You just need to start; here is a guide to help you.

Beginner is the gym? Doesn’t matter everyone starts somewhere and the important thing is that you are choosing to start now. Whether you want to start going to the gym for weight lifting, yoga, or circuit training it doesn’t matter, the basic formula to achieve results stays the same.

It can be scary joining the gym, you feel like everyone knows what they are doing. You are not however doing yourself a favour by not going to the gym at all. So even if you only start by going for 15 minutes twice a week, it does not matter.

The most important thing is to keep striving to be better than you were yesterday, that is how you are going to maintain progressing yourself. Even if it’s just 1% better, it is still better.

I can’t tell you how to join a gym. But what I can do is give you advice, and steer you towards creating a plan for yourself.

Important tips for a beginner.

Remember everyone starts somewhere, the people you see in the gym were a beginner once.

Tip 1. You do not need branded gym clothes

Gym clothes are expensive, £50 for a pair of leggings! When you are trying to find what style of workout suits you, your style of clothing will slowly adapt to that.

I would recommend getting a couple of tops, and a pair of shorts or leggings depending on your preference. The likelihood is you probably already have at least one of these items; any old oversized T-shirt will work honestly.

The important thing is to feel comfortable in what you are wearing; if you want to go and buy all the branded gym clothes go for it. But i would wait till you have found your feet and then see what style of clothing you want.

Amazon is a great marketplace for gym clothing that is good quality plus affordable. Here are some of my favourites;

• Seamless Leggings
• Joggers women
• Sports bra
• Womens gym t-shirt
• Unisex t-shirt
• Canterbury tracksuits unisex

Tip 2. Having a plan

You may start by trying out random exercises, but I promise you unless there is some sort of structure to your workouts your progress will be slow.

There is no harm in experimenting to see which exercises and workouts you like, but when you find the ones that you do stick with those for at least 3 months to optimise your progress.

If you want ideas of what your workouts should consist of scroll down a little, and you will see I have created a mapped-out plan for you to construct a workout from.

Tip 3. Stay as consistent as possible

You will not see visible progress after 1or two days even a whole 2 weeks of workouts, I cannot stress this enough.

This is what leads people to quit, they don’t see the results. You will see results, but in is a long-term investment. Do it for your future self, think about how grateful they will be if you start now and stay consistent for say 6 months.

The key to maintaining consistency is making sure that you don’t burn yourself out. Try not to fit too much into one day and make sure that you are still getting enough sleep. Click here to read about the importance of sleep.

Show up for yourself each day and you will see the results that you want.

Tip 4. Nutrition

You need to be fuelling your body. How to you expect your body to workout successfully if you don’t give it enough energy?

However, it is mostly important to know what to fuel it with; this can be the tricky part.

As a beginner, or someone early in their fitness journey focus on little things. Such as getting lots of natural protein in, and eating your 5-a-day. Eating in a calorie deficit if trying to lose fat and a high-calorie intake if trying to gain weight.

Good natural protein are things like;

• Chicken
• fish
• mince
• nuts; not salted
• Bagels
• Eggs
• tofu
• quinoa

Creating a plan.

When going to the gym you want to aim to target each muscle group at least once a week.

I have devised various movements for each muscle group to help you construct a workout plan that fits you.

I know there is a lot of information there with so many different things to choose from, but depending on you workout I would recommend the following;

You can adapt this plan to what works best for you; I just wanted to create a basic structure to help give people a starting point.

Working Out at Home vs the Gym

As a beginner this is probably one of the questions you have; which is better going to the gym or working out at home. In all honesty it really depends on personal preference.

Here are some pros and cons of each to help you to decide.

Home Gym and The Gym pros and cons.

The pros and cons work vice versa; the home gym cons are the gym pros.

Like I said before, it is down to personal preference. A lot of beginners will want to start at home because it seems less intimidating, which will be a great starting point for you.

I would recommend joining a gym; you can also get specified training and classes at most gyms which can help people who are still unsure what to do.

Some last bits of advice.

If you take one thing away from this post please remember that staying consistent with your plan is the way that you will achieve lasting results. Consistency is the key, this can also be applied to any of your goals.

No one is looking at you in the gym, I know trust me it will feel like everyone is the first couple of times. But just keep going and you will feel more and more comfortable with time. And even if you don’t try home workouts.

I find the quietest times to go to the gym are between 10-11 and 12-3. This is only from my experience but I have been to over 7 different gyms in different areas, but everywhere will be different. Try to avoid 5-7 if you can as this will be very busy in practically any gym that you go to.

It is more beneficial to start your day off with exercise, so if you don’t start work till 9 or 10 try finding a gym on your way to work.

Try to make your gym convenient to get to, or on the way to somewhere that is part of a weekly routine. If you make it difficult to go to the gym you won’t go or will be less likely to be consistent.