Gym Routine for Beginners

I’ve recently started going to the gym. I used to be pretty resistant to it, thinking that going to the gym is just about gaining muscles and would not materially positively affect my health. I really don’t want to develop a body builder physique and continue to be my scrawny self. But as I have gotten older, I decided that the time window for me to adopt a healthier lifestyle is also narrowing. Given that a few months back I had the chance to work from home, I decided to use the time to do daily work outs. Now, circumstances that led up to this decision had certainly not been easy. It took a quarter-life crisis, despression, some introspection, and luck. I was going past a random gym one day when I started wondering if it is finally time to sign up for one. Went in, and talked to the staff and got myself a gym membership, as well as a personal trainer. Now, a personal trainer is pretty expensive, and it is no small choice for me to make as a person who just graduated university in a bad job market. However, I think it will start paying dividends once I learn proper workout techniques while minimising the risk of injuring myself. For anyone wishing to go down this route, be prepared to either spend less each month, or start acruing some savings, cause lifestyle inflation is real, and this is one of them. But I personally think in your 20s, investing in yourself is worth more than investing in the stock market, or rushing into a relationship, which I know many people fall into the trap to. But I know many will not be able to afford it, so maybe try looking at YouTube videos and try to mimic their movements. However, you might be pretty bad at copying exactly what they are doing, which is completely normal. Alternatively, have a friend who is more knowledgeable about working out help spot and guide you during one of your sessions.

I don’t really have much motivation issues when it comes to working out, so having someone to watch over me is secondary, especially since a daily personal trainer would have been unrealistic. I work out 6 days a week, to try to keep this routine consistent. One pitfall of this is that I have not been pushing myself a ton. I do not know the exact reasons for this, but it has probably been a mixture of pain avoidance and improper tracking of workouts. I have since developed a Google Sheets document that tracked my workout for each day row by row. There is a fundamental gym principle known as Progressive Overload, where in short, you constantly increase the amount of load you subject yourself to, via a cycle of exertion and muscle recovery. For each exercise, you start off with 15 reps with the lowest weight, followed by 12 reps incrementing the current weight by a bit, and ending off with 10 reps. You work your muscles, followed by muscle repair facilitated by protein intake. I used to laugh at the idea of all foods having protein plastered on them like there are some gym bro incel fad, but now I am desperate for foods to have some form of proteins in them, as it is genuinely difficult to match the amount of protein intake I require for the food I eat every day. I don’t currently have the best diet, but I have been cutting my sugar intake by reducing the amount of sugary drinks I consume. How did I make this happen? Proteins actually temporarily reduce the amount of appetite after a meal, making you feel more full and sated for longer. I did slightly increase my Coke Zero intake after that, but that’s just life in general.

I split my gym sessions into push, pull and leg days (2 days a week for each). For each workout session, I start off with a warmup exercise (though to be honest I have been pretty disordered when it comes to this). I then do 5 other exercises. If I were to ever give an example, if it is a push day, I will start with squats as a basic workout, followed by chest flies, shoulder presses, pec flies, etc. I am hesitant to give a complete workout plan as I don’t know your exact situation, so I’ll leave it as that…

Anyway, hopefully this blog post encourages you to workout more. I know it is a departure from the typical blogging that I do, but I am thinking of adding more variety to my blogging, specifically more about life stuff. I know that for many young people like me, the 20s is a time of confusion, pain, and excitement, and I want to blog more about my life’s struggles, more as a way of doing self therapy while not oversharing, and hopefully helping others along the way. If you could not workout due to various life circmstances, perhaps start off by going out and doing a walk, or even hiking. I know I’ve started touching grass more by doing those things, and met many new friends along the way. See you next time…

And sorry about my excessive use of commas. I’ve stopped using AI to write my blog posts a long time ago, and old habits die hard!