You are probably all set now and have taken care of things you need and don’t need in the gym. That basically means we are ready for some beginner level bodybuilding bros and broettes!
When you enter the gym, there’s one more thing you need to remember. You are a beginner. It doesn’t matter how long you have been playing sports or how long you have been studying muscles and exercises, you are a beginner.
Not only for the first week but rather for one entire year, you are a beginner at bodybuilding. You’d be an intermediate only when you know all the forms and are very much familiar with all the builder problems. You would know your first on the day next to your first leg day!
Don’t feel bad when someone says you are a beginner. You have a thing no one else who has been working out for more than a year has. There’s a gym slang going all around about the power you possess. The gym community calls it Beginner Gains.
Don’t forget
Even though most gyms have a loud blasting music system and a water cooler. I suggest you have a playlist and nice earphones or headphones because even though we have loud music, we might want to stay away from the “Gym DJ”. Try to not use YouTube or you would be fidgeting with your phone instead of working out. If you have bad internet connection, Spotify Free version is also out.
Carry a water bottle with water at room temperature. You don’t want to ruin your next day by drinking freezing water after warm cardio sessions. Carry a hand towel to wipe your sweat or placing in on the instrument you’d be using.
This is to keep you away from the sweat on the equipment and making sure you don’t leave any sweat on it either. Also, wipe the equipment you just used with the same towel after using it, it doesn’t hold any significance but is a good gesture towards your bros or broettes!
Day 1 – Gym Routine For Beginners
More often than not, your first day is going to be more focused on cardiovascular exercises unless you have a really good physic and have some exposure to intense sports. In case you are familiar with sports. You would need to warm up your body a bit and then skip to Day-2.
An ordinary beginner, would be involved in cardio for nearly 45 minutes on the first day. Including walking and light jogging, a little bit of cycling and a few mat exercises. Once you are done, you could do a few reps of biceps curls to get a hang of the weight you would be lifting and then you could wind up for the day. I suggest you don’t go beyond 10 pounds or 5 kgs on the first day.
Why Cardio?
This is a very common question asked by nearly everyone who joins the gym. Cardio, as indicates, focuses on your cardiac activities. Here, ‘cardiac’ means activities relating to the heart and is derived from the Greek word ‘kardia’ meaning heart. Not the topic for this post but you can read all about it here – Why do we need to do Cardio – Explained
Exercises
- Walking & Cycling – 15 minutes each
- Floor Exercise – 3 to 5 variations
- Optional Exercise – Bicep Curls – 3 Sets
Exercise 1 – Walking & Cycling
Basically, on your first day, you want to get yourself familiar with the gym equipment. Walk slowly on the treadmill as a precaution on the first day. Once you know how it works you could jog, run and sprint as you wish, but I highly recommend against running or jogging on the treadmill.
A 15-minute walk followed by 15-minute cycling would be ideal before you step on to a gymnastic or a yoga mat, whatever your gym has.
Pro Tip: Don’t exceed your speed on treadmill to anything more than 6 MPH or 10 KMPH, ever in your gym life. If you want to run and sprint there’s a lot of space in the open world than running on spot while facing a mirror or a wall.
Try going to parks or walk to the gym and back home instead of using a treadmill. Our feet were made to run in the wild and not on concrete or hard floored machines. Extend exposure to the treadmill floor could lead to foot injuries.
Exercise 2 – Floor Exercises
Running and cycling are going to suck all your energy out but they aren’t as effective as floor exercises to open up your bodies. Jumping jacks, burpees, skipping, high-knees, butt-kicks and a lot more are what you want to do to open up your body completely.
I would be introducing you to all of these in-depth in the next article. I’ll give you the exact method, pros, cons, highlighted muscle and other stuff you want to know before trusting each one of them.
Exercise 3 – Basic Bicep Curl – Optional
While reading all of the above might have sounded easy for you. But they aren’t. Even before you know, you would be panting like a dog and would crawl out for water. So, here’s the deal, this exercise is completely optional and is only meant to give you an idea about what you are dealing with.
Two sets of 10 to 15 reps each of the bicep curl would be enough to give you a good idea of what it takes to do those 8 reps on the 100-pound dumbbells.
Okay, so that would be it for you today. Don’t miss out on gym tomorrow or the day after. There’s a lot taking place inside your body right now and most likely it isn’t going to agree with your choice that easily. You have to pull the couch potato to being the French Fry you want it to be. Frying, like it sounds, won’t be easy!
Okay, Bros and Broettes, don’t crave for French Fries now, it’s only day one! Enjoy a fit and healthy life and follow Cannot Cardio for more fitness posts! Remember to Stay Awesome!
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