Advice for newbies hitting the gym
Can you believe it? It is 2022, a new year is here and as customary, many men have decided that one of their resolutions would be hitting the gym.
So naturally, I just wanted to give a bit of advice to potential newbies.
Train your entire body
Most men who go to the gym are motivated by the thoughts of acquiring huge arms and a big chest along with chiseled abs as those are considered the main showcase muscles.
Whilst one cannot criticise the Average Joe for having such desires, the fact is in order to attain this goal the whole body needs to be trained equally and key areas such as the legs and back cannot be neglected.
Exercises like squats and deadlifts increase testosterone levels to such an extent that the whole body grows and even the non-utilized muscles, such as your chest, get bigger due to the overall effect higher testosterone levels have on your body.
There are plenty of guys who do endless variations of curls yet never manage to make any gains on their biceps. Whereas, if one looks at strength athletes like strongmen Olympic lifters and powerlifters, they all tend to have extremely well developed and visible ‘beach muscles’ as long as they don’t go overboard with stuffing their faces.
Most Olympic lifters don’t even do any direct arm work or any single joint exercises for that matter instead relying on variations of Olympic lifts which mostly involve the lower body and the posterior chain. Yet most of them still possess phenomenal physiques which any average male would love to have.
Ditch daily ab marathons
I see many individuals all of whom have too much excess fat which prevents them from attaining their ultimate goal, the elusive six pack. What they don’t understand is that doing hundreds of crunches a day will get them nowhere nearer to achieving that goal.
The fact is that doing endless ab exercises will not get rid of the fat that hides one’s perfectly defined abs. In
other words, spot reduction doesn’t work. Instead of spending two hours doing abdominal exercises more time should be devoted to weight training of the whole body with multi-joint movements: Squats, Deadlifts, Presses, Rows, Dips being at the heart of your training routine. These exercises will make you burn more calories during the session and also after due to their stimulating effect on your metabolism.
Cardio
In addition, one must also not neglect cardio work if the goal is fat loss. The most effective time to do cardio workouts is either in the morning on an empty stomach
before breakfast or straight after your weights sessions as in both cases your body is depleted of glycogen and hence the body uses fat for energy which is what you want.
Any form of cardio can be used but I suggest running or using a cross-trainer type apparatus instead of the stationary bike due to higher calorie expenditure experienced when performing the former activities.
Diet
One must also not forget diet when trying to lean up, without going into too much detail your diet should be high in protein and moderate to low in carbs and fats.