3 Helpful Tips for Gym Beginners
Start with the trunk
Our spine has to rotate, flex, extend, and side bend in our day-to-day movements and all compound movements in the gym. When starting, your spine must be stabilized in these ranges before moving on to more complex movements and activities. Here are some examples:
crunches/trunk flexion
single – leg leg raises/hip flexion
cable rotations/trunk rotation
cable standing side bend/spinal side bend
*reference @integrativetraininginstitute on Instagram for more guidance
2. Focus on muscle contraction
Instead of getting the weight or machine to move, focus solely on contracting your target muscles. The weight or machine will automatically move when your focused muscle starts contracting. Keep the contraction and move slowly to maintain focus on the muscle. Once your muscle is fully contracted, that shows you where to stop the movement. Do not move past this fully contracted position.
3. Keep the resistance low
At the beginning of your workout journey, start with very low weights. Low weights will still feel challenging if you’re focused on a specific muscle group and the contraction of those muscles. When starting, the goal is to get your brain to connect with the correct muscle tissue. If you try to move a bunch of weight, your brain may use other muscles to move the weight, taking focus off of the targeted muscle group.
8 Most Important Ranges to Strengthen at the Gym
Spine Rotation
Spine Flexion
Spine Extension
Spinal Side Bend
Hip flexion
Hip extension
Hip adduction
Hip abduction
*for exercises, visit @integrativetraininginstitute on Instagram!
Our spine is the center of our entire skeletal, muscular system. If the spine is not stabilized, nothing else will sit quite right. These eight ranges are the first and most essential ranges to strengthen at the gym for those who are just starting out and for those who have been long-time gym rats! Start strengthening these eight ranges at the beginning of every workout, and your results will speak for themselves!
Where do I start?
Want to take control of your health? Know your diet is crap and ready to make a change? Have you tried different diets in the past that didn’t stick? Take your nutrition journey one step at a time, leading to sustainable, healthy changes.
7-Day Food Journal
There’s no need to flip your world upside down right away. Just start with writing down everything you eat and documenting your bowel movements.
7 Days
Document everything you eat
Document any alcohol/drug use
NO JUDGEMENT
NO GUILT
Plot your poops!
Optional: document water intake
Optional: document sleep hours and quality
Take your first step on your health journey without drastic changes or judgment on your current habits. Document everything you eat and drink along with your poops! Try to document everything for seven days. This first step has no pressure, no drastic life changes, and simply awareness without judgment—only seven days of a food journal.
You got this!
Week 1: Your Journey Begins
At this point, you’ve (1) had the desire to change your health and nutrition habits and (2) have documented everything you’re ingesting and depositing for one whole week. I’m sure you’ve gained some insights into your daily habits this week, and I’m hoping you’re looking forward to what’s to come. Now we make the changes. It may feel like a hefty task at first, but practice makes progress. Remember that this is your first week and is not meant to be easy or perfect. These are your guidelines, not your handcuffs.
(1) Go to the grocery store!
Protein (meat, eggs, fish)
Organic
Grass-fed / Pasteur raised
wild caught
no excess ingredients – just the good stuff
Veggies
Organic
Fruit
Organic
Cooking Oil or Butter
Butter is raw, grass-fed, whole butter
no excess ingredients
Optional: Nuts
Organic
no excess ingredients
Optional: Chocolate
Organic
80% or more dark chocolate
(2) Meal prep
If you have a busy lifestyle, meal prep is essential for keeping up with your new habits. Bulk-cook your proteins and veggies in your favorite oil or butter and make to-go meals for as many days as possible. What’s easiest for me is a salad with chicken or ground turkey. Bulk-cook the chicken, ground turkey, or choice of protein. Then, all you need is your greens and fruit, and you have your meals!
(3) The Plan
3-4 meals/day
protein
greens/veggies
fruit
Eating window: 11 am – 7 pm
food journal!
IT IS OKAY TO TAKE THESE STEPS ONE STEP AT A TIME!!! The key to maintaining your soon-to-come healthy lifestyle and making those changes you’ve been wanting is taking it slow and being patient with yourself. Changing habits is no easy feat, and you are on your team! Don’t fight yourself or boss yourself; work patiently side by side as if you were leading a friend through a new adventure.