I've joined a gym. Give me some advice for my first visit.

[Flamingoose]

I used to go to a gym years ago but I always had a personal trainer so I just did what I was told.

I've had a tour of the gym. The induction person isn't available for a few weeks, so I'm going to get started anyway.
I know to take a towel!
I thought I'd start with 10 mins cardio (running machine probably) and then I'm not going to go straight for a machine (bit daunting). Will probably do some free weights. I'll google a set list.
What else?
How long should I plan to be there?
I'm excited and a bit nervous!
Give me some advice!

Bump.
I posted this at a bad time.

Honestly, I'd find another gym. How can there be no one available to give you an induction? All the trainers at the gym should be capable of this, it shouldn't be down to one person. This alone shows they are only interested in your money. Find a small gym where you'll get more personal attention.

My advice is to not care what others might be thinking about you. Enjoy it.

Water bottle?

I'd personally spend a bit more time on the cardio but whatever floats your boat.

I'd take a smart phone so I could watch any free weight exercises being demo'd as form is so important.

I wouldn't spend ages there. You see so many people fannying about between sets whereas I prefer to have brief rests, to achieve muscle fatigue more quickly. 15 minutes cardio and 45 minutes resistance, including warm up and cool down?

Have fun!

Yeah, it isn't perfect Heroes. But it's in a good location so I'll actually go there. And it's clean and friendly with the kind of classes I want. I got a good feeling about it.
Water bottle, yes!
And what a great idea to use my smartphone for videos.

Main piece of advice is that nobody is looking at you or knows that your new, so don't feel self conscious!

I like to do a five minute gentle warm up on something like a bike or the cross trainer and I use that time to get my playlist on and find my workout plan on my phone. I then mainly do weights or hiit and finish up with a bit of cardio.

Keep a note on your phone of what reps you did and how heavy so that you can improve over time.

Omg- ear buds! Of course. Had not thought of that.
I wonder if there's an app to keep track of what I do. I bet there is. Will hunt for one.

I'm not very worried about people looking at me. Too old to care about that! But I do want to make my time there useful.

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