5 Gym Tips for Beginners at the Gym

Things that seem obvious but are often missed

Eddie Hall - First 500kg Deadlift Ever. You could be the next.

This is for anyone that may feel they need help in the gym, are new or maybe looking for some ideas - I’ll get straight into it.

Plan

“Failing to plan is planning to fail” is a catchphrase that used to grate on me all the way through high school, but after about 12 years since finishing school it was kind of right, to be honest.

Workout plans are so important for training. Get a plan, there’s load on the internet to choose from and anything with beginner will generally be useful for someone who has no idea what exercises to do. (more on that in a min).
If you can afford to, I’d also recommend getting a personal trainer who’s skillset is to literally write these things.
My personal favourite type of training plan is a 4-8 week block where you see progression over that period. For example, it might have squats for 5x5 over 4 weeks and then moving into the second 4 weeks the volume (amount of reps) drops and the intensity (weight on the bar) increases - whilst you work towards a 1 rep max (1RM).

Get yourself a plan and go and nail it - it creates autonomy and discipline which are two important things for training.

Exercise Selection

Plans feeds in nicely to exercise selection and what is this all about. Well, assuming you want to make your own plan it’s important what exercises you do and what you want to look out for on an online plan you may come across.

Lets start off here with one thing simple do not cut out any exercises because a famous person or blue check mark idiot told you not to. That’s right, I’m talking about this bulls**t where “you shouldn’t do deadlifts because the risk to reward ratio is not worth it”. It’s nonsense. Do fucking deadlifts, just be sensible - as with all exercises.
I recommend, wholeheartedly, you add in multiple compound exercises of your choice to your week which can be considered the primary exercise of the workout and then some isolation movements to hit smaller muscle groups. E.g. for legs you could do back squats as your compound then leg press, leg curl, leg extension and split squats as a very crude example. There isn’t no right answer about perfect exercise selection and you should keep ones you enjoy and what works for you, but also switch it up and try new exercises every 8-12 weeks for isolation.
You can also decide exercises based on what sport you want to work on. e.g. powerlifting dedicates it’s time to Squat, Bench and Deadlift. Or track and field sports may utilise more basic strength movements like power cleans and squats to supplement the training.

Have fun with this and have a mixture of exercises you love because you’re good at them and exercises you hate because you’re bad.

Influencers and who to be Influenced by…

One of my pet peeves in this day and age, is the influencers you find on instagram and some of the shit they come out with. I eluded to this above, but it can be seriously dangerous for people to consume content that’s going to either get them injured or miss out on exercises that could really benefit their training. (Deadlifts being one)
You will know they’re a good influence when they aren’t trying to sell you a shitty book or workout plan for £200 and/or they don’t talk in absolutes - i.e. give balanced arguments to things. I recommend CoachZT on Youtube and many people he’s worked with.
I’m not going to go on about influencers otherwise this will be the longest article ever written but I will say influencers can be extremely useful for staying motivated so pick your content wisely.

Routine

Routine for your plan is really important. Making sure you pick times to train and stick to them. They don’t have to be the same time every day but they session should be split the same over the week. For example, Mon-Wed AM, Fri and Sat PM sessions. Again, there’s no rule for this - some people like the morning starts (generally masochists in my opinion) and some like afternoons/evenings (horrendously busy gyms but at least you aren’t a zombie right? ;)) either way whatever works for you in your schedule and your life. I personally do, at the moment, two 5am sessions before work, two afternoon sessions and one late morning session (9amish) on a Saturday.

My workout days are Mon-Wed, rest Thur, Friday-Sat and rest Sunday. Some people do more than that, and others do less. I think the minimum is somewhere around three sessions a week so aim for that and build up. I also swap around my days for new training blocks to keep things fresh and not get bored.

Eat More

I’m not a nutritionist but a lot of the reason people join the gym is to lose weight. One thing I’ve always noticed is people stop eating/change their diets to suit their new lifestyle. Whilst there’s nothing wrong with going balls to the wall, your new exercise regime will stack up more necessity to consume more calories. Make sure you eat more protein so your muscles will repair. Stack that shit up, in my opinion but I go based on a basic rule of thumb that’s super general but kind of works:
- Protein for muscle growth/repair
- Carbs for energy so you don’t feel like shit
- Fats for hormones balancing and anxiety reduction
Making sure you’re consuming good foods as well like meat and veg. Whack a couple of your favourite meals from takeouts in there a week but monitor how much you’re eating and maybe even track your calories using Myfitnesspal. Ultimately, ensure you’re eating more with your new regime, so that you don’t feel like death by Wednesday and break your routine.

Thanks for reading, and one last point. If you’re stuck, scared, worried or unsure about exercises and performance in the gym - go up to the scariest-looking person there and ask for advice. Trust me, they will help you and make sure you get the exercise correct.