Ultimate Starter’s Guide: The Big Questions

We know, because we were in your shoes once: feeling like everyone’s watching you and taking note of how weak you are; not having a clue how to do an exercise but being even more embarrassed to ask for help; and wondering if the music is that bad in every gym. (FYI, it is.)

Yes, it sucks being a gym newbie, and that’s why we recommend you don’t stay one for long. The sooner you learn the basics, the faster you’ll graduate to the ranks of seasoned lifters. We can help you make up ground and see results in as few as six weeks. The following pages cover all your questions about training, nutrition, and everything else.

Welcome to the brotherhood of iron.

We’re not going to lie: Gyms can be weird places. Be prepared to see eccentric people be- having in ways that would get them locked up any place else—making loud noises, wearing revealing clothing, and performing exercises you’re not sure are really exercises. The important thing is not to let it throw you. Chances are you’re not the weirdo in the gym. If you think it’s the other guy who’s bench-pressing in a three-piece suit, you’re probably right (trust your instincts).

Most people training in commercial health clubs have no more of an idea of how to work out than you probably do, even if they’ve been at it for years. If someone offers you a tip on how to do an exercise, take it with a grain of salt (and look up the answer here or on muscleandfitness.com at home). 

There aren’t as many eyes on you as you probably think, and—trust us—no one’s going to make fun of you or push you off a bench. The best thing you can do is go in your first day with a plan of how you’ll train, knowing the correct form on the exercises you want to perform, and get it done to the best of your ability.

As a rank beginner, it doesn’t matter much what your goal is. Whether you ultimately want to be jacked, ripped, or just lose 20 pounds, you need to build a base of strength first. Strong muscles are more efficient and better coordinated, and they lay the foundation for all the other fitness goals.

“I always do full-body workouts if a client is coming in two to four times per week,” says Ben Bruno, a trainer at Rise Movement in Los Angeles who’s worked with everyone from average Joes to pro athletes and celebrities. “The main thing for beginners is to learn the exercises, and training full body gives you more exposure to each lift.” 

In other words, if you squat, press, and deadlift on Monday, you can do it again on Wednesday and Friday. On the other hand, if you did chest work on Monday, legs Tuesday, shoulders Wednesday, etc., it would take longer for you to repeat an exercise or train the same muscle group. This is fine for experienced guys and bodybuilders whose workouts are more intense and require more recovery time, but as a beginner, you’re better off repeating exercises to learn them faster.

“Beginners can go up in weight pretty much every time they touch the weights,” Bruno says. “If Lifter A benches once a week and goes up five pounds every workout, he’ll go up 50 pounds in 10 weeks. If Lifter B benches three times per week, he’ll go up 75 pounds in the same amount of time. In the beginning, gains are linear like that.” As a newbie, you probably can’t appreciate what adding 75 pounds to your bench by March would do for your physique. Trust us when we say, “good things,” and know that more advanced guys would kill to be able to make progress like that again.

Compound movements—i.e., lifts that work muscle at more than one joint. For instance, the bench press, squat, and chin-up are all compound movements. The bench press and chin-up both involve action at the shoulders and elbows, while the squat requires flexing and extending the hips and knees. Because more joints and muscles are involved with compound lifts, you can use heavy weights when you train with them, and that causes a rush of muscle-building hormones that make your whole body grow. 

You don’t get this same effect when performing isolation lifts, in which only one joint is significantly involved. Curls, leg extensions, and lateral raises all fall under this umbrella, and while they’re perfectly good exercises, they’re less efficient than compound moves, so they have to make up a smaller percentage of your training at this stage. “Isolation exercises won’t hurt your progress,” Bruno says, “but they’re not going to help much at the beginner level.” Still, if you want to throw a few sets of curls in at the end of your workout, that’s your prerogative.

Three to five is ideal, and no more than six. Don’t overcomplicate your training: Make a short list of really effective lifts (see “What are the best exercises?” above) and get good at them. “Beginners don’t have the work capacity to give their all to a bunch of exercises,” Bruno says. “After the first few, they’re spent, so they half-ass the rest. That’s how bad form is ingrained.”

An effective full-body workout needs to consist of only one pushing exercise, one pulling exercise, and one lower-body move. With those three movement patterns, you essentially work every muscle in the body.

Rest as long as you feel you need to in order to perform the next set with intensity (i.e., the same weight you used for the last set or the same number of reps). Lifting isn’t aerobic training, so don’t think sitting down to rest makes you lazy. You certainly don’t want to rest so long that you cool off and lose focus, but don’t try to push yourself so fast that your technique suffers and you burn out too early.

Tougher, more complex exercises like deadlifts require more rest—two minutes or so. Less technique-intensive lifts like lunges or curls can be done with around 60 seconds’ rest.

The “1–2–1” split works great. This means you have two workouts, Day 1 and 2, and you alternate them for three or four sessions per week (whatever you have time for). If you train three days, you’ll do Workout 1 twice the first week and Workout 2 just once. The next week, you’ll do Workout 2 twice. Remember, since they’re full-body workouts, you won’t go long without training a particular muscle group even if you do only one of each workout in a seven-day stretch. You should rest a day between each workout.

It depends on how much time you have. Ideally, you’d go into the gym and walk on a treadmill for five minutes or jump rope until you break a sweat. Then you’d go through a series of mobility exercises—leg swings, arm circles, and similar moves that take you through the range of motion you’re going to use on your exercises. Then you’d do a few stretches for tight areas like the hips and pecs, pick up the weights and do a few light sets to find your groove, and get to work.

But the truth is, few people have time for all that, and we suspect you’re among them. To keep it simple, follow this rule: Never start lifting cold. Find a way to start sweating, whether it’s with calisthenics or a quick jog. The foam ¬roller—a long cylinder of dense foam your gym probably has parked in a corner—can be great for warm-ups. Lie on it and roll your muscles over it, pausing on spots where you feel tenderness. The foam roller acts as a sort of massage to work knots out of your muscles and enhance blood flow, and it improves flexibility right away.

From there, Bruno recommends stretching your pecs (chest), lats (back), hip flexors (the front of your hip), hip rotators (sides of your hips), and calves. Do two or three stretches per side for 30 seconds each. If you’re really short on time, you can build flexibility training into your workout. For instance, between sets of deadlifts, you can bend over and touch your toes, then squat down (called a toe-touch squat). Repeat for up to 10 reps, continue your rest period, and then do another set of deadlifts. You’ll get more mobile and warmer each set until you’re ready to do your hardest set.

One caveat here: Don’t do static stretches—where you hold a stretched position for time—between sets of an exercise that uses the same muscles. For instance, you wouldn’t want to stretch your pecs between sets of bench presses, as this may temporarily weaken these muscles, hurting the quality of later sets. However, it’s a good idea to stretch out the lower body while working the upper body, and vice versa.

At the beginner stage, you need to think of your sets as what Bruno describes as “form rehearsals.” You’re not ready to load the bar with a ton of weight and grind out a max, nor is it appropriate to test your endurance by doing high-rep sets. Three to four sets of six to 12 reps lets you practice an exercise without accumulating so much strain or fatigue that you risk getting hurt. Spend one or two sets warming up—adding weight gradually—and then push hard on the last one or two.

The perfect blend is a mix of steady state (like walking or light jogging) and high-intensity interval training, alternating bouts of intense work with periods of rest or a lighter pace. When you have 30 minutes or more to train, steady-state exercise is a good choice. It strengthens the heart and burns up calories primarily from your stored fat.

The quicker option is interval training, which can be effective in almost any amount of time from a few minutes up to 30. Many combinations of intervals work, but start off with a work-to-rest ratio of one to two. So you could run hard on the treadmill for 30 seconds, and then back off to a walk for 60 seconds. Over time, you can play with the length of your work and rest periods. All cardio machines can be used for interval training, along with punching bags, jump ropes, and many body weight exercises. Be creative. Interval training speeds up your metabolism for days afterward, so even if your sessions are short, they can burn plenty of fat.

“You could do five to 10 minutes of interval training after you lift,” Bruno says, or up to 20 minutes if done on a separate day. Try to keep steady-state cardio separate from your lifting. If you do it right after weight training, you interfere with the hormonal changes that take place as a result of lifting, which can reduce the quality of your workout.

Sore muscles are a natural side effect of training, especially when an exercise or workout is new to you. The exact cause isn’t fully agreed upon by exercise scientists, but it’s thought to be the result of the microtears that lifting creates in your muscles (healing these tears builds the muscles up bigger).

“I think people need to work through soreness,” Bruno says. “Stick with the program; it will get better.” Nevertheless, you can manage soreness. On days between workouts, you can pedal a bike to encourage blood flow, or foam roll.

“I would recommend not wearing toe shoes if you want to make friends at the gym,” Bruno says. Funky-looking minimalist sneakers are popular but can cause ankle and knee problems if you aren’t ready for them. “I like a flat-soled shoe like a Chuck Taylor.” Shoes with squishy soles don’t provide a firm base.

Belts support your spine when lifting very heavy loads, but at your stage of the game, you should be training your core to provide that stability. No self-respecting lifter wears gloves.

Bruno says that when you can bench-press your body weight for one rep, deadlift your body weight for five reps, and perform at least five chin-ups, you’re welcome to change up your routine and try some more advanced training. The amount of time it takes for you to hit these benchmarks is completely individual, so don’t rush or compare yourself with others. Progress at your own pace.