First time at the gym!

[Aquarius]

I signed up for gym today! My subscription is for a month, 9am to 3 pm daily. (: 

I only had time to try 1 thing there, but I really enjoyed it! First time being there.  

Can you guys give me diet and gym advice, currently I have no idea what I am doing....  

[TrynaBeTurquoise]

Get a personal trainer or coach to help you with exercise technique/selection/programming if you can afford one. It will saves you tons of time, wasted effort, potential injury, ect.

[Raptorsin7]

Good luck (:

[Average Investor]

I've had the most success finding a workout I can complete everyday. I like to add a little more to it every month or so right now. What you decide to do is going to vary a lot on what you want out of it. If you just want a good baseline of extra happiness and energy a good 30 minute workout should do you well. I find cardio to be the most fun for me. 

Make sure you stretch after your workout.

Make sure you start consuming extra water to compensate for your loss. Probably the most important thing I will mention. Seriously buy like one of those water flask things and keep it around with you. 

Try not to skip more than a day in a row especially starting out. After some months you will likely want to go and feel the need to. 

Find activities that you actually enjoy. 

Try to challenge yourself. 

Set goals.

Like mentioned above make sure that you don't overdo it. It's good to push yourself sometimes and see what you can do. But you have to work up to that and have a cycle of light working out after. Don't just keep trying to do your max all the time. 

You said you want to go vegan. I recommend getting the book 150 healthiest foods. Finding fruits and veggies that you really enjoy and start adding more and more of them into your diet. I would not just try and make a full on change immediately as that will be pretty difficult to sustain especially if you do not know what kind of food that you like. It is really easy to get stuck on vegan junk food too, but it can help you make the transition if you do it wisely. 

I had success with just switching one meal into a vegan meal at a time and that seemed to help me the most. I just started with a smoothie for breakfast everyday. I absolutely love it and it is a great way to get a high amount of fruits and veggies in right off the bat. 

Do you research on potential vitamins that you might become deficient in. You will want to analyze your diet over time and make sure that you getting all of your proper nutrients in. I only take a few supplements now and even that might be overkill. But I have make sure all of the stuff I am eating will supply what I need. You will actually notice your taste will attract you to nutrients that you need. 

I had a lot of luck by just watching videos about how bad dairy was and that was literally enough for me to just immediately stop eating it after consuming it for over 20 years. Maybe that will help for you maybe now. I went vegan myself mostly. Not really for the environment and stuff, but if what I do aids in other things it makes me happy to be apart of it. Factory farming and what not is pretty disgusting though I have to admit. 

You might find it better to remove an item at a time. Do what you can and good luck. I am happy to help you with questions you might have.  

 

[Nash]

Go to https://scoobysworkshop.com/ . Scooby offers the highest quality advice about diet and exercise more than anyone I know. Also, he created a tool called custommealplanner that will help you with your diet and its really incredible software. Diet is just as if not more important than your workouts. You may want to get into prepping your meals so you have 4 or 3 days worth of food at a time. You will probably spend even more time cooking than you do working out if you are eating properly. I cook for like 3 hours straight or more twice a week just so I have my meals prepared. If you are trying to lose weight, you may have an easier time, trying to "bulk" is more challenging.

[Michael569]

9 hours ago, TrynaBeTurquoise said:

Get a personal trainer or coach to help you with exercise technique/selection/programming if you can afford one. It will saves you tons of time, wasted effort, potential injury, ect.

^ this is the best advice a beginner can get.

[Aquarius]

22 hours ago, Shiva said:

Congrats, that's the first step! Glad you enjoyed it

If you really have no idea what you're doing I have the following tips for you:

Split your workouts by muscle group
For example, chest and triceps one day, back and biceps another day, legs another day. This way you won't be sore in the areas you need for the next day.

During your first week avoid free weights and focus on exercise machines
Working out with free weights requires a certain base strength and your muscles should be used to working out. Also you need to know how to do them properly otherwise you could get injured. So, don't do dumbbells or bench press just yet, build up that base strength first using machines where you can't do that much wrong.

Don't overdo it!
This is a mistake that I personally have done many times. You and also people will tend to push you to do extra reps and workout harder. While it is true that you really need to push your limits in order to get stronger, you shouldn't overdo it at the beginning. All too often have I pushed too hard after a longer break from working out and over the following days my arms would get more and more sore until I could barely move them at all for two weeks because I injured my sinews. Focus on workout out consistently instead. Get the habit going, that's most important.

About diet: Avoid junk
There are different dietary philosophies and different diets for different workout goals. Many of them work. For now, just avoid junk if you're not doing that already. Later, you may look up all sorts of ideas you can experiment with. Particularly keep candy and alcohol at a minimum as these can really ruin your workout progress, which can be quite frustrating.

And lastly, have fun of course!

Hope this helps. Enjoy the gym!

Thank you! I don't drink and never eat candy anyway. Quit fast food and meat completely.

17 hours ago, Raptorsin7 said:

Good luck (:

Thanks!

18 hours ago, TrynaBeTurquoise said:

Get a personal trainer or coach to help you with exercise technique/selection/programming if you can afford one. It will saves you tons of time, wasted effort, potential injury, ect.

I will see if available.  

14 hours ago, Average Investor said:

I've had the most success finding a workout I can complete everyday. I like to add a little more to it every month or so right now. What you decide to do is going to vary a lot on what you want out of it. If you just want a good baseline of extra happiness and energy a good 30 minute workout should do you well. I find cardio to be the most fun for me. 

Make sure you stretch after your workout.

Make sure you start consuming extra water to compensate for your loss. Probably the most important thing I will mention. Seriously buy like one of those water flask things and keep it around with you. 

Try not to skip more than a day in a row especially starting out. After some months you will likely want to go and feel the need to. 

Find activities that you actually enjoy. 

Try to challenge yourself. 

Set goals.

Like mentioned above make sure that you don't overdo it. It's good to push yourself sometimes and see what you can do. But you have to work up to that and have a cycle of light working out after. Don't just keep trying to do your max all the time. 

You said you want to go vegan. I recommend getting the book 150 healthiest foods. Finding fruits and veggies that you really enjoy and start adding more and more of them into your diet. I would not just try and make a full on change immediately as that will be pretty difficult to sustain especially if you do not know what kind of food that you like. It is really easy to get stuck on vegan junk food too, but it can help you make the transition if you do it wisely. 

I had success with just switching one meal into a vegan meal at a time and that seemed to help me the most. I just started with a smoothie for breakfast everyday. I absolutely love it and it is a great way to get a high amount of fruits and veggies in right off the bat. 

Do you research on potential vitamins that you might become deficient in. You will want to analyze your diet over time and make sure that you getting all of your proper nutrients in. I only take a few supplements now and even that might be overkill. But I have make sure all of the stuff I am eating will supply what I need. You will actually notice your taste will attract you to nutrients that you need. 

I had a lot of luck by just watching videos about how bad dairy was and that was literally enough for me to just immediately stop eating it after consuming it for over 20 years. Maybe that will help for you maybe now. I went vegan myself mostly. Not really for the environment and stuff, but if what I do aids in other things it makes me happy to be apart of it. Factory farming and what not is pretty disgusting though I have to admit. 

You might find it better to remove an item at a time. Do what you can and good luck. I am happy to help you with questions you might have.  

 

Thank you, this proved very helpful!

I did 15 minutes yesterday, today I took a break because muscle fever, I cannot even sit down properly lol.

11 hours ago, Nash said:

Go to https://scoobysworkshop.com/ . Scooby offers the highest quality advice about diet and exercise more than anyone I know. Also, he created a tool called custommealplanner that will help you with your diet and its really incredible software. Diet is just as if not more important than your workouts. You may want to get into prepping your meals so you have 4 or 3 days worth of food at a time. You will probably spend even more time cooking than you do working out if you are eating properly. I cook for like 3 hours straight or more twice a week just so I have my meals prepared. If you are trying to lose weight, you may have an easier time, trying to "bulk" is more challenging.

Okay, thanks! Never heard about Scooby, but I will check him out. Thanks!

9 hours ago, Michael569 said:

^ this is the best advice a beginner can get.

Okay!  

[Average Investor]

Take it slow. Even 15 minutes is plenty fine to start. When I was getting into exercise I started just walking a mile. And keep in mind every now and then it is actually good to take a break from it because it allows muscles to repair and actually build.   

[JonasVE12]

What are your goals?

If you’re looking to gain strength and muscle mass, I recommend Stronglifts 5x5.

https://stronglifts.com/5x5/#gref

it’s a fullbody plan, with 3 workouts per week. It consists of compound movements, that will build foundational strength. Very clear, straight to the point article on how to go about this.