beginners guide to the gym

How should one exercise in the gym? Many beginners find themselves unsure of how to work out once they get to the gym. So, what is the correct way to exercise?

1. Warm-up

First, we need to do a five-minute cardio warm-up. You can choose to walk briskly on the treadmill, cycle, or jump rope slowly.Next, warm up your joints. Start with the shoulder joints, wrist joints, and elbow joints, and then move to the hip joints, knee joints, and ankle joints. After that, do some simple muscle activation exercises to feel the muscle engagement.

The purpose of warming up is to:

Improve blood circulation, increase body temperature, and reduce muscle viscosity. This ensures that muscles can perform at their best during training, enhancing your athletic ability. Muscle viscosity is related to temperature; the higher the temperature, the lower the viscosity.

Additionally, it better protects our joints. Warming up stimulates the secretion of more synovial fluid in our joint capsules, which helps prevent wear and tear on joint surfaces and cartilage.

Moreover, dynamic stretching during warm-up can also improve our athletic performance, making our formal training more effective.

2. Equipment Training

Start with lighter weights to find the feeling of exertion and familiarize yourself with the movements. Once warmed up to your planned weight, start counting the sets. The previous sets are warm-up sets, which do not require you to go to failure. The focus is on adapting to the weight and feeling the exertion.

You can arrange the exercises as follows:

1. Explosive power/specialized movements

2. Compound movements

3. Single-joint movements

3. Functional Training

After equipment training, you can do some core exercises, mainly bodyweight movements. Bodyweight exercises help you become more familiar with your body and improve your control, which will reflect in your overall physical fitness.

4. Cardio Training

During the fat loss phase, you can do about 30 minutes of cardio after equipment training. Before cardio, you can appropriately supplement with functional drinks. Options include the elliptical machine, treadmill, stationary bike, swimming, or jump rope.

5. Stretching

After cardio training, do some stretching. This helps relieve muscle soreness and speeds up muscle recovery. After stretching, you can take a hot shower to reduce training fatigue and relax the nerves that were tense during training. Those with better physical fitness can alternate between 3 minutes of hot water and 1 minute of cold water on the target muscles, but avoid the head. This method also aids muscle recovery.

Tips:

Beginners are advised to start with the lowest intensity and gradually increase the weight as their body adapts.

If you train four times a week and see no changes after two weeks, increase the intensity based on your actual condition.

Additionally, I suggest beginners first learn how to use the equipment and understand the training methods for each muscle group before starting the corresponding training. This way, you won't be clueless about how to use the equipment when you get to the gym.

*The above statements and positions represent the author's personal views and are not related to Codoon.