Taking a BIG step forward and deciding you want to regain control of your health with exercise is often scary because people simply don’t know what to do. That’s why I’m writing this post, I want to give you a simple guideline you can follow to make the most out your gym experience.
Side note, I commend every single person I see in a gym because it generally can be a very intimidating place, especially for beginners.
Let’s break this down beginning with your warm up…
The warm up is simply a way of helping your body transition from a relaxed state to point where it is prepped to work. You essentially want to warm up all the parts of your body that you will be working out in the session. Traditional methods of warming up involve things like jogging or cycling, which really only prep the ankles, knees and hips, ignoring the upper body.
For that reason I suggest hopping on the Elliptical at your gym for 5-10 minutes. Start slow and add some light resistance as you go along. You want to warm the body, break a sweat and elevate the heart rate gradually. The Elliptical is great because not only is it low-impact on the joints, it incorporates the lower and upper body musculature at the same time!
I should note the most effective ways of warming up and preventing injury are through Specific and Dynamic warm ups… but they can be very individualized based on the person…..and I can’t give away all the trade secrets…..sorry
Next lets get in to the working portion of your session!
If you are new to exercise you’ll want to do what is called compound, or multi-joint exercises. These use exercises that require movement at more than a single joint. For example, a bench presses utilizes movement in the shoulder and also the elbow joints, versus a bicep curl which only requires motion at the elbow.
these compound movements involve more muscle mass which can lead to more of a metabolic disturbance and essentially help you burn more calories overall.
Now we can break this down many ways, but for the sake of simplifying the post we’ll choose one of each: Push, Pull, Hip Dominant, Knee Dominant, Core
With these categories we can put together a very basic but effective workout…
1. Push
The pushing movement I’m going to choose is a Pushup. I love this as an upper body exercise because it can be manipulated to fit pretty much anybody. It also involves the anterior core musculature to hold that neutral spine position while performing them… it’s also just a really great workout for your chest, triceps and anterior shoulder.
Here are a few videos with different variations you can choose from
Next lets pick a Pulling exercise…
2. Pull
One of my favorites is the one-arm dumbbell row. Here’s a great instructional video on how to perform them.
Next a Hip Dominant exercise…
3. Hip Dominant
Another one of my favourites, the Hip-Thrust or sometimes called the Glute-Bridge. This is an amazing exercise for your glutes that is really simple to execute.
here is another video with a few variations to make it more challenging and different…
If these are to easy and you can bang out 15 – 20 no problem….try putting a dumbbell or a barbell across your hip for some extra resistance…never sacrifice form for weight though, and make sure each repetition is a full extension at the hip!
Now a Knee Dominant!
4. Knee Dominant
A simple movement that is really effective is the lunge. It also comes with millions of variations to keep it interesting. But for this post I’ll provide you with what I believe to be the easiest ones to perform, the reverse/forward lunge.
I’m using my bodyweight in the video… but again, if this is far too easy grab some dumbbells and hold them at your side for more resistance! And remember a 90 degree bend in the front and back knee at the bottom for both variations.
Now finally…..CORE!
5. Core
There are hundreds of exercises you could choose from but these two I love and program them into mine and my clients workouts all the time. They’re called Deadbug and Bird-Dog!
As you can see I showed a few progressions for both. Start with the first of each and work your way up to the harder ones. During these there should be absolutely no movement in the hips or spine. The only moving parts are your arms and legs.
There you go, that’s all for a full body workout!
Now you have a couple options of how you can do these and I’ll leave that choice up to you.
You can either…
do 1 set of each exercise, one after the other with no break in between….like a circuit and take a break after the last one then repeat that circuit 2 or 3 times
or
You can do each exercise individually for 2 or 3 sets of 10 repetitions. Resting after each set and moving on to the next exercise after the last set.
If you’re just starting out, and don’t know how much weight or how many reps you should do… pick a weight the you can use for each exercise to bang out 3 sets of 10 reps. Don’t go to failure on the 10th rep, by that point the muscle should be burning…but save a couple reps in the tank for the other sets. If you can’t make it to 10 reps on each set with whatever weight you choose then go a little lighter and work up to it.
That’s always a safe place to start and each week you can increase the weight by 2.5 – 5lbs.
As always finish the workout with a nice stretch session to cool off…stretch the areas of the body you worked….chest, hips, legs etc.
Give this a try and leave any questions you have in the comment box and I’ll do my best to get to them.
Stay fit everyone!