The first week of the 2024 calendar year has been successfully recorded. For a local commercial gym employee, this could be one of the most stimulating weeks of the season. A young front desk representative is likely to observe the flood of excited humans eager to achieve their New Year’s resolution fitness goals come flooding into the sliding glass front doors like a school of salmon traveling inland from the ocean. Rightfully so, signing up for a gym membership when the membership rate is fifty percent off is all the rage. New Year’s discounts and specials are offered this time of year to promote health and vigor in the community while giving people a driving force to invest time at a local gym to improve their overall fitness and quality of life. The parking lots in front of the gym are full, the gym floor is packed to the brim like a kettle full of popcorn ready to serve, and the boisterous energy can be quite a spectacle.
As the gym floors are saturated with humans looking to advance their fitness and health as their New Year’s resolution, there are a fair amount of novice exercise participants present during these first few weeks of the new year. The good news for novice gymgoers is that they have broken past the most challenging part of developing an effective exercise program: They walked through the front door. In an environment that can appear intimidating, overwhelming, and just not someone’s cup of tea, stepping foot into the fitness arena when the foundation of fitness for a person isn’t at the forefront of things to do in their everyday life can be quite a challenge. So, good job to those of you who have rendered the courage to take that step and sign up for a gym membership to start 2024.
One of the biggest issues for fitness rookies when entering a gym is understanding where to begin. The gym floor is strewn with contraptions of various colors, shapes, and sizes. In one corner, you might have large-weight metal objects, benches, cables, and boxes. As a newbie viewing this section of the gym, they might be confused if they mistakenly ventured into a steel fabrication shop. In the other section of the gym, there are multiple electronically powered devices that people sit on in a stationary position to run, step, glide, or bike on. Better known as treadmills, ellipticals, stair steppers, and stationary exercise bikes, these pieces of equipment can bewilder new exercise participants. Needless to say, finding a place to begin when entering an exercise facility can create an obstacle for new gym goers. Sometimes, the deciding factor of where to start can deter a person from continuing their fitness journey and accomplishing the fitness goals they initially wanted to achieve in the first place.
A few tips we give to our personal training clients just starting on a new fitness journey is to start with simple exercises that target large areas of muscles. Additionally, start with choosing just a few exercises to accomplish throughout your first few gym visits. Completing four to five exercises in a single gym visit is plenty. A simple and effective tactic to target muscles of the entire body is to conduct simple resistance training techniques that require just a few repetitions to complete. When deciding what exercises are best for you, aim to perform no more than five to eight repetitions. Whether it be a resistance training machine, a cable resistance training setup, or utilizing a dumbbell, lower repetition at an intensity of about twenty to thirty percent of your maximal perceived exertion is a safe and effective way to put an efficient amount of exercise-induced stress on the body.
Additionally, choose exercises that cover three simple themes: lower body movements, upper body pushing movements, and upper body pulling movements. Lower body movements can be accomplished with the leg press machine or by performing a few simple repetitions of body-weight squats on a bench. Upper-body pushing and pulling techniques can be performed on resistance training machines that are set up with benches, back support, and handles that are safe and effective such as chest press or rowing resistance training machines. Choosing exercises that have a relatively low learning curve creates an attainable exercise setting to accomplish a worthwhile exercise session.
More importantly, if exercising in a gym is new, don’t be afraid to reach out to one of the onsite personal trainers. Ask them to share some information about a few entry-level lower-body and upper-body resistance training movements. They work at these gyms and expect new people to meander around like a fish out of water. Their job is to help out the newbies and keep them coming back in through those doors so the new members can lose some weight, get stronger, and feel better after they finish a session at the gym. It takes effort and mental fortitude to acclimate to a new gym setting. We can all do it with patience and willingness to learn.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com, or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.
