I frequently see beginners in the gym, and they have many things in common. Obviously, there smaller than the rest of us who've done weight lifting for a long period of time, but they also frequently perform there weight exercises incorrectly, and generally have a 'lost' look about them. In this article, I'd like to help those beginners, by telling them what I know, and what I'd suggest them to do as they begin their voyage into weight lifting.
Before I go into the mechanics of weight lifting, I'd like to get the basics down. Firstly, your body will need adequate rest, so aim for at least 7 hours of sleep a night. Secondly, your body will need a great diet. High protein meals, with low carbs, and you'll need to drink a lot of water, at least 2 litres a day. I don't want you to have 3 massive meals, which is the typical diet for most people. Instead, I want you to have between 5 and 6 small meals, all of which contain a lot of protein (chicken, turkey or fish) and low carbs (unprocessed - brown bread, brown rice etc), but no carbs are allowed after 4pm.
Ok, we've got the basics down, so next I'd like to raise a few things you need to be aware of in the gym. Firstly, I'd like to mention observation. When starting out in the gym, observe the guys who have the body you're looking to attain. If you see a massive guy working out in the gym, observer the exercises he's doing, and the technique or form he's using when performing them. If he thinks your watching him, let him know you're a beginner, as he may actually offer you some advice or allow you to workout along side him. Don't take everything he'll say as gospel, as he may have some incorrect ideas, which is why it pays to do your own research, but get a general gist of how he goes about things.
I workout frequently in the gym, and constantly have people staring at me, but I understand where there coming from. I've often had guys come up to me, asking me to help them out, and depending on my time availability, I'll either help them out there and then, or offer them some quick tips, and help them out if I possibly can the next time we cross paths. It's no big deal, and most guys understand all you want to do is learn.
Understand another point, and that point is that overtraining isn't the way to go. You shouldn't be in the gym any longer than an hour in 1 single workout session. Get in, get the job done, and leave. If you're working out for longer than an hour, you're overtraining, and are likely to be messing up your efforts.
When weight lifting, you need to understand that you need to work the entire body, not just a single area. If you're doing any kind of weight training, you really need to workout the legs, arms, back, chest, shoulders etc, everything. The body needs balance, so you won't get the best out of your workout or body if you only work out certain regions, forgetting the rest.
In regards to exercise, you need to do everything in a controlled motion, you're form is everything. If you exercise with the incorrect form, you're very much likely to injury yourself, and you're definitely not working those muscles to their maximum potential. When pushing or pulling, everything must be controlled, no snapping motions. Lift slowly, lower slowly. Push slow, pull slow.
A lot of guys try to lift heavy than their ready for when starting out, and this can lead to injury, and as a result, results in the guy having to stay away from the gym for a period of time, which often results in the guy getting put off the gym all together. When starting, start light. If you need to just workout using the bar, do so, if you can only manage 2.5kg on each end of the barbell, do so. No one is here to judge, and we all had to start off somewhere. I may be able to bang out 140kg bench press without a muscle tremble, but I don't look down on a guy lifting just the barbell. I'll only look down on the guy lifting just the barbell if he's doing it week after week, without adding weight.
This leads me to my next point. You should aim to work each muscle group twice a week, I normally lift weights on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with Wednesday and the weekend as my rest days. Each week you need to increase your workload, even if it's only by adding 1.1kg to each side every week. At the end of the day, you're getting somewhere, and you need to push on.
I hope you've enjoyed this article, and I'd like to thank you for reading.
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