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MyFitnessPal Community

Beginning gym membership tips

buffalobill41

Just getting my first gym membership, previously just had a home pullup bar and was doing some pushups + a physical labor job. What kind of program would you recommend? Right now i'm 5'10" 135 lbs and looking to add some muscle. Main questions i guess would be how many reps and sets would you recommend doing on weight machines? Should i just start really low weight wise and gradually increase to find where i should be? Also what type of cardio machine would you recommend to tone legs (not doing a treadmill since i am on my feet all day)? Any help is much appreciated thanks.

Replies

williamwj2014

You should probably eat more..you won't build muscle from just lifting if you barely have anything to work with. Just eat a lot and lift..

awesomejdad

If you want to work your legs then absolutely do not do a cardio machine. Do weights, leg lifts, squats, deadlifts, leg press claf raises.....all that stuff. You want the best routine ever? Simple, go to the gym often, keep going often until it is part of your routine. Look up exercises on youtube and keep going to the gym. The hardest part of any routine is keeping yourself on it. Go to the gym and workout.....especially when you don't feel like it. LIFT WEIGHTS!!!

AllanMisner

If you want to build muscle then you need to do a few things right and avoid doing other things:
1) Make sure you’re getting enough food (including carbs for fuel and protein for muscle building)
2) No need to do cardio unless you just want to work on cardiovascular and endurance, if you do cardio, make sure you eat back every single one of those calories.
3) Skip the machines and go to the free weight areas.
4) Go to stronglifts.com and evaluate this program. Heavy, compound movements will give you what you want.
5) Form matters more than the weight. Always, always, always use good form. If you don’t know the proper form, ask a trainer, look on youtube, ask here, video yourself (front, back and side) and get critiques.
6) You’ll start with a weight you can do for the number of reps with good form and then go up in small increments each session as long as you can maintain form. This will get heavy, which is when the magic happens.
7) You will put on mass with rep ranges between 5 - 10. But I’d focus on the lower end of that to get your strength up faster. Being stronger will allow you to lift more later, delaying the inevitable plateau.
8) Make sure you’re getting plenty of rest. For mass, you need to push weight, good long rests between sets help you lift more during the set (2 - 3 minutes). You need to let the muscle rest for two days after a heavy lifting session. It is during this rest period that the muscle rebuilds.
9) You need to make sure you’re sleeping well. Try hard to get more than 8 hours per night. This is when your hormones cycle through, maximizing your testosterone.
10) Limit stress, or at least manage stress. Continual stress sets up catabolic (muscle eating) hormones in place, so avoid or manage it.

DvlDwnInGA

Google Fierce 5 routine, Starting Strength, Stronglifts 5x5, these are all good routines for adding strength and size for beginners and will stress compound movements as the base of their programming. Lift the big compound movements, and get enough sleep every night and make sure you are eating enough to support adding muscle.

You need to be eating in a surplus. You need to understand macros as well, Protein, Fats, Carbs. Protein is a personal choice for how much you want to eat, some people say a gram per lean body mass, some say a gram per pound, I like a gram per pound myself. Some will even say you need more than that. Try to get at least .35 grams of fats per pound, and fill the rest with carbs. Carbs are not the devil that some will try to convince you of.

That should get you started, once you start understanding and reading a little more about those things you will start to understand how important your diet and programming is to gain muscle in the most effective way you can.

peterjens

Ask your gym staff. Maybe they have an someone on staff that can help introduce you to their machines, etc. My membership included a free one-time consultation with a trainer.

sweetd6

If you can, you should hire a trainer to start you off. They can assess your form and make sure you are doing it correctly, as well as give you a good beginner routine. Once you have that routine you can increase the weight yourself as you get stronger. Also, once you know how to assess your own form, you can move on to other routines yourself. And for a new gym goer, the most important thing is to become comfortable at your gym - at first you might feel intimidated. The more you go, the more comfortable you feel, in every area of the gym, it takes time.

coreyreichle

buffalobill41 wrote: »

Just getting my first gym membership, previously just had a home pullup bar and was doing some pushups + a physical labor job. What kind of program would you recommend? Right now i'm 5'10" 135 lbs and looking to add some muscle. Main questions i guess would be how many reps and sets would you recommend doing on weight machines? Should i just start really low weight wise and gradually increase to find where i should be? Also what type of cardio machine would you recommend to tone legs (not doing a treadmill since i am on my feet all day)? Any help is much appreciated thanks.

Well, currently, my legs look like rocks, so if you want to tone legs using a cardio machine, you could try what I did:
* Never let the incline go under 3.
* Work your speed up to at least 3.8mph (Fast-ish walk)
* Work your incline up at the same time, until you've maxed it out.
* Do at least 4 miles every other day

And, for funsies, toss in hiking.

Now, if this is the most efficient method, I don't know. I do know, however, my calves look killer right now lol