Anybody willing to spout some advice? What to bring? Some common etiquette I may miss while reading online? I figure joining this gym is the boost I need to get back in shape after gaining 45+ pounds in the past 16 months.
Of all the pieces of advice you may or may not receive in this thread, the most important of these is to bring a towel and wipe down the equipment after you've finished using it.
I know better than that. This is a tiny little gym and doesn't even have a shower unfortunately, which really ruins my chances of working out before school/work.
A gym with no shower? Are you sure that's actually a "gym" and not a "spare room with half a barbell and an old nordictrack"?
Save your money and use it to buy gym equipment for your own home, and there it can quickly become part of the kids playset/your extra place for hangers and laundry baskets. Then after a few years you can sell it in the yard sale for a tenth of what you paid for it. Honestly, you'll get more money back in your pockets if you do it this way, cuz your never gonna succeed at the gym unless your going for the girlies, or you have someone to go with, workout buddy or spouse etc. If it's just you, cancel that membership stat.
I only signed up for a three month trial, i'm the kind of guy who needs motivation to do something and spending money on something like this is what I need to get me off my ass. Thankfully I managed to get the trial pretty cheap so if it doesn't work out I can always cancel it and try something else.
Great piece of advice. Also dont let a trainer push you to hard to fast, if it doesnt feel right let your trainer know. if you get a trainer.
A gym without showers won't have trainers. My advice is start small. Half-hours at a time to start, but go frequently. Five times a week if you can. And change it up. Try every cardio machine and weight system. And my lesson from last year was: an active lifestyle is still not a license to eat.
I was the opposite. I feel I went to much and got burned out. I enjoyed going to the gym more when i only went like 3 days out of the week. to each there own. Im going 4 times a week now.
I'm in the same boat as you in wanting to lose weight and going to they gym. I'm down almost 30 pounds so far, so don't take offense to anything I say. 1. Don't be lazy about going. Being lazy is what caused you to gain all that weight. I don't care if you are sore, suck it up and go in. 2. Half if working out, the other half is diet. As foster said, its easy to think you can eat what you want while you are working out. Your body will adjust to this and you'll stagnate. 3. Learn proper form, a trainer should help you out with this. If you don't know how to use a machine or free weight, ASK! You can do some serious damage to both yourself and the weights/machine. Don't drop the weights. 4. If you are wanting to build muscle, don't be that guy that does the uber fast set of ten and has all of his reps done in less than 10 seconds. If makes you look stupid and more importantly, momentum is doing the work, not you. 5. If you just started lifting weights, you are going to be sore. Don't let this discourage you. The way to fix the soreness is to make sure you stretch, then go back in and do the same exercises again, this will help stretch the muscle back out. Its really easy to quit after that initial soreness, so don't. It will get better with time. 6. There's lots of theories on workout and diets..... I won't comment on any of them other than what I have said so far. Do lots of reading and decide what's best for you or get a trainer that isn't a quack to help you out. 7. I have lost weight and am losing weight because I choose to. I choose not to eat fast food, I choose to go to the gym, I choose to push myself a little harder each time. If you give up, its because you chose to. Nobody will lose that 45lbs other than you. Hope that helps, I'm sure others will chime in as well. Best of luck to you.
My advice: 1. Make a routine/schedule and stick with it. I work out 3-5 times a week. 2. Buy a weight lifting book, I highly recommend "The Book of Muscle." The book is great cause it gives you information on -everything-. Muscles, exercise, nutrition, routines, etc. 3. I also highly recommend just buying weights and bench at home. My bench was like $100. It was simple but came with 100 lbs in weights. You don't need a fancy machine and a ton of equipment to get good results. With $150-$200, you can buy all the weights and equipment you'll need for your first year. I'm talking about weights here, I don't know if you want to do cardio or other exercises. And just remember it takes commitment to get results. Best of luck!
When I dropped 100 lbs three years ago, I went to the gym 5 days a week. The motivation I needed? I lived two hours from my fiance, and I was not back in school, AND I was paying 65 bucks a month, which made me bust my ass. And I had time too. Since I have put half the weight back on, but I have gotten two degrees since then. Once I finish school (Feb.), I will hit the gym hard. My asthma was so much better when I was working out and healthy. Plus, remember that being healthy doesn't necessarily mean being stick thin.
Good advice...and one more thing; make sure you are exercising and lifting weights, if you choose that. Muscles weighs more than fat, so don't get discouraged if you fail to lose a bunch right away. Keep going and motivate yourself. You will do great!
Thanks for advice everybody. I'm out of school and work until Wednesday so i'll have some decent time to work out, but once I start back i'll have to go every chance I get since I work 6 days a week and go to school full time. I do have one kinda dumb question though. What is the correct kind of towel to bring? Do I bring a regular sized bath-towel or something smaller like a face-towel?
most gyms supply towels, but if yours does not, then bring a hand towel - the size you would hand in your bathroom for guests to wipe their hands. Or one of the smaller bath towels, not bath sheet
