New to the gym

ekr1984

Hey everyone. I'm new to the gym and only have an hour to spend about 4x a week there. The membership came with a personal training session but he wasn't at all helpful aside from telling me my nutrition was good. So my question is this- what should I be doing with that hour to get the most benefit from it? The gym has all the machines, a pool, a dry sauna, hot tub, free weights, treadmills, bikes, ellipticals, etc. They also have a circuit that's 30 minutes but you only spend 30 seconds on each of the 10 machines and go around it fully 3 times so I'm not sure how effective that is since I'm not actually able to do that many reps. I've heard doing a lot of machines is good or doing 15 minutes on each machine until I hit my hour is good. Or that being on one thing for an hour is the best. Lots of opinions and I'm really a bit lost here so any advice would be great. Thank you .

neandermagnon

if it was me, I'd hit the free weights, heavy ones, for a decent lifting routine, 3-8 reps to failure

vashnic

I'd go 30 min of free weights (compound lifts would be the best bang for your buck imo), then 30 min of cardio (try a few machines and see which you like best) for a couple weeks. Adjust ratio according to taste after that.

ekr1984

thank you both

ktdiddy

I just joined gym and have a really good weights plan that I do three times a week after a 10min warm up run and then I do one day of distance running. The weights program I am on is to tone and firm up - it's high on reps but if you are interested, I can share with you. On the days I do run and weights, only takes me an hour max. Add me as a friend if you like

Amazing1985RSD

You are likely to get different types of info on here. It's really gonna depend on what you wanna do. If it's fat loss then do High Intensity interval training. If it's strength, then do barbell work. (squats, deadlifts, bench press, Overhead press and power cleans) Squats is first for a reason.

I'm not surprised about the personal not helping you very much. The average personal trainer doesn't know **** and about 90%+ of personal trainers focus on fat loss.

Try something like this:

Monday:
Squats
Bench Press or Overhead press

Tuesday:
Overhead press or bench press
Deadlifts or power cleans

Thursday:
Squats
Power cleans or deadlifts

Saturday:
Squats
Pressing exercise from Monday
Pulling exercise from Tuesday (Deadlifts or Power cleans)

(then alternate the pressing or pulling exercises each following week)

Do three sets of five with the bar only and go up in weight by 5 pounds each workout. With deadlifts and power cleans being the exception. Do five sets of three power cleans and only 1 set of 5 deadlifts. You can do this for months before stalling. When you do, it can get a little more complicated.

PS: I don't recommend machines for a reason. :P

Chadomaniac

Just go on bodybuilding.com and get a routine there and stick with it ... get your diet right before u even step in the gym

RunDoozer

I would look into stronglifts 5x5. Simple easy and it works.

rderrickwhite

Just go on bodybuilding.com and get a routine there and stick with it ... get your diet right before u even step in the gym

Thanks for this.

ekr1984

thank you everyone!