Going to the gym is a good lifestyle habit. Exercise is very important to keep the body and mind healthy.
As a newbie, there are a lot of things you need to learn in order to fully maximize your time working out. You see, whatever your goal is: either to lose weight or gain some mass, there are a lot of factors to consider to reach your goal.
What type of exercises should you include in your workout plan? What food should you eat? How often are you going to hit the gym? Or what should your goal be?
- Assess Your Body’s Needs
Before you go to the gym, you should have a goal in mind. You can’t just rush in, blasting through the doors without a concrete plan. Are you there to lose weight, to gain some mass or to maintain what you already have?
The easiest way to answer this problem is to calculate your BMI. First, you have to know your weight in kilograms, then you should measure your height in centimeters.
Simply divide your weight to your height squared. In mathematical terms:
The answer you get will equivalent to your body type. You can check this table:
| BMI | |
| < 18.5 | underweight |
| 18.5 – 24.9 | normal |
| 25 – 29.9 | overweight |
| > 30 | obese |
You may have planned to lose some weight beforehand, but now you know you’re normal. Maybe you just need more visible muscles. It’s easy to look “fat” when you lack even the slightest muscularity — flabby arms, pillow belly, chubby cheeks and the like.
It’s really hard to determine what your body needs when you’re between normal and underweight or between overweight and normal. When guessing doesn’t work, put your trust in numbers.
2. Train in Progressions
As a newbie, you should not aim to impress but to progress, and to do this, you will need to start from the bottom even when it means curling 5lbs dumbbells.
It’s going to be a challenging start, but this part of the process builds a good foundation.
In the beginning, you’ll learn the right form, handling of equipment, which equipment to use, when to do a specific exercise and what specific part of your body is targeted by a specific exercise.
Jumping to advanced level exercises guarantees only injuries and slow or no progress at all.
3. Don’t Forget About Diet
Diet is one of the top contributing factors to your success in the gym. Eating against the needs of your body will hamper your improvements.
If you’re trying to build more muscle, don’t forget about protein. When you’re trying to lose weight, restrain yourself from eating too much white bread and pasta.
Now, no matter what your goal is, don’t take carbs out of your diet. Eat green veggies, they’re just the greatest source of carbohydrates.
4. Ask Help From Professionals
As a beginner, it is only right to have a seasoned personal gym trainer guide you.
A personal gym trainer can guide you in person, ask you what challenges you most, what you can’t do, what you can do and teach you ways on how to balance everything out.
Health is wealth…
No matter what you do, how much you invest and how much passive income you get through your various streams of hard cash, your health will always be your wealth.
Being healthy means you have a physically fit body and a focused mind. Going to the gym lets you achieve this, and achieving good health won’t just guarantee wealth but happiness too.
