Going to gym for first time?
- Thread starter jsmoke
- Start date
Associate
Like @Dyson said usually when you join a gym go in and ask for a look around and if your happy they should offer you an Induction on all the machines.
Depends what you want to acheive by going . Toning,bulking judy keeping fit etc
Depends what you want to acheive by going . Toning,bulking judy keeping fit etc
I do a bit of running for legs. It's mainly for swimming I want to do some upper body, I'm guessing bench presses and a few machines. I did get an induction but just looked at treadmills and rowing machines, cycling etc.
Everyone thinks like this when they start. Don't skip legs.
Man of Honour
Unless you have a specific injury that stops you from exercising your legs, you should exercise your legs.
Is there a reason, I have read this quite a few times also. I don't want big muscular legs.
Soldato
Doesn't get you the girls
You don't necessarily need to build big muscle on the legs OP, but you do still want to train them. I recently skipped my induction at my new gym as it was also only for the cardio machines. If you look around, you will be able to see others using the other machines and you see how they do it. Try them out on a low weight, get your form right on each machine, then load it with weights when you're 100% comfortable. Or for free weights, look up exercises for your target areas and do the same with building the weight you use.
Soldato
You probably want shoulders (military press, dumbell lateral raises etc) and lats? Lat pull down etc, but at the same time, keep things balanced. If you work one side, (biceps say) make sure you work the other side (triceps). I would also agree, don't skip legs.
For swimming, there are some specific things you should thinking about like chin-ups.
Kinetically, look for closed chain upper body workouts.
You should not skip legs for a couple of reasons:
- running and cycling are highly repetitive, limited-ROM exercises with both concentric and eccentric loading cycles which leads to a number of problems if not addressed (ITB syndrome, knee pain, muscular adhesion points, etc.), which is why they need to be stressed through their whole ROM on a reasonably frequent basis
- most cardiophiles that I know get some pain in their ankles, shins, knees or back because of either the above reason, or because their bodies are kinetically unbalanced, i.e. One side is stronger than the other. This puts stress on bits of the body that don't like being stressed and - more specifically - shouldn't be stressed. Unilateral and bilateral (Google it) exercises are important to ensure the body is kinetically balanced, particularly with legs because of the forces involved, but also to ensure everything is working in the right way (i.e. the nervous system knows what to do with it all).
The trick is not to go nuts... Keep the reps between 3-5, don't train to exhaustion, and keep your rest intervals to above 2 minutes.
Man of Honour
I would certainly get some inductions in place first. I've seen too many people over the years trying to exercise and/ attempting to use equipment the wrong way. It's Dangerous and counterproductive.
If you train smarter and wiser from day one, you'll enjoy the experience much more and you'll more likely to continue.
I would also pay your GP a visit too.. Just to make sure.
If you train smarter and wiser from day one, you'll enjoy the experience much more and you'll more likely to continue.
I would also pay your GP a visit too.. Just to make sure.
Soldato
Is stronglifts 5 x 5 still the thing to do for everyone starting out? It's super simple at least.
To be honest I think 4 sets of 10 reps is pretty standard for beginners now. Plus it helps build up stamina
Caporegime
As others have said definitely get an induction, they will walk you around all the equipment and you can ask any specific questions.
Soldato
Maybe you should consider doing stronglifts 5x5 for a little while to at least teach you some basics.
Stop making new threads just to spam up your thread count and pay attention and read the information in the dedicated threads for such questions........
Yes mum.