey.
- Start with lightweight and more reps to ensure safety and pump your muscles.
- Stick to the basics and progressively add more weight every two weeks.
- Learn how the machines work. This ensures proper form and helps build a strong mind-muscle connection.
- Don’t forget to warm up before starting and cool down after finishing.
- Stay hydrated during your workout.
- Divide your entire workout into three parts (warm-up, main workout, cool-down) and avoid overtraining.
- Maintain proper breathing techniques to increase intensity and strengthen the mind-muscle connection.
- Carry essential tools with you to stay comfortable.
- Track your progress regularly.
- And lastly, if needed, join a support system to make your journey more manageable and trackable.
