Gym Tips and Guidelines for a Better Experience

So you’ve just signed up with a gym and have your first workout tomorrow? Great job! Now that you will start working out on a regular basis, you need to keep some things in mind so that you maximize your returns in the gym but also develop a healthy conduit amongst your gym going peers and whoever you share the gym with. Making sure you respect these tips will net you not only a higher chance of success in reaching your goals, but also the respect of your gym peers as they will recognize you as someone that aims to put in work the correct way. Here are a couple things you should keep in the back of your mind:

Cut the bravado 

 

This one is very important and you need to apply it from the first day in the gym to the last. Many people that go to the gym are naturally guided by the abundance of testosterone in their system to act tough. This implies attempting to lift weights that are way above their capacity, not stopping from doing an exercise before it’s too much, and other things like that. Don’t be ashamed to start with a pair of light weights to get you going. You don’t have to hurry or rush into heavy weights you clearly can’t lift yet.

Doing so will result in you risking an accident and anything from pulling something to tearing something but also developing bad habits in terms of how you lift weights. These are very bad because they will permanently hinder your growth and progress for as long as they’re in your system.

Don’t be afraid to use knee straps for squats or use a stepper as support for when you’re doing pushups either. It’s all part of the process of growing and developing further.

Be social

Granted, people don’t usually go to the gym to make friends but to get fit. But that doesn’t mean that the latter is out of discussion. Try your best to be polite and talkative to people around you. You might make some good friends. Communicate with people wanting to do the same workout as you and share machines/ benches/ weights/etc. Be open to receiving suggestions and help about how you do exercises as people who are more experienced in the gym might be able to give you great pointers for free. Try however to stay away from those people that act like they know everything and just give everyone tips to look smart but don’t actually know what they’re doing. You’ll be able to spot them by certain things like the fact that other people aren’t paying attention to them either.

Disclosure:  This is a contributed post.