When you start exercising, you’ll realize that the more you do it – the better you get at it. You will be able to exercise longer as you become more flexible, stronger, and faster. However, as reaching any other goal in life, good preparation is required.
If you’ve never gone to the gym before, there are certain steps you should take to be ready for your first workout.
1. Pack a gym bag
Put together a gym bag. Pack it with a clean shirt, towel, sports drink, water bottle, sweatbands, iPod, and a heart monitor.
2. Workout clothes
A proper workout requires proper clothing, because wearing gear that just rubs you the wrong way can contribute to lower training efficiency. Instead of wearing uncomfortable, blistering, and chafing clothes, go out and buy a few crucial pieces of clothing that are specifically designed for workouts. When you browse quality gym wear for men, look for features such as breathable materials (so your body stays dry and cool), covered seams (to prevent chafing), and support where it actually counts.
3. Start stretching
In order to improve your flexibility, you should begin stretching at least once every day before you go to the gym. Stretch your core, shoulders, arms, back, and legs, moving your muscles past the point of a comfortable range of motion. Stop and hold the stretch for 20-30 seconds when it starts to feel sore. In order to avoid injury, never bounce back and forth while stretching.
4. Create a workout plan
After you equip yourself with the right clothing and other necessary things, you should head to the gym – but not without a workout plan. Don’t go to the gym and waste your time there thinking about what you should do, training with halfhearted commitment. You can build a workout routine to employ your whole body with only 5-6 exercises. Focus on = core, pull, push, butt, hamstrings, and quad exercises.
5. Nutrition
Never head to the gym on an empty stomach, because it can make your workout a complete disaster. Fuel up with a meal (an hour before a workout, to give your stomach a chance to digest) or a small snack. Some of the best pre-workout foods include bananas, oats, whole grains, yogurt, fruit, protein smoothies, and trail mix.
6. Workout music
Once you start training and stay consistent with your workout routine, you’ll probably find exercising boring and tedious sometimes. One of the ways to stay motivated and keep things more dynamic is by listening to your favorite music. The tunes should sound the way you need to feel – heart-pumping. Make sure that you wear headphones that don’t fall out easily. Find some quality Bluetooth earbuds or earphones designed specifically for that purpose (that stay put during exercise).
7. A post-workout reward
By rewarding yourself after an intense workout, you’ll motivate yourself to do it again. The purpose of this is to make working out a habit – to get up and go to the gym without thinking about it. Every habit has 3 parts – a cue, a routine, and a reward. The cues may be preparing your breakfast, laying out your clothes, and setting your alarm.
When it comes to the reward, you can treat yourself with any of your favorite healthy treats. In this way, you’ll train your brain to make the connection between the strong endocannabinoid and endorphin rush that you get from exercising and the rewarding signals. At one point, you will have your brain enjoying working out without the reward, and develop a steady motivation to keep on going. The routine will become automatic after a while, and you’ll soon be feeling happy when workout time comes.
Before your first workout, visit the gym and have a staff member take you on a tour. Make a list of your workout goals and bring it along with you, so they can help you adjust it and give you with some important guidelines on workout types, exercises, and the machines that will work best for your needs. Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to add some muscle mass for a lean figure? Do you want to strengthen your bones, or treat your injured back? Speak your mind, get prepared, and start your new routine.
Images taken from pexels.com
About the Author:
I’m a fitness and health blogger at Ripped.me, and a great fan of the gym and a healthy diet. I follow all the trends in fitness, gym and healthy life, and l love to share my knowledge in this field through useful and informative articles.
Nice article man
Thanks so much for stopping by. Am sure Luke appreciates your kind words. If you’re interested, his team’s site, Ripped.me has some very interesting and alternative fitness articles!
Well written article with useful content inside. I wish this blog also covers the best timing to go for a workout.
Hi Sophia, thanks so much for stopping by. For the best time to train the following might be of interest:
https://bayesianbodybuilding.com/best-time-to-work-out/