How To Prepare For Your First Time Coming Back To The Gym? Part 1.
Are You Looking To Start Working Out But You Don’t Know Where To Begin?
We completely understand how beginning a workout routine can be intimidating. Everything from not knowing how to warm up to not knowing which exercises to choose. You might not really know the process once you get to the gym.
You may be wondering any or all of the following questions about working out:
Do you warm up?
If so, how? Do you go onto the bike or treadmill? If so, for how long? How fast? Do you warm up by rolling around on the foam roller? Or do you start picking up weights and going right into your workout.
Hold on a sec.. What weight do you choose? WHICH EXERCISE DO YOU CHOOSE?
How long do you rest for between sets?
How long should you workout for?
How many sets should you do? How many reps?
What’s gym etiquette like?
And more..
So How Should You Start Your Journey?
The first and most obvious thing to do is to consult a personal trainer. Learning something from a qualified professional is by far the most efficient and effective way to kick start your fitness journey.
It’s no different then hiring a teacher in any discipline. You’re always going to be set up with proper beginner technique and takeaway points to help guide you along the way.
There are also different reasons for hiring a trainer. Some people want the best possible results in the most efficient and safe way. These people will hire a trainer full time for 2-4 workouts a week. This is also best for people who know that they aren’t historically consistent with the gym. This method makes you much more accountable and you’ll be much more consistent and therefore see better results in a shorter period of time.
Another option is to hire a personal trainer in a hybrid method. This is usually 1 session a week while the trainer gives a program to you for you to follow on your own for the rest of the week. This is more budget friendly option that still gives you something custom to follow based on your current fitness level but you also benefit from a weekly check in along with a session that allows you to practice proper technique with a trainer.
However, we’re not just writing this article for you to determine the type of personal training is right for you.
We’re also writing it to give you some tips as to what you should do if you decide to begin working out on your own.
How To Structure Your Workouts
Warm Up
Your warm ups should consist of movements that help warm up your muscles and tissues as well as prepare your nervous system to wake up and begin performing at a higher than resting level. This also helps increase range of motion without needing to do static stretching (stretches that hold your stretch for a given period of time).
Dynamic warm ups are the simplest and easiest way to warm up. Here’s a video that show how to perform some basic, full body dynamic warm ups. Just a heads up, these exercises are generally safe to perform due to their low impact and progressive nature of the exercise sequence. However, if anything is causing you pain, skip that exercise. If it continues, seek help from a trainer or physiotherapist who can help you.
Now there are more complex methods of warming up that will likely help increase your results even more as you progress past your beginner phase. This includes methods such as foam rolling, rehab/prehab exercises and even activation exercises. However all of those require more time, knowledge and attention to detail and is beyond the scope of this article. The whole purpose is to get you going right off the bat, into the gym with a safe and effective workout. The other things once again are best prescribed to you by a personal trainer depending on your goals and after an assessment on your current mobility and strength levels.
If you go to the gym for your first time on your own, please follow along with a dynamic warm up before you begin your workout. To some people, the dynamic warm up actually IS a low impact workout. This is totally fine as it’s a good start to moving your body through a full range of motion safely and gets you int he habit of going to the gym. You can also begin doing these at home seeing as you do nor need any specific equipment to perform these exercises.
Part 2 of this series is the actual workout portion. It’s going to show you some basic movement patterns that every workout of your should be based on. We will also cover things like how many sets, reps, rest and weights you should do in each workout.
If you have any question feel free to email us at info@clearcut-fitness.com
Alternatively you can apply to become a personal training client with us below:
We take personal training to the next level. We are a private personal training gym that guides you through fitness programs whether your goal is to feel great, improve strength, mobility or athletic performance!