Hey! So you've decided you want to start going to the gym to lose weight or gain muscle. You probably made it your new years resolution to lose weight or want to get a six pack for the beach this summer. But there just one problem, you have no idea what to do at the gym. You see a whole bunch of guys working out at the gym but should you be doing exactly what they're doing? No! Well don't worry we've got you covered! This is GYMCADDY’s Exercises For Beginners List. If you want a Complete Beginner’s Work Routine you can click right HERE.
If you’re brand new to the gym you should keep from doing exactly what other people are doing. There are two reasons for this. First, maybe the person you see working out in front of the weight rack doesn’t know what he or she is doing. And second, the other person you might see Dead Lifting or Bench Pressing a lot of weight is far too advanced for you to just copy and could result in you getting injured.
So what are you supposed to do?! Don’t worry we’ve got you covered. If you’re brand new to the gym you first concern should be improving your stability, flexibility, endurance, coordination, and mind muscle connection. You should first work on covering your basics like proper push ups, planks, squats, lunges, pull ups, and dips. If you dive head first into more complex exercises then you are setting yourself up for injuries or stagnate progression. You have to crawl before you can run.
Exercises For Beginners:
Push Ups: Seems simple enough but you'd be amazed at how many people think they can do push ups but actually cant. Before you start bench pressing you should make sure you can do a proper push up by going all the way down, bending 90 degrees at the elbows, and come back up all the. Try adding a 5 second hold at the bottom of the push up to make it more challenging and making you more awesome.
Lunges: Again, you'd be amazed at how many people cant do lunges properly. Make sure to keep your chest straight up and bring your knee all the way down. Make sure you don't jam your knee to the floor, a simple tap or inch above the ground will do. Do lunges with some dumb bells in your hands to make them a little more intense. Also try doing them by walking backwards, it completely changes the sensation and helps you develop a stronger mind muscle connection.
Lunges
Pulls Ups: Pull Ups are always a little hard for people at first. Either people don't have the strength or coordination to do a proper pull up. Well after years of training clients we have learned that there a plenty of different ways to teach people how to do pull ups. First, stay away from the pull up machine that you might see at the gym where you place your feet or knees on a pad and add weight to support you. That is perhaps one of the worst machines in the gym. Instead, try starting off by Australian Pulls Ups. Then progress to doing Assisted Pull Ups with bands or by placing your legs on some equipment. Then you should be able to move to do a single pull up with good form. From there just do pull ups one at a time until you can do them consecutively.
Australian Pull Ups
Assisted Band Pulls Ups
Assisted Pull Ups
Planks: Planks seem simple enough but again, you'd be amazed at how many people get them wrong. When doing planks you want to make sure your body is straight like… a plank, hence the name. Stay away from pointing your butt up. Work your way up until you can hold a good plank for 3-5 minutes. You can make planks harder by adding weight on your back.
Planks
Dips Exercise
Dips: Dips are perhaps my favorite exercise. They require little to no equipment and give you a better contraction in your chest than the bench press. You can play around with pauses and tempos to make them more challenging and you can even to them weighted. In my opinion everyone should add dips to their workout routine if they have healthy shoulders.
Jump Rope: Look, cardio sucks. And walking on a treadmill or an elliptical for an hour is nothing but a waste of time. If you want to burn more calories, work on your coordination, and have a little fun at the same time then jump some rope.
Jump Rope