What shall I do when walking into the gym

[user1000000000001]

I have a new gym membership after several years of no exercise.

I have been in a gym before but not recently.

I don't want to speak to anyone or be shown anything.

My plan is to wear my headphones pretty much as soon as I arrive.

But in terms of first session back and finding my feet, what should my workout look like? General fitness / strength goal.

I'm thinking cardio machine 10 minute warm up, aimless weight machines depending on what is free (3 sets of 10?) and then a 10 minute stretch / warm down.

How does that sound? Any tips?

I prefer to do weights/resistance first and then cardio. The other way round I find I can do less as I knacker myself out on the cross trainer. I'm really unfit at the min though and in the process of getting getting toned again.

Weights first, cardio after, use light weights as a warm up set, no need for an elaborate stretching and warm up routine. You could split your weights either push/pull/legs or upper/lower/full body. You’ll find skeleton programmes on line.

A couple of evidence based PTs/fitness accounts that I like are Emma Storey-Gordon (ESG Fitness), she has good informative, evidence based information and good podcasts. I like James Smith PT as well.

Ok great so weights first
Light sets to warm up
then into the random selection of weight machines based on availability
Sets of 3 x 10 sound ok or no?
After the weights maybe 20 mins of cardio or more or less?
Would you still stretch to cool down?

Will take a look at the follow recommendations.

I am to do a 'gym 5k' that is something like: 1k each on cross-trainer, rower, treadmill and 2k on a bike. I worked at improving times/raising the settings on each bit of kit quite slowly.
In between this cardio I do the resistance machines, depending on which becomes free.
Three sets of 12 reps on each. Increase the weight when it becomes easy, don't up the number of reps.
At the moment a dodgy knee means I'm doing more upper body than leg work.
Two Pilates classes a week for core and flexibility, if I can, always at least one class.

What are your goals? Do you want to improve upper body strength? Wandering around the gym waiting for machines to be free isn’t ideal, you’ll want a plan so you can track progress. You can have 2-3 different workouts set and do those for 2-3 months, doing something different all the time won’t really help as you’ll need consistency.

Are you confident in using the free weights area? That way you can do lots of strength exercises without needing specific machines.

I would ask for a one off PT session so they can assess where you are and set realistic exercises and goals depending on your fitness level.

If you want to increase endurance so fitness, do cardio first, if you want to increase muscle & lose fat do it afterwards.

I always do a 20 minute cardio set, weights and then 10 minute slow easy cool down cardio too.

I usually do 20 mins on the treadmill (doing 30 now as training for a 10km!)

Then 10-15 mins on the mat doing things like planks, side planks, yoga positions (I have a routine), some things with little weights

10 mins on the weights machines for strength

10 mins cardio warm down on the bike or cross trainer

Can I ask why you don’t want to speak to anyone or be shown around? It can be intimidating but would really help you understand where everything is and what the stuff is you don’t recognise

Do what I did, walk in , then out again, go home and forget it ever happened while chowing down on a large bowl of buttered popcorn.

It's not far off how I got back to the gym after a sustained period of injury/recovery/illness.

10 mins on rower (usually the one most likely to be free and means sitting down rather than risking falling off if you're more unfit than you realised).

Then legs (abductor, adductor, curls, press, extension) in the order of whatever is free first, then a small amount of upper body before cooling down on the rower again for another ten minutes.

The ten minutes either side is plenty for getting a feel of where everything else is, what the atmosphere is like, that kind of thing.

Seems to have worked quite well and then you can start introducing variations between mainly legs and mainly upper body days or looking at different machines, free weights or classes as you get more comfortable.

You might find that you can’t access machines unless you have been given a key following induction. Induction is for your safety as well as for the gyms reputation. For the sake of half an hour I think it is worth having an instructor advise you and show you what is available. Your gym membership is paying their wages, if you don’t use them you are wasting that part of your membership payment.

I don't use the gym these days but if I did, I would probably do 10 mins on the cross trainer, and 10 mins on the treadmill at varying speeds and inclines. Then lots of free weights for 20 mins, TRX or equivalent, 10 mins on the rowing machine and 10 mins stretches - that's an hour of a varied workout with cardio and strength

First thing,

Keep your mind calm and cool. Don't think any stressful incident or things in your mind. Before going to start your walking to gym please take a glass of water. This will helps to refresh your whole body. These things will surely helpful to keep your body good and well.