Newbie gym advice!

sitstill

Hey everyone,

25 y/o male here. Just today I joined a gym for the first time (Crunch Temple Bar). I'm 11 stn and 5'9 so not overweight at all. I joined as I was beginning to get a bit of a belly while still being thin overall. My aims would be to increase my chest/shoulders/arms and tone up my stomach.

I'm going back tomorrow to meet the trainer and he'l work out a programme for me. But does anyone have any advice for me (in layman's terms as I'm a total beginner!). In terms of diet, I eat quite well but plan to cut down on confectionary and soft drinks. What about supplements etc?

I love swimming so I see that being a part of my work out if that matters. I'd really really appreciate some advice as this is something I've wanted to do for a while but finally bit the bullet today! Thanks so much!

Duck's hoop

Sitstill, most of those bases covered in stickies. A mine of info there. And the logs.

Have a good peruse of those, should provide plenty of answers. And food for thought.

G86

sitstill wrote: »

Hey everyone,

25 y/o male here. Just today I joined a gym for the first time (Crunch Temple Bar). I'm 11 stn and 5'9 so not overweight at all. I joined as I was beginning to get a bit of a belly while still being thin overall. My aims would be to increase my chest/shoulders/arms and tone up my stomach.

I'm going back tomorrow to meet the trainer and he'l work out a programme for me. But does anyone have any advice for me (in layman's terms as I'm a total beginner!). In terms of diet, I eat quite well but plan to cut down on confectionary and soft drinks. What about supplements etc?

I love swimming so I see that being a part of my work out if that matters. I'd really really appreciate some advice as this is something I've wanted to do for a while but finally bit the bullet today! Thanks so much!

When you get your program, ask about everything. Ask why you're doing each exercise and how it's going to benefit you, and ask why you're doing X amount of reps/sets etc. You'll get a better idea if the trainer knows what they're talking about then.

Gandalph

Tell the trainers in crunch what you are specifically looking to do with yourself and they will help you do up a programme. As for the diet and supplements there is a nutrition store right around the corner from crunch beside the bank across from trinity. The guy who regularly works there is pretty knowledgable and can give you what you need for a good price and inform you on your diet. Hope this helps.

Always nice to see a new face in Crunch TB, if you ever want to talk to me I'll be the guy who stands there close enough to the womens work out area dribbling all over himself

G86

Gandalph wrote: »

I'll be the guy who stands there close enough to the womens work out area dribbling all over himself

The womens weights area?

Oh, you mean that tiny square in the corner with the 2-8kg dumbbells?:p Not a fan of Crunch...

Gandalph

G86 wrote: »

The womens weights area?

Oh, you mean that tiny square in the corner with the 2-8kg dumbbells?:p Not a fan of Crunch...

I heard loads of women love to pump Iron

sitstill

So I met the trainer and got the plan. So far so good, after 2 workouts.

This is the plan for 3-4 gym visits a week:
5 Mins warm up on cross trainer

Then 3 sets of 10 reps of each of these:
Chest press, seated row, shoulder press, lat pulldown, leg press, seated leg curl, ab crunches, back extension

Some stretches

20 mins cardio

After this I take a break, then swim for maybe 35 mins.

The trainer also gave me some tips regarding diet and told me to see him again in six weeks and we can review this and maybe add in some free weights.

---

Do you guys think this is a good work-out for basically a beginner, given the aims I had in my first post? Would I benefit from protein shakes or anything like that?

Thanks - all advice appreciated!

TimeToShine

Looks decent to me but you should be doing normal squats instead of leg pressing, ask the trainer to show you proper form.

mannequinhands

Easy guideline is just reduce sugar increase protein

As far as supplements a protein shake and some vitamins should be fine but it all really depends on your diet

Brian?

sitstill wrote: »

So I met the trainer and got the plan. So far so good, after 2 workouts.

This is the plan for 3-4 gym visits a week:
5 Mins warm up on cross trainer

Then 3 sets of 10 reps of each of these:
Chest press, seated row, shoulder press, lat pulldown, leg press, seated leg curl, ab crunches, back extension

Some stretches

20 mins cardio

Do this for no more than 4-6 weeks. Once you get into the groove of going to the gym and doing some resistance training it's time to change. Push your gym instructor to teach you (if they are capable) free weight excercises, most importantly of all the squat and deadlift.

After this I take a break, then swim for maybe 35 mins.

Sounds lovely .

The trainer also gave me some tips regarding diet and told me to see him again in six weeks and we can review this and maybe add in some free weights.

There should be no maybe about it. In my experience a lot of gym instructors are lazy and will just stick you with the same cookie cutter machine based programs unless you push them. Push them. There are a lot of good people working in gyms as well so you could get lucky.

Thanks - all advice appreciated!

You're welcome.