Hi!!
I am trainer Cass!
One of my favourite sayings to many of my clients is “any movement is good movement”. Whether it is something as small as fidgeting, or whether it’s a high intensity workout, we are burning calories and working closer towards a better lifestyle. Start small, and build. The more you jump into the gym environment and into your training routine, the more likely you are to find a flow and build on it.
With that being said, sometimes we go into the gym and just are not sure what to do, how to structure or where to start. Amongst the many ways you can structure a training session, let’s start simple. When getting started in the gym, we don’t want to overload our muscles with too much load and volume as our body is adapting to lifting load. although we do want to provide enough training stimulus to challenge and see results.
Full body workouts exploring the key movement patterns of push, pull and legs are a great way to target a range of muscle groups and get your ultimate workout. Push movement patterns involve pushing away from the body normally working muscle groups such as, chest, shoulders and triceps. With Pull movement patterns counterbalancing, pulling towards the body and generally working muscles such as back and biceps. Leg movements are essential to add to your training also, which also involves pushing and pulling patterns with the legs.
I would structure my getting started workout by incorporating all movement patterns to get the body used to resistance training. A good starting rep range is 4 sets of 10-12 reps of each exercise. After a few weeks of a consistent training program, you can build on your strength program by changing up your movements and also modifying your training volume by decreasing the rep range and increasing the load. For example, 4 sets of 8 reps at a heavier load. A good rule of thumb when strength training is that we want our last couple of reps of each set to be hard to complete. To see results in performance, you want to be in the gym for a minimum of 3 times a week resistance training. These factors stated above, including an adequate warm up and cool-down, is your guide to getting your journey in the gym going. Here’s a great starter resistance training program to get you started !
| Movement | Sets | Reps | RPE (Rate of perceived exertion) |
| Warm up: Cross trainer | 1 | 5-10 mins | 5 and increasing |
| Seated Leg Press | 4 | 12 | 7 |
| Seated Chest Press | 4 | 12 | 7 |
| Seated Cable Low Row | 4 | 12 | 7 |
| Superset 1: Seated shoulder press | 3 | 10 | 7 |
| Superset 1: Bodyweight lunges | 3 | 10 each side | 7 |
| Superset 2: Kettlebell squat to high pull | 3 | 10 | 7 |
| Superset 2: Max plank hold | 3 | Maximum hold until failure | 7 |
| Cool down: treadmill walk and static stretching. | 1 | 5-10 mins | Low |
Classes and personal training are also a great way to get yourself started in the gym! Classes are a fantastic way to build confidence, knowledge of movements and provide extrinsic motivation. Personal training is great for more individualised training, knowledge of mechanics and movements and that one on one setting for accountability and guidance. Have fun!
