First steps for a complete beginner
You take the plunge and set up your gym membership but what now! What are the first steps for a complete beginner? Time to find some exercises to get you going, just remember if you have any injuries some of these might not be suitable but speak to one of our Health Hub trainers for some alternatives.
Warm up is essential:
Spend the first 5 to 10 minutes increasing your heart rate and warming your muscles up ready to work, try and add in a bit of mobility work as well. Exercising with cold muscles will increase your risk of an injury and muscle strains.
Resistance machines:
At The Health Hub we have 3 upper body machines – shoulder press, chest press and lat pulldown machine and 3 lower body – leg extension, leg curl and leg press machine. This means if you use all 6 of these you can target most muscle groups and have a full rounded workout. These machines are great because they tell you what muscle groups you are working and have diagrams on how to use them, we also show you how these working during your compulsory induction. These machines will put you to be in the correct position, limiting the chance of injury while starting to build up each muscle group, you will create your foundation ready to when you move onto some more advanced exercises.
Reps and time:
As a beginner we would always recommend starting with lighter weights and higher reps while your muscles get used to this new way of training! Try and aim for around 10 reps and do 3 sets of these, if you are getting to 12 reps then it is time to try and increase your weight, you want to make sure that the last few reps are quite difficult! Keep an eye on how long you are resting for and make sure that it is the same time between each set, aim for around a minute.
How to progress:
Over the weeks using these machines try and see if each time you come to the gym you push for another rep, once you are doing 3 sets of 12 reps it will be time to increase the weight! Don’t be afraid of the weight going up as this is your progression and where you will reach your goals.
If you want some other ideas how you can progress without increasing the weight we have another blog you can read here. Remember you are stronger than you think!!
