Written by: Samantha Curbelo & Austin Nichols, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
I remember being lost at the gym when I first started, I was in high school and had just gotten a gym membership. I wish I had someone to guide me through the process, but all my friends were just as young and clueless as me.
Anyways, I am sharing 10 tips to get you started with things I wish I knew. These should help you get your foot in the door and jumpstart your progress.
1. Know what you want to accomplish
This, my friends, is a given. If you don’t have a goal, then there isn't a clear place to start. Everyone is different and everyone's goals are different, so sorting this out first is the best plan of attack.
Are you trying to lose weight? Build muscle? Get abs? A Booty?
Write these goals down and the next step is to form a plan. Goals are achieved when a plan is put in place!
2. Plan each workout
What a transition! As I just mentioned, planning is essential to your progress. But this isn't just about planning when or where you are going to work out. You need a plan that details all the parts of your workout. What exercises will you do? How many reps? How many sets? Having a guide will do just that, guide you through your workout. This will help you stay on track and finish your workout, rather than leaving early only doing what you can remember. Plans take the guesswork out and give you structure at the gym.
3. When starting out, focus on consistency
On average it takes 66 days to form a habit. And working out will become a habit for you, as long as you can stay consistent. Keep your workout sustainable. Some people are trying to lose weight, so they ramp up the intensity and have super long, intense workouts. Unfortunately, this leads to burnout and they’re done with the gym in less than a month. Being consistent with moderately challenging workouts will keep you going to the gym, and in turn, create progress that lasts a lifetime.
4. Have a support system
A support system could be a friend, a spouse, or a sibling among other things. This is just someone to keep you accountable. Someone to cheer you on your good days and who will comfort you on the bad days. If you can’t think of anyone who would be a good candidate, you could also try working with a coach. Coaches can help you with many of these tips. They can be your support system, make you a nutrition plan and a workout plan, all while giving you the advice you need to be successful. My clients have seen amazing results when starting with us at AS Fitness. I give them everything they need to achieve their goals and am available to them when they aren’t feeling their best. Support could be the difference between staying with your goals or giving up in the next week.
5. Learn the basics first, before you try to get fancy
Work on nailing your basic compound movements before you jump into trendy exercises you can find on Instagram. Having your compound movements down, with great form, will keep you from getting hurt later on when you add more weight. Also, these
movements are going to be the bread and butter of most of your workouts and being good at them can only help you.
6. Don’t get discouraged looking for quick results
Weight loss or gain is a journey. You can’t expect to fix a problem in a few weeks that you’ve been dealing with for a lifetime. Because you see yourself everyday, you most likely won't recognize the results as fast as your friends and family will. To counteract this I like to take progress pictures. When you feel discouraged about not seeing progress, it helps if you can look back and see where you started compared to where you are at now. These pictures should motivate you and get you excited to see more change. After all, the most motivating part is when you can see yourself transforming before your eyes.
7. Give yourself grace for slipping up
Like any journey, there are ups and downs that are part of the experience. It may be skipping a day at the gym or failing to follow your diet. Going through stuff like this is okay, we are all human and we all make mistakes. What you can't do is let yourself stay there. After a hiccup, you should make sure you are getting back on track as soon as you can. The last thing you want is to make a habit out of this slip-up and set yourself back. Don’t dwell on your mistake, rather make a note in your head of what scenarios led up to you falling off track and use this to work on preventing these hiccups from happening again.
8. Aim to eat more lean protein
Whether you are bulking or trying to shed pounds, protein is made up of amino acids, which are the building blocks of muscle tissue. Building muscle can actually help those trying to lose weight. This is because the muscle will continue to burn calories in your body long after your workout. Protein also has a higher thermic effect than carbs or fats, so you are burning more calories to digest proteins than carbs and fats. Obviously, if you are trying to gain muscle and bulk, the need for protein is clear.
9. Don’t skip your rest days
This is for all the go-getters out there who have been seeing such great results, you want to extend them by going to the gym more often. While some may think that this will lead to better results, faster, this could stunt your progress more than it helps. It’s a common misconception that more working out means faster results. The issue is that your body needs time to rest and rebuild. When you workout, you are making tiny tears in your muscle tissue, which when paired with an adequate amount of protein, your body will repair and grow. This is the basics of how muscle building works. If you deprive your body of the downtime, you will have a lot more issues with muscle repair and will not see the growth you are looking for.
10. Track your Stats and Set goals
Setting smaller goals while you are working out to achieve a bigger goal can keep you engaged and motivated in your workouts. Smaller goals are great for staying excited and seeing progress along your journey. Tracking these in a notebook or on an app you can download will help you realize the results that have come from your hard work. Not only this but you can keep track of your progress when increasing intensity to see where you may be struggling, where you may have hit a plateau, or where you need to increase your weight. Then you can use this information to adjust your plan.
I hope these tips help you and that you can implement them early on to save you the frustration of having to go back and learn these later. This can be a tough time of year to stay on track with your goals. People are busy and one January hits the gyms will be packed with people starting their New Years resolution goals. Most of them will quit within the month, due to lack of diligence among other factors. But rather than being stuck in the same place you were last year, you can commit and truly change your life for the better. Focus on your goals and don't feed into limiting beliefs or negative talk. I’m looking forward to seeing all the progress you will make this year and wish you the happy, vibrant life you’ve been dreaming of. Goals can be achieved if we have the courage to go for them!
Have a safe and healthy New Year from all of us at AS Fitness
Samantha Curbelo & Austin Nichole, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Samantha Curbelo and Austin Nichols are leaders in the fitness and health industry. They are certified Fitness and Mindset Coaches who show motivated individuals how to build a physique they love while becoming their most confident self, all without restrictions. After both of them had overcome childhood bullying, being overweight, and severely insecure starting from a young age, Curbelo and Nichols quickly fell in love with fitness and health as a strategy to develop a physique they are proud of, better their mindsets, and perform at their most optimal versions of themselves. They believe that fitness is more than "looks." It is a way to express emotion, create better habits, and live a long and healthy life with those you love. Their expertise allows them to have various clients looking to achieve results from losing weight, gaining muscle mass, overcoming eating disorders, and much more. Their passion for the industry makes it easy for Curbelo and Nichols to help their clients and others around them to create a massive impact in each and every individual.
