The gym is for everyone, but not everyone starts a pro.
What are you reading this article for? Are you here to lose weight or gain some muscle mass? If you’re a beginner, you’re at the right place. This workout guide is for beginners looking to lose some pounds in the gym or look more muscular.
If you’re a seasoned gym-goer, don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with a little refreshment of the basics.
Here is a gym workout guide for beginners:
Assess Your Body’s Needs
This is the first thing that you must do before you enter a gym. This is the start of your journey. This step will determine a lot of factors that you will need to consider before you can make your next move or construct your workout plan.
Assess your body’s needs by calculating your Body Mass Index (BMI). Knowing your BMI will introduce you to the fitness path you’re going to take.
What is BMI?
BMI is a way of determining your body type: normal, underweight, overweight, obese, and so on.
How do you get your BMI?
It’s simple and easy to do:
You have to divide your weight to your squared height or kg/m².
Done! Now what?
Once you’ve got the answer to the previous step, it’s time to finally find out what your BMI is. You can search for a BMI table on the internet. A BMI of 18.5 – 25 indicates a normal weight.
Now You Know What Your Body Needs
You may have planned to lose kilos beforehand, but now that you know your weight is normal, maybe you can just maintain and just “tone” everything out instead of going all out in the gym, trying to lose the healthy weight.
Make A Workout Plan
Got a goal in mind? It’s time to make it concrete and achievable as possible. Get a personal gym diary or open your phone’s notes and construct a solid plan.
Where do you start?
Ask yourself what you want to achieve and build your plan around your answer. If you want to lose weight, then make a workout plan that suits this goal best. The internet is full of programs that can help you with whatever you want to achieve. Do you want to have Captain America’s body? Thank the creative fitness gurus who have designed a specific program just for this! Isn’t that great?
You can also make your exercise program from scratch. All you need to do is get familiar with the exercises involved in attaining the goal that you have. Youtube is your friend.
Don’t Forget About Good Food
A good workout is just a step closer to your goal. It’s not the whole process. At the end of the day, you should be able to keep a healthy mind and body through what you eat.
What you eat fuels you to exert effort when working out and when doing daily chores, and one more thing: food shapes your body. Yes, that’s right. It’s not just the weight that puts some peak on your biceps; it’s the protein that you take in. Plus, carbohydrates are what pump you up to reach your maximum potential every gym day.
Seek Good Advice
Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to ask. You’re a beginner, and so was every pro at some point in their journeys. Everyone in your gym was a beginner. That buff dude you always look at when he’s pressing those heavy plates was probably once a slim dude.
A personal gym trainer can help you the most. They’re professionals; unlike you, they’ve worked with every body type you can imagine. They are knowledgeable about the exercises that fit your needed routine. You can take their service online also. Online personal trainers like MFG (My Fitness Goal) provides both customized workout and diet plans so you need not hire a personal trainer and nutritionist separately.
A beginner needs a personal gym trainer. Why?
Safety is essential, and when you’re a beginner, you wouldn’t be able to guide yourself through how machines in the gym function, the proper form when doing exercises, how much weight to lift, which exercises are right for you and the like.
On the other hand, a personal gym trainer can guide you through your everyday routine and will make you safe and productive. One of their jobs is to ensure that you are using equipment right. In addition, they also monitor your form when doing exercises, so you can avoid injuries.
Invest in Quality Shoes
Your shoes are essential. They don’t just shield your feet from dirt and hard surfaces, but they also protect you from unwanted injuries.
There are exercises that will require heavy weight lifting, walking, running, jumping and the like, and when you are doing such activities, you would want to protect your ankles and knees. They are very vulnerable to tiny damages that build up over time when doing exercises without proper shoes.
Shoes that provide a soft landing will do the job well, plus those that hold the ankles well.
Wear Comfortable Clothes
You don’t need to look stylish when you go to the gym. You don’t need fabulous clothes but comfortable ones instead.
Make sure that you can achieve ease of movement with breathable and flexible clothes. This will allow you to perform every exercise right and as they’re supposed to be done. This will improve the results you’re trying to get.
Dri-fit clothes are the best for working out. They give a good fit, but at the same time, they’re very flexible. They’re also breathable. They make it seem like you’re not even wearing a single piece of thread — light and durable too. Also, wearing clothes that fit you well can make you look more fit and athletic. How about that?
And please, avoid jewelry. Leave your necklaces, bracelets and your watch in your bag. Wear them after working out. They don’t just make everything much harder, but they pose a risk of accidents, especially when working with heavy equipment.
Always Give Time for Cardio
Whether you are there to lose weight or not, cardio must always have a place in your workout routine. Cardio is important. It should not be neglected at any cost.
Cardio improves blood flow to all parts of your body. Your muscles need this to function correctly. They can do more when blood flow is at its best.
Cardio also increases energy and focus. It improves mental health and reduces the risk of depression.
Build a Rock Hard Core
Your core supports your whole body. With a rock-solid core, you’ll have more control over everything: more power and balance you can use.
Once you have trained your core to become more stable and dependable, you will open the door for a wider variety of exercises
A good core comes useful in calisthenics or body-weight exercises.
Train with a Friend
Motivation is priceless, and you’ll need it to accomplish your goals in the gym. How else can you do this? Tug a friend with you! Training with someone who aims for a similar fitness goal is advisable. This will let you healthily compare your progress — letting you see through your weaknesses and spots you can improve.
In addition to all that, you will also have someone to push you when you just feel like giving up. This is what friends are for: have someone call you when you haven’t gotten up early in the morning to take your morning jog.
Training with a friend also allows you to share what you have learned. Teaching is the best form of learning.
Consider Taking Supplements
Most gym-goers don’t have the time to prepare their food. This may be because of work or the lack of budget for it. Cooking your food is demanding. This is where supplements come in. Supplements can take care of your needs without having to invest a lot of time. Well, money will be spent, but compared to making several trips to the grocery per month, stocking up on supplements is much economical.
Supplements work like magic. If you can’t meet your body’s protein needs, you can simply buy some whey protein, which you can prepare for 5 mins before or after workouts; one or two times a day and you have successfully met your protein needs. However, don’t use this as a shortcut, and don’t completely avoid meat and veggies. You still need other nutrients from these foods.
It Takes Dedication
Achieving a certain goal takes a lot of discipline and dedication. You must really WANT to make it. Going to the gym and shaping your dream body won’t happen in just a single day. Nobody has that privilege, but look at all these fitness athletes who have made a name for themselves through self-control and heaps of dedication.
What does this tell you? This is possible for you as well. As a beginner, you should always look at the brighter side of things because there will be a lot of challenges along the way. Things will get lighter eventually, but that won’t happen if you don’t put a lot of effort into learning the process.
