What to Do on Your First Visit to the Gym
If you’ve never been to the gym, or if you haven’t been in a long time, it can be a daunting experience. Gyms are incredibly friendly places, but it’s normal for people to feel nervous when they’re putting themselves in a new situation.
As you begin to think towards your first gym experience, you may be wondering “What should I do on my first visit to the gym?” Do you walk in and hop on a treadmill and just go?
The gym can be a fun place to spend time, and it’s great to take that first step in reaching your fitness goals, but before you show up for the first time, here are some tips on what to do on your first visit.
Have a workout plan
Before getting to the gym, you should come up with a plan for what workouts you’re going to do and in what order. All the available equipment can be overwhelming, and if you go in without a plan, you may find yourself aimlessly wandering about and not making the best use of your time.
A plan also makes it more likely that you complete a full workout. You’ll know what exactly to do, and what your own criteria is for completion. Without a plan, you may catch yourself wanting to quit a workout early.
How do you make a plan?
The best way to start is to keep things simple. If you only have a few have exercises you’re familiar with, start with a workout that incorporates those exercises. If you don’t have any exercises you know, find some basic exercises on YouTube (there are tons of videos if you search for “beginner workouts”). If it looks like something you can’t do, come back to it later.
How many workouts should be in your day 1 plan?
Your goal is to get a workout done, so don’t be too aggressive. 3-5 exercises that target different parts of your body is more than enough as a starting point.
One easy way to break up workouts is into push, pull, legs and cardio. Push exercises work your chest and biceps, like bench press. Pull exercises work your back and biceps, like rows. Leg exercises are anything that strengthens your legs. And cardio can be anything that gets your heart rate up for several minutes.
Some coaches and trainers advocate for splits where you workout one part of your body one day and another part of your body another day. This is great if you have a specific strength training goal, but if you don’t, consider making it a goal to get your entire body moving on every visit to the gym.
Get to know the staff
The most helpful people at the gym will be the staff manning the front desk and maintaining the equipment. Surprisingly, few people take the time to get to know the staff, even though they’re there to help.
When you sign up for a membership, ask to meet some of the staff members and learn about what they do. Because so few people do this, you will make friends with the staff quickly.
Ask for help
Gyms are staffed with people for a reason. They’re not just there to sell to you or to clean the equipment, they’re also there to help. If you don’t know how a piece of equipment works, you can ask the gym staff. If you have questions on gym etiquette, the gym staff can help. It’s not weird to ask them, that’s why they’re there!
Sometimes, gym staff will even help you with a spot if you’’re lifting heavy.
Warm Up
One of the best ways to hurt yourself is by aggressively working out without warming up. A warm up doesn’t need to be complex or incredibly time consuming. 5 minutes of gentle moving around will do the job. You can walk on a treadmill for 5 minutes, do some body weight workouts, or very light lifts. Also, stretching and warming up are not the same! It’s often a good idea to warm up before stretches too.
Start Small
As you make your plans and get to the gym, it’s important to remember that starting small is ideal. It’s easy to get excited and want to go hard on your first day at the gym, but you need to be patient. There are a few reasons to start small, and it all has to do with building momentum.
First, you don’t want to injure yourself on your first day and knock yourself out of being able to to workout for a while. Your excitement will wither and you may find it difficult to make it back.
Second, if you workout too hard, you will end up with muscle fatigue and soreness. Some amount of fatigue and soreness is inevitable when training, but you don’t want it to be so bad that you can’t make it to the gym again for another week.
Third, starting small will make it easier to line up some wins. If you go hard on day 1 and find yourself failing at reps or constantly winded, you’re going to feel like you’re losing, not like you’re winning. Psychologically, it will be easier to go to the gym for day 2 if you feel like you did a great job on day 1. This may sound like a cop out, but it’s not: progress at the gym is made over months and years of consistency, not by having one very intense workout.
This doesn’t mean that you should take it completely easy. You should still challenge yourself. Simply don’t overdo it. By starting small, you can begin the process of generating momentum for the long run.
Listen to Your Body
One of the worst pieces of workout culture is the idea that you should push through pain. Pain is a signal from your body that something isn’t going right. If an exercise hurts, ease off of it and lower your weight or intensity, or try a different exercise.
If a workout feels excruciatingly difficult, it’s okay to set it back. If a lift is too heavy, don’t be embarrassed to lower the weight. You don’t need to max out and push yourself to exhaustion on every workout. What matters it that you’re moving your body and building up your fitness.
To the prior point, you want to workout for the long run, and that means avoiding injuries and maximizing good feelings.
Don’t Worry About People Judging You
There’s a big misconception that gyms are full of judgmental jerks. This is far from the truth. Most people are too busy focused on themselves to notice you. Nobody is going to judge you for lifting light or impressed by you for lifting heavy. Additionally, yu’re at the gym to do something good for yourself, not to worry about other people, so don’t let other’s opinions hold you back from helping yourself.
In the incredibly rare circumstance that someone is a judgemental jerk at the gym, there are several things you can do. Check our our post on what to do if you encounter a jerk at the gym.
Make it Fun
Your time at the gym should be a positive experience. Ideally, you will be spending a lot of time there as you work towards your fitness goals. It’s worth figuring out how to make the gym a fun place to be. Make a playlist of fun music and take a pair of headphones. Pick up an exercise outfit that lets you workout comfortably. Find shoes that fit the workouts you’re doing.
If your workouts aren’t fun, try changing things up. If you hate running, you can try dancing instead. If you hate yoga, you can try pilates.
You’re probably not going to be having a blast at the gym every workout. (sometimes it’s just not fun!). But you should be able to get into a situation that is generally enjoyable. It will take some experimentation and trial and error, but invest in creating that environment.
Your first time at the gym is the first step in a long journey.