Started going to the gym - advice please

After doing more research im not totally against weights, think it was more of the last time i walked into the weights room it was like you could hear a pin drop with eyes on me lol.

While i do want to improve my cardio the whole vein muscle thing is what im after aswell, after i go tonight i will update with what is suggested to me

Thanks all for the advice so far
 
No one really cares what you can lift at the gym, if your new there probably just watching to make sure your not doing anything in bad form. Everyone starts somewhere.

Post up what your thinking of doing and well critique.
 
The above two post are very true.

If I see someone new who looks unsure, I'm not judging them, but I probably am going to look at their form out of the corner of my eye. At the end of the day, some people will always be ****, but the vast majority will always respect someone who works hard.
 
EVERYONE has had to walk in the weights room for the first time, lift tiny weights for the first time etc. etc. 90% Of people will pay no attention to you unless your doing something obviously dangerous and similarly 90% of people are there to work hard themselves and concentrate on their workout. Couldn't care less who's in there or what they're doing!

It is intimidating at first, perhaps start with mostly machine workouts at first to gain confidence. But aim to move to mostly free-weights within 4-8 weeks imo. Lift heavy and with intensity. By heavy I mean whats heavy for you, across say 3 sets of 8 reps. The last couple reps should be pretty tough, going to failure is up to you.

Make sure you train your legs, eat plenty of good food and see the results come in :D.

Here's a great quote I read today.

"Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use."

Hit home with me, time's gonna pass anyway. Your not getting any younger so just make the most of every moment!
 
Morba said:
Once they see you in there once they wont take much notice again in future.

Its not about the weight that you lift, its about the intensity. As long as you are training hard thats all that matters :)
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This is very true. I've never been a big guy, at 5ft 10 the heaviest i've weighed is 13.5 stone, yet i've never felt awkward being in a gym and lifting light weights, even in spit-and-sawdust type gyms where competitors train. As the guys have said, the only time people chat are about things like form where someone has said something about my deadlift. I'm glad they did.
 
Well just back after an hour and a half, unfortunatley there was no free PT to talk to so ive booked a programme with one of them for this time next week as typically all the times i could do where booked,

Anyway tonight i managed:
4 miles in 20 mins on the treadmill
4000 meters on the erg in 20 minutes
5x5 on some of the machine weights which wasnt as bad a i thought it was going to be, i completley forgot to look at what weight i was lifting though as i just went with what was on there (stupid i know) little annoyed at myself for that.
The last 20 minutes i split between the cross trainer and what i can best describe as a bike at an odd angle just at a slow pace to cool down.

Very tired afterwords and i know my legs will hurt in the morning but i know ive used them :D

Will be going back on sat to work mainly on the machine weights and see what i can do there.
 
5x5 is a very good choice will get you some mass pretty quickly, try to do any cardio after your weights, are you taking any supplements of any kind? need some diet info aswell if you want to gain.
 
Stop doing so many cardio exercises every session, your only stopping the muscle growth. Dont worry about what you think people will think of you at the gym, it doesnt matter if you big or skinny providing your form is good and your not messing about on a machine or bench etc.

If you can try 5 times a week do 3 weight training sessions and 2 cardio. If you can only go 4, do 3 weights and 1 cardio, if you can only make 3 then do 3 weights with little rest inbetween sets which should be enough alongside your football.

Every body is different but doing that much cardio is only going to keep you skinny. Lay off as much cardio for 6 weeks and review it after that.
 
DiCe! said:
Well just back after an hour and a half, unfortunatley there was no free PT to talk to so ive booked a programme with one of them for this time next week as typically all the times i could do where booked,

Anyway tonight i managed:
4 miles in 20 mins on the treadmill
4000 meters on the erg in 20 minutes
5x5 on some of the machine weights which wasnt as bad a i thought it was going to be, i completley forgot to look at what weight i was lifting though as i just went with what was on there (stupid i know) little annoyed at myself for that.
The last 20 minutes i split between the cross trainer and what i can best describe as a bike at an odd angle just at a slow pace to cool down.

Very tired afterwords and i know my legs will hurt in the morning but i know ive used them :D

Will be going back on sat to work mainly on the machine weights and see what i can do there.
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Take out the bit in bold and we've got ourselves a gym routine :p

Starting on machines is ok, but you will want to play around with free weights at some stage (this does not mean do some bicep curls).
 
DiCe! said:
Just reading through the sticky now :)

I understand I need to put muscle on to be defined, I dont mind going onto weights in the future but right now as I am (nearly) skin and bones I dont feel confident enough to do that at the gym, so anyway to get a little bit before I go for that is what I'm after really.

With the burning off calories, the amount of food I eat is crazy on a normal day

breakfast - Cereal with OJ and some fruit
10:30 - Sandwich
12:00 - panini with crisps/chips, fruit, choc bar some sort of squash
4:00 - Another sandwich
8:00 - BIG dinner if it includes rice ill go through a pack for 2 by myself, lots of potato, always involves a big amount of meat and veg.

I am hungry a lot, I have to have smaller stuff throughout the day as otherwise I get tired and lethargic.
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Not being a nutrition expert here, but thats not a big appetite and not exactly a great diet.

My usual day consists of;

0600 - Hurricane XS Shake
0630 - Eggs and bacon or ceral
0900 - Fruit
1100 - Two Tuna or egg rolls (depentant on the mess)
1600 - Main meal (dependant on the mess again but normally chicken with potatoes and veg)
1830~ - Shake
19-2000 - Pita with either Tuna or chicken breast and some cottage cheese. And normally knock back some plain yoghurt after this.

I don't even see much (if any) weight gain with this.
 
Begbie said:
Not being a nutrition expert here, but thats not a big appetite and not exactly a great diet.

My usual day consists of;

0600 - Hurricane XS Shake
0630 - Eggs and bacon or ceral
0900 - Fruit
1100 - Two Tuna or egg rolls (depentant on the mess)
1600 - Main meal (dependant on the mess again but normally chicken with potatoes and veg)
1830~ - Shake
19-2000 - Pita with either Tuna or chicken breast and some cottage cheese. And normally knock back some plain yoghurt after this.

I don't even see much (if any) weight gain with this.
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Get some more veg in with your day throw some nuts in there too.
 
Forget about other people looking at you like others have already said.

I'm not big at all, but am 6"2 so naturally lanky. I can comfortably lift a good weight with good form, but still look pretty small. It's down to my height and build overall.

I see plenty of larger guys not lifting an awful lot more than me and going mental, literally dropping the weights rather than a controlled negative and also using completely wrong technique and working other muscles. One guy puts 100kg on the pec deck and leans soo far forwards and does it soo quickly that he is only thrashing his shoulders. Doing it properly I doubt he could even do 80kg.

Read up and at the moment i would say forget about cardio. If you are a bag of bones then doing cardio won't make any difference. Eat lots, train hard, then sleep well. When putting on mass you will be making your muscles bigger but you will naturally put on fat too. Don't worry about that, the fat can be cut off 6 months down the line after some intensive weights months.
 
I can also recommend the strong lifts routine. Also check out 'GOMAD' on the same site. Involves drinking a shed load of milk a day. I personally haven't tried going the full gallon a day but you should definately include milk in your diet.

I eat the following whilst doing Stronglifts 5x5.

Breakfast - 8:30am

3 x Eggs Scrambled on Granary Toast or Bowl of Porridge with Sultanas.

Mid Morning - 10:30am

150g Cottage Cheese
Banana

Lunch - 12:30am

2 x Boiled Eggs
Can of Tuna
Fruit Salad

Mid Afternoon - 3:00pm

150g Cottage Cheese
50g Soya Beans (get these from Tesco, lots of protein)

Tea - 6:00pm

Varies but usual meat and veg

-----------------------------------------------------------

In between all that 2 or 3 pints of milk and a protein shake post workout.

Some might say even this isn't enough but I'm seeing results.
 
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My shoulder has decided it doesnt like exercise and has seized up, booked a massage to try and sort that out tomorrow.

Off tonight to see what the bloke says about a programme for me, im going to take up your advice on that sort of diet as it like all that so why not :D,

many thanks
 
Warm up

Arc/X Trainer 10mins
Trickster bike 10 mins

Main

Seated row 12/14 x 2/3
Plate loaded chest press, same as above with 7kgs
Front/Lateral Raise same as above 3 kgs
Leg press 13/16 x 2 100lbs
Step ups 14x4 6kgs
Arm bike 6 mins with 30 second bursts every 1 min 30 seconds

Cool down
6 mins on Recline bike

Did it for the first time tonight.....feel like i need to sleep for a week!
 
Why bang head on desk?

The guy talked me through it, i go back after 6 weeks and get in changed to a split work out.

He set me up with the weight machines properly, how much weight is right for me, how i should be sitting and my posture when i do all of the things mentioned above.

Was very happy with the help provided. Im starting at the beginning and not stretching/hurting myself.
 
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