Today’s episode I share some insights, tips and tricks on how to pick a gym as a first time gym goer. I also go over some tips on getting started in a new exercise routine at the gym. I also highlight seven ways to beat gymtimidation as outlined in an article in The Guardian.
Thanks for listening! Feel free to reach out at links below
Today’s episode I share some insights, tips and tricks on how to pick a gym as a first time gym goer. I also go over some tips on getting started in a new exercise routine at the gym. I also highlight seven ways to beat gymtimidation as outlined in an article in The Guardian.
Thanks for listening! Feel free to reach out at links below
Hi I'm Thomas welcome to the parachute advice. My life has taken a lot of twists and turns and on this podcast I will dive into those. The goal is to help everyone listening learn from my experiences and hopefully avoid some of the mistakes I've made hi welcome to today's episode of the parachute advice podcast I'm your host Thomas so here we are. We're starting month three of the Year hopefully your weight loss Journey has been going successful and you've really dialed in your diet and you understand what you're doing and your nutrition area. And now you're at that point were you like to add an exercise and if you go back and listen to some older episodes I talk about different tips and tricks and ways I did it but today in particular I want to talk about going to the gym. This can be something very intimidating especially for somebody who has never been to the gym or hasn't been to the gym in many years. For myself personally just recently my employer installed a gym at work and I'm lucky to have that as my go to gym. Prior to that I hadn't been to a gym in over 20 years and really the majority of my gym life was spent in my high school gym when I was in high school playing sports so I can tell you I fully understand. Going to the gym for the first time after a long period not having been there or having never gone can be very intimidating. So here's some tips and tricks I want to share with you that I think will help make this process a little bit easier first off do your research. Learn about the gyms in your area there are very very different types of gems from sport-specific gyms that might focus on one thing like spin or rowing or running to CrossFit. Or maybe it's a gem that's heavily focused on on large lifting you know heavy lifts stuff you'd see in the Olympics or competitors doing. Then you have your more mainstream gems like your Planet Fitness your Anytime Fitness experience Fitness the chains most recently we just had a Vasa Fitness open here in my area, all are great options but each and every gym has a unique environment a unique clientele in the unique feel to it so research them online. Look at videos on YouTube A lot of times there's great information about each and every type of gym in your area, the gym you're looking at might have a very specific Facebook page you can go do research there learn about the gym and what kind it is and then for most gyms they will offer a visitor day pass, go check it out. Just walk around and ask for a tour ask questions learn about the amenities they offer what's the cost remember this is this can be something, that can be very affordable I do Planet Fitness has a ten dollar membership faster Fitness as a 10 dollar membership, or can be very expensive I know people who spend hundreds of dollars a month on gym memberships Lifetime Fitness is a great example phenomenal facility a ton of great amenities but it's very expensive. So do your research there and understand what you want to spend and what you need from that gym. Look at the type of equipment at offers the other amenities and just the overall niceness or cleanliness of the gym, and like I said while you're there touring get a feel for it may be going to time that more people are going to be there like after work or early in the morning so you can kind of see what the client tells like once you've figured out the gym you like or the gym you think you'll like. That's your chance now sign up but keep in mind some gems, have contracts you may be stuck there for a year some don't some have signup fees some don't so understand everything before you sign all the paperwork just so you know what you're getting into the last thing you want to do is be stuck with a one-year membership to a gym you hate and don't end up using in waste money on. Okay so you've picked a gym you found one you like now how do you get started in the gym especially if you haven't been to the gym in a long time. Well first off build a gym habit. Honestly I would recommend picking one activity maybe it's something as simple as walking on the treadmill or using a stair climber or the elliptical, and make a point to go on a regular basis most experts will tell you it can take between 18 to 20 and 54 days to build a real habit. On average it takes about two to three months to really build a. So set a goal for yourself maybe it's I'm going to go to the gym three days a week. And just walk on the treadmill for 20 minutes and I'm going to do that for the next three months build a habit build a routine work it into your lifestyle. Most recently a big trend has been the 33 and 12. What is that you ask well it's doing 30 minutes on a treadmill at a speed of 3, an incline of 12 something as simple as that can be what triggers you to really start making the gym a habit okay while you're there let's say for example on the treadmill the elliptical just get a feel for things look at what others are doing look at the equipment they offer. Now let's say you want to move into more advanced things like more lifting or more cardio. Look online for example I use for working on the treadmill I use the Peloton app there's a ton of great treadmill exercises from walking to running to endurance to 60-minute to 20-minute to intervals a multitude of things you can do it's a great way to kind of build a routine they even have programs you know they have programs to get you, from doing having never run up to a 5k or a half-marathon her Marathon if that's your thing do that, if you're looking at lifting go on YouTube there's a ton of great tutorials on there another one that I love I happen to stumble across an app called heavy that's a cheat, v y what I love about it is it has a series of lifting exercises covering both equipment free weights and dumbbells you can search by muscle groups type of equipment or activity you want to do and you can build a routine between YouTube and online, and that app I personally been able to build about an hour-long lifting routine that I do three days a week but again you have to build this. All right so now that you've got some things you want to do outside of maybe walking on the treadmill or running on the treadmill you want to do some lifting. Get comfortable with those moves and the machines don't do too much all at once when I started lifting most recently, I started off by adding one or two exercises each week to my lifting routine the one thing I love about the heavy app is Right within most of the activities it has a how, but if you still don't know or aren't sure how to do an activity go online look at a YouTube video. You can listen to and watch those YouTube videos while you're doing the activity if you're at a gym like Planet Fitness or even the equipment that we have in my company's Jim most of the equipment has diagrams and directions on how to use it and what muscles it targets. So again start slow maybe maybe you start out simple like I'm going to go to the gym and I'm going to warm up, for 10 or 20 minutes on the on the stair climber or on a treadmill and then I'm going to go do a bench press or I'm going to go do chest press on a machine or I'm going to do some dumbbell lifts, do a couple lifts call it a day do that for a while and then add some more activities in. Over that period of time you'll be building comfort and confidence with both the environment. And the routine you're doing and you'll become a lot more confident and adding in more in additional activities that I know that's what has worked for me okay. Now you're doing that stuff so start to learn some of the basics about sets and Reps and rest. For example I'm not looking to lift heavy I am looking to build muscle especially redevelop a lot of the muscle I lost during weight loss. So for me I've decided to stick to the standard of doing 3 sets of 10 what does that mean I do an activity. Three times for 10 repetitions resting in between I might just get on the chest press machine and do 10 at a wait. Rest for a minute or two 10 at a weight rest for 1 or 2 minutes and repeat for the last set so what I end up doing is lifting a weight or a progression of weight 30 times broken up into three sets of 10. Maybe for all three sets you're doing the same weight or if I'm trying to build muscle and build up my strength I might do a set at one weight add a little bit do a set of another wait add a little, sometimes I'll just have a week where I do the same weight all week sometimes I'll do what's called a superset, what is that you ask well it means I might do three or four different exercises in a series and then rest so for example because of the way my work Jim is laid out I will often do chest press leg press lat pulldown. Rest for 2 minutes chest press leg press lat pulldown rest for 2 minutes or if I'm on our leg machine. It's leg curls for 10 leg extensions for 10 rest, black curls for 10 leg extensions for 10 rest see what I'm see what I'm doing there I'm trying to maximize my time now also if you're doing supersets please be understanding and be accommodating others in the gym don't tie up all the equipment for example when I'm doing my dumbbell lifting I will often group my exercises by a specific weight, so that I'm using one set of dumbbells and progressing through a series of Weights put those dumbbells back and then get a different set of dumbbells to do my next set of exercises. Like I said my routine now is roughly about an hour long and it's a full body exercise targeting the key muscles that I want to focus on building my chest arms shoulders and legs. If you're still not sure and you're still uncomfortable, maybe you should consider a trainer a lot of gyms have great programs hell some gyms even offer a first-time complimentary trainer session to kind of get you started, if that's something you really think you need look for that as an option when you're joining a gym I know what work we just recently had a deal because we do have an on-site gym manager / trainer where if you went to the gym 12 times in the month of December. You got one free 30 minute training session I've yet to take advantage of it but I'm planning to so look for opportunities like that now let's talk about planning for Progress remember. As you're doing this you're going to be building strength and endurance you're going to be getting healthier and stronger in the process so no that you have to progress. You might have to lift heavier weights each week if doing 3 sets of 10 becomes easy maybe it's three sets of 15 or maybe it's time to up the weight see how your body's reacting and work on it, it's called linear progression, there's some great options out there for example for Pure strength there's a program called 53 and one if you look online there's plenty of books and spreadsheets helping you figure out how to do that one. Again that's the 531 Jim when Learners process that's J IM w e ND L ER apostrophe s 531, so that's a great app a great option for you next and finally find the style of training you like. Maybe you have a set goal or a set thing that makes you happy try different options like I said there's a ton of resources on the internet leverage those. They're great to help you get started and head down your journey for example for me I started simply wanting to use the treadmill to run indoors when it got too cold and I see outside and then while I was there I decided it's time to add in strength training like I said to build muscle that I lost during the weight loss phase. As a result I now have a set routine that I do three to four times a week and it usually includes 30 to 60 minutes of running, because running is still my major Focus so I do running first and then after I run I do about an hour long weightlifting session some days I might do an hour run on Monday and then lift Tuesday, our run on Wednesday lift Thursday our run on Friday and then maybe short Sprint's or interval training on the on the treadmill on Saturday and then lifting again, the other thing is keep track of your progress like I said that heavy app aichi, v y is fine at is fantastic for tracking progress originally I just started trying to do it in an Excel spreadsheet and in my head and I lost track really quick, using apps to track your progress. Or even old school when I was in high school it was pen and paper but some way to track and know that you're progressing every week is vital. Again like I said find your style and find what works for you all right so now you've been going to the gym regularly. And listen we've all been there workouts can be tough I know for example that I can and have run for over an hour and a half yet to this day, the thought of going outside for a run or getting on the treadmill for an hour or an hour and a half just sounds Dreadful. So how do I get through it well here's some tips and tricks that I've read and some I've used myself find a playlist, maybe it's music you like for example maybe you figure out that these eight songs equal the time you want to run for you break up your run by song you're not thinking about how you have to run, eight songs you're thinking about how you just need to run for the next song maybe even break it up and say for this song I'm going to run at marathon pace or 5K Pace or race Pace the next song I'm going to run easy or maybe even walk. Okay so maybe it's not music maybe it's podcasts maybe you want to be on the treadmill walking for an hour pick a podcast that's an hour long and zone out and listen to that, or if you're on a piece of equipment it could even be TV or video in this day and age of streaming and smartphones and tablets it's so easy to take something like that to the gym and just enjoy that next is think about what's motivating you, tap into your ego maybe you like when people say wow you're looking better are you getting stronger are you building muscle you seem healthier. Tap into that that's one time where I think ego can be beneficial to you it can drive you to work harder every day in the gym, maybe it's putting yourself on the hook or you know making commitments like I'm going to go to the gym for example when I'm working at the office and I'm gonna go the office Jim, I don't leave my gym bag in the car I bring it to my desk everyone saw me carry my gym bag in everyone sees me at the end of the day leave my desk with my gym bag. I'm gonna feel pretty awkward and pretty goofy. If I carry that gym bag right back to my car without having gone to the gym also to that point if you're going to get up in the morning and go to the gym or even after work. Prep everything pack everything have everything ready to go, Friday's when I'm going to get up early and go to the gym or go outside for a run I always pre-layout all of my workout clothes so they're ready to go in the morning and also so I have to walk past them if I choose to not go work out next set end points are goals in your challenge let's say you want to run for the first time for 30 minutes don't think about running for 30 minutes. Think about running for 10 minutes and I'm going to 10 minutes are done think about running for 10 more minutes and when that's done just 10 more minutes and there's your 30 minutes I know I'll tell you right now when I do Peloton classes for running, and especially on the days that I need to run for an hour and a half to get my distance in the thought of putting on an hour and a half or 90-minute class. Sounds miserable there's nothing worse in my mind personally for me then being 45 minutes into a run in hearing the instructor say we're at the halfway point, so a lot of times what I'll do is I'll either do to 45-minute classes or I might do an hour class and a half hour class even on days I'm only running for 45 minutes I might do a 30 minute class and a 50 minute class and I might use different instructors it's a completely different environment from class to class then you're listening to a different person tell different stories and different training Styles and different coaching styles, you know maybe when you're lifting maybe it's I just need to do this one more lift I just need to do one more set and then one more set. It's no different than when you're outside running, often times I find myself saying I just need to get to the end of this block and then the block after this and then all of a sudden the next thing you know it's 30 40 50 blocks later, and you finish your eight or nine mile run another one you'll hear a lot of people talk about especially people who do Endurance Sports is building a mantra. Something to fill in that mental space. Something to repeat to yourself when the going is getting tough for example you've probably heard me talking other episodes about the idea of killing your clone. So for me it might be that. Or to be honest it's one of the reasons I got my most recent tattoos if you take a look on my Instagram page you'll see I got to motivating phrases tattooed on my arms why too full. It's a mindset and a lifestyle that I want to remind myself about everyday. But I can't tell you how motivating it is when I'm just dying out there running or on the treadmill and I don't think I can take another step and I can just literally look down at my arms and see motivation. And then I just repeat it in my head so find a find a mantra like that and repeat it to yourself remind yourself why you're there doing it I hope all of this advice and some of these ideas have helped you they're not inclusive of every tip and trick that I can think of but there's some of the ones I've used some of the ones I've read about and some of the ones that have really helped me in this process. Most importantly is building a habit building a routine and making sure you're comfortable so like I said at the beginning. Find the right gym for you and then find the right activities start out simple build a habit build a routine and let it grow. I can assure you that after a period of time you will look forward to going to the gym. Will it be fun always absolutely not I joke with everyone that is much as I love running I hate running more today than when I start it but I also know how great and accomplished I feel when I'm done, so I force myself to start every day when I need to do it knowing how good I'll feel at the end. So I hope all of this has helped you and good luck in your fitness journey and good luck in the rest of your weight loss Journey all of this can be done. I hope you can see myself as an example of all of the greatness we are all capable of thank you thank you for listening please join me again for future episodes. You can contact me at parachute advice podcast at gmail.com again that's all one word parachute advice podcast at gmail.com. You can also follow me on Instagram at parachute advice again thank you for listening and please like And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Music.