You’ve been avoiding it for a long time, but you want to be the best version of yourself. You have finally decided to take charge of your life… and you have signed up for the gym.
Everything you need to know for your first day in the gym
On the first day of gym one feels like an explorer adventurer of “travelers around the world”: he enters a strange place, with unknown people, strange customs and devices that seem made by the engineer-torturer of the Holy Inquisition.
This is disturbing, yes. In addition, the instructions for use of these machines seem to have been written by the Swede who writes the assembly instructions for IKEA furniture: no one understands them.
Luckily, the space is full of mirrors so you can see the questioning face you have and thus be able to try to hide it.
Well, all this comedy is nothing more than a magnification of the feeling that some believe they will suffer on the first day of the gym. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Although it is true that they have mirrors, the truth is that they are only so that you can correct movement errors when performing your exercises.
The first day of the gym is like the first day of everything: it worries us, but once there we realize that it is full of people like us, with our same interest, with whom we will establish ties and where we will finally end up learning, enjoying and achieving the main objective that has led us to the gym: maintain and/or improve our health and/or physical condition.
Nine basic tips for your first day at the gym
Well, here are the basic tips you must follow to start:
1.- Set ambitious but achievable goals.
2.- Talk to the room monitor for guidance: he, who should be a qualified professional, will make a personalized assessment of your state of health and fitness, to adapt a tight routine.
3.- Wear appropriate clothing and use a towel every time you go to use a machine. Remember to wear sports shoes that protect your foot from injuries, as well as comfortable breathable clothing.
Don’t forget the towel; It will help you create a healthier and more hygienic environment.
4.- Always start the session with a warm-up: this will cause a series of cardiovascular and osteo-articular benefits such as increased blood supply to the muscles, increased body temperature, a higher degree of elongation of the muscles, a decrease in collagen-articular friction.
It will also prepare the ligament-tendinous structures and, above all, it will prevent us from possible injuries.
5.- If you have the possibility, start using machines.
Although some may not seem like it, they are designed to carry out more or less guided movements, matching the range of mechanical mobility with the anatomical one, so it requires less complicated motor coordination than with free weights and you will run less risk of injuring yourself.
6.- Do not use large loads. The first three or four weeks you will be in a phase of familiarization with the material, exercises and movements, breaks, etc.
Therefore, you must work the sessions involving a large number of muscles, which is commonly called a “circuit”.
7.- Put the insurances if you use discs: we do not want any of them to fall from the bar. We must avoid unnecessary risks that can cause accidents and truncate our progress.
8.- Stay hydrated. Do not wait until you are thirsty to take a drink of water, because the sensation of thirst is a defense mechanism of your body to warn you that you begin to have imbalances in your physical levels.
9.- Do not overdo the training the first few days: we do not want you to be unable to get out of bed due to muscle pain the following days.
And lastly, be patient. It is common to want to go too fast and “bite us”.
So, although at first it seems that you lift little weight compared to the “skinny” next to you, you will see that in a short time you will be able to increase it in a more than remarkable way.