Best workouts to do at the gym for beginners include; reverse lunges, push-ups, straight leg sit-ups, and lunge jumps. Whether to build muscle or lose weight, joining the gym benefits your overall health. For the best results, watch your diet and pick a workout that aligns with your goals.
For beginners, workouts at the gym are ideal for goals like losing weight, burning fat, or building muscles. Exercise improves your health and should be part of your weekly routine because it helps you achieve and maintain healthy body weight, improve your mental health, body function, and reduce the risk of chronic disease.
Additionally, exercise can lift your mood, help you sleep better, and enhance your sex life. To feel the benefits of exercise, you must be determined and disciplined. As a beginner, you should start slowly and build up gradually, giving yourself time to warm up and cool down systematically. Remember to be flexible and creative. It’s essential when you exercise to engage the body’s different cardiovascular systems to get the most out of your workouts.
To achieve this, you must understand the following systems:
Aerobic System: Your breathing and heart rate increase for a sustained period during exercises like swimming, running, cycling, and dancing, where you are continuously moving; you breath faster and deeper to maximize the amount of oxygen in your blood. Your heart rate rises and blood is sent to the different muscle groups around your body. This type of system is known as your aerobic system; the more you train, the more efficient it becomes.
Anaerobic System: Helps your body during high-intensity training. Your body needs immediate energy during exercises like weightlifting, circuit training, sprinting, and other forms of strength training. Your anaerobic system uses stored energy, breaking down glucose and providing your body with the energy it needs. The more you train your anaerobic system, the more efficient it becomes.
Importance Of Exercising The Full Body
Not everyone has time for five gym sessions per week. However, you can perform full-body workouts twice or three times per week and still reach an outstanding fitness level. Below are reasons why full-body activities can benefit your training.
● You may see an increase in muscular recovery rates
● You will have more time for additional sports or other activities
● You can work both your anaerobic and aerobic systems in one workout
● It’s beneficial for fat loss
● You can combine multiple activities into one session and stay motivated.
Body Weight Exercises
Functional fitness and training begin with bodyweight exercises. These exercises include.
● Straight Leg Sit-Up: Sit-up exercises improve strength and build your muscles for stability.
● Elbow or Palm Plank: When you hold your elbow or palm plank for a more extended period, it strengthens your core to protect your spine from much flexion or extension.
● Reverse Lunge: Reverse lunge builds your lower body strength, strengthens your hamstrings, glutes and opens your hips.
● Push Up: Push-ups are responsible for building upper body strength in the chest, shoulders, and triceps.
● Lunge Jump: Lunge jump is a power exercise that safeguards knees, hips, and ankles.
Your body can perform functional movements like pull-ups, squats, push, lunge, hinge, rotation, and gait. When performing these movements, you stimulate muscles in your body.
Group Exercise
Group workouts are effective because:
● There is a lower risk of injury when a coach is present
● You get a higher endorphin output
● You get motivation from others in the class
● They increase your commitment to a fitness routine
● You don’t have to know what you are doing fully. You can learn on the go
● It is excellent for everyone, no matter the fitness level
● It is fun and maintains your emotional balance
You feel you have socialized with others
Positive Mindset
Before you start workouts as a beginner, understand yourself and plan realistic and attainable goals. Make exercise a habit by having fun while you do it.
Positive thinking increases your energy levels and makes you adhere to your workout. Workouts at the gym for beginners like yoga or team sports require a positive mindset to keep you happy and healthy. You should always be mindful of positive thoughts and surround yourself with positive people.
Exercise Time
A good gym workout should not be determined by the duration of time spent working out. As a beginner, you can start with short workouts of 30 minutes or less. You can add more minutes every week when you feel your strength building.
Below are factors to be considered when calculating how long to work out:
● Your Fitness Level: When you ask yourself, “how long should I work out?’’ consider your overall fitness level. You should not push yourself to injury or burnout by going beyond the limit.
● The Type of Workout: Before you commit to a gym session, consider the types of exercise you will engage yourself in. When you find a comfortable rhythm, maintain it to make your workout easier.
● Amount of Rest Time: Strength training exercises like weightlifting require adequate preparation and rest. To engage in these exercises, add at least 10 to 20 minutes to your workout period to allow you to stretch, rest, and recover in between the sessions.
● Other Commitments: Commitments outside the gym are normal. However, it is important to invest in your well-being. It is OK to set at least 20 minutes for a workout to help improve your health.
Workout Principles to Help you Attain Your Goals
When you start working out, there are goals and targets that you set for yourself. The following principles can help you achieve your goals more effectively.
Watch what you eat: If you aim to lose weight, burn more than you consume and grow muscle, eat foods high in protein. Eating before and after a workout can improve your performance. Fruits and yogurt are good pre- and post-workout foods.
Warm up well: Dynamic stretches are best for warming your body before working out. That includes any exercise that requires moving around or lowering your heart rate, such as basic yoga poses, lunges, cross trainer, or cardiovascular exercises like walking.
Consider your job: If your job involves sitting down most of the time, standing when exercising will benefit you more, as it will free up areas that may not be getting enough movement due to the nature of your work.
Cool down properly: static stretches with slower movements work best for this workout phase. It is a perfect time to try to relax and release some stiffer body parts that you find difficult to loosen up.
For every workout, ensure you;
Go slowly and concentrate on your form.
Between each set, take a 60-90 second break.
When you’re resting, keep moving. A gentle stroll around the gym will keep your muscles warm and your heart rate elevated.
Circuit Training for Beginners
Particularly for individuals with time constraints on their sessions, circuit training is a terrific way to burn more calories and focus on several areas simultaneously. Weights, muscle strength, high cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance, and quicker recovery are all things you’ll find yourself embracing.
Circuit training includes;
- Side planks in succession (45 secs)
- Tricep dips when seated (45 secs)
- shoulder press to bicep curls (45 secs)
- Squat jumps (45 secs)
- (Full/knees) Press up into Superman (45 secs)
- Jump rope (60 secs)
- Abdominal crunches 15-20 reps
- Standard push-ups
- 2-minute rows
Types of Circuit Training
The following are a few types of circuit training.
Timed Circuit: The rest and exercise periods are limited in a timed circuit. You can adjust the work-to-rest ratio for the particular group or person performing the circuit. For a group of persons with average fitness, a typical timed circuit would consist of 45 seconds of exercise and 45 seconds of rest.
Competition Circuit: This is a timed circuit with the added challenge of pushing yourself to see the number of reps you can complete in the allotted time. For instance, you can accomplish 12 push-ups in 30 seconds. The goal is to maintain the same amount of time while attempting to complete more repetitions.
Repetition Circuit: This circuit form is perfect if you’re working with huge groups of people with varying degrees of fitness and ability. The plan is for the fittest group to perform 20 reps of every exercise, the intermediate group to perform just 15, and the beginners to perform only 10 repetitions of each exercise.
Closing Thoughts
Workouts to do at the gym for beginners can be challenging. You should have an objective to maintain a fitness program for the long term. You can start slowly, build your fitness level and let your body rest for some time to help prevent injuries.
It is also important to hydrate regularly, eat healthy meals, listen to your body and check in with your healthcare provider to monitor your health.
