First Time in the Gym: 4 Tips
Anyone who has attended gyms for any length of time has learned some "secrets" through experience or under the advice of others. To be more specific, they have known tools, execution, exercises and learned lessons from injuries, their own or others. However, those who are still beginners tend to to make mistakes which can lead to injuries.
Not only could some of these errors cause physical harm, they could also lead to an unnecessary deadlock. My hope with this article is to better illustrate some of these "beginner's mistakes", and possibly broaden the knowledge of those who have just entered the world of sport and fitness.
1. Lifting… Ego
Now, weight lifting to increase one's ego, is something that I myself know well and that I often see practicing among male gym goers, but occasionally also among women. The "ego lift" occurs when it comes sacrificed execution in order to lift as much weight as possible. There are many problems that could arise but I will describe the most obvious ones.
1. Accident prevention - Let's be honest, you only regress when you stop exercising. Laziness can stop us but even worse an injury can. To prevent this type of problem, we should focus on correct execution, using a weight that is suitable for us.
2. Bad performance with heavy loads - There are several reasons why this can hinder progress. As fatigue increases, execution is compromised. Worse if we do not have a good basic performance due to too high loads. This helps create imbalances, and as fatigue increases these imbalances become failures, leading to injuries due to the weakening of specific muscles, joints and / or tendons.
3. Muscle activation and proper muscle building - The depth of the squat is directly related to muscle activation, a squat performed correctly and completely facilitates muscle activation compared to a partially performed squat. Consequently, decreasing loads to activate muscles more may be considered more beneficial for achieving a particular goal, such as building larger quadriceps (1).
4. Recruitment of the motor unit - Much of the strength comes from teaching your motor neurons how to activate effectively. In fact, most of the strength gained during the early days in the gym can be attributed to the improvement of the motor unit.
2. Cardio Workout
Cardio training offers several health benefits, from cardiovascular health to weight control. However, building muscle mass helps in other ways. THE muscles allow us to burn more calories. If you are like me then this is great news as it means that it is possible to eat more without accumulating fat.
Resistance training also helps fight the loss of muscle mass due to aging, known as sarcopenia. Weight training increases bone density and offers additional benefits. Remember, cardio training is not a harmful thing, but completely ignoring weights is a grave mistake.
3. Train Your Abdomen To Get Abs
It is fun to think that we all have abs under the belly. The problem isn't building muscle mass there, the problem is eliminate the fat that covers the muscles. While working out the abdomen is a great idea for several reasons, it won't specifically eliminate belly fat.
There is a saying that goes "The abdominals are done in the kitchen", and refers to the fact that the way we eat has the greatest impact on the aesthetics of our abs.
4. Etiquette in the gym
# 1 Offer unwanted advice. Seriously, we're all happy that you go to the gym to work on yourself. This does not mean that you have the right to tell us what and how to do it. Maybe after building a relationship with someone, it may be appropriate to give advice, but don't be the kind of person who spends all your time giving advice rather than training.
# 2 Disturb / observe. Even if your intention is to compliment, not everyone appreciates it. Try not to make others uncomfortable, there are several people who go to the gym to train and they don't like being watched.
# 3 Stow tools and plates on the rack. This is probably direct advice to men. Be gentle and don't leave it to women to put those 20kg plates back on the barbell you used, or the dumbbells you left in the center of the floor.
# 4 Hygiene. The saying "I'm not your mother, I don't have to clean up your dirt" fits perfectly. If you sweat a lot, you need to clean the machine or bench you used. If you use chalk, which is prohibited in many gyms due to the people it gets dirty, be sure to leave everything clean. Personally, they allowed me to use chalk in the gym because if dirty I clean, while I have seen it prevented from being used by others.
