How to do a beginner in the gym without a coach

Warm up

Exercising without warming up greatly increases the risk of injury and decreases the effectiveness of the exercise. It also helps you form bad habits.

Warm up is an essential part of your workout. You can easily get your muscles up and running by following a simple procedure:

Use a massage roller … These rollers help warm up the muscles of the whole body. Here Lifehacker told in detail what these tools are and how to use them.
Do cardio for five minutes: Take a brisk climb uphill, exercise on an elliptical trainer or stationary bike. If you are overweight, don't jog - take care of your knees.
Be sure to do joint warm-up and dynamic stretching.… Here you will find a video of a good warm-up.

After that, you will be warmed up enough to start your activity.

How to create a training program

When you come to the gym, you should already have a clear plan of action: what exercises you will do, what muscle groups to work out.

There are a huge number of training programs, but beginners without a coach should not try difficult options. For a start, it is better to limit yourself to the sequential study of all muscles.

Let's conditionally divide the body into several muscle groups: biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, back, buttocks, hips and abs. If you are going to train twice a week, divide the muscle groups equally. For example, work your biceps, back, hips and abs in the first workout, and work your triceps, chest, shoulders and buttocks in the second.

Here are some exercises with machines and free weights for different muscle groups.

Exercises for legs and buttocks

Leg press in the simulator

With this simulator, you can shift the focus to different muscle groups by simply changing the position of your legs on the platform:

workout in the gym: Raising the legs on the platform

Legs at the top of the platform - focus on the gluteal muscles and hamstrings.
Legs at the bottom of the platform - focus on the quads.
Narrow leg stance - accentuates the outer thigh.
Wide leg stance - accentuates the inner thigh.

Here is a video of the exercise technique:

Abduction of the legs in the simulator

workout in the gym: Abduction of the leg in the simulator

This exercise works great for the buttocks. Take your leg back until the lower leg is parallel to the floor, but do not fully extend the knees. To work your muscles better, lower your leg to the starting position slowly.

Squats

This is a basic exercise with a huge number of variations: wide or single-legged, barbell or dumbbells, elevated or jump. Here, Lifehacker goes into detail on the technique of doing squats, and in this article there are several options for squats and other exercises for the hips.

Lunges

Another exercise with a lot of variation. Lunges can be done with your own weight, with a barbell or with dumbbells, moving around the hall or on the spot.

During the lunge, make sure that the knee in front of the standing leg is exactly above the heel. By tilting the body forward a little, you will shift the focus to the buttocks.

Deadlift

This basic exercise works not only for the muscles of the hips and buttocks, but also the extensor muscles of the back and trapezius. Start with the classic deadlift, but don't carry a lot of weight.

Here is a video of the exercise technique:

Explore other hip and glute exercises to diversify your workout.

Back exercises

Hyperextension

This exercise strengthens the back extensor muscles. It perfectly warms up and prepares you for an important basic exercise - deadlift.

If you want to pump specifically the muscles of the back, and not the legs, start performing the exercise from a position where the body is in a straight line with the simulator. Then lift your back by bringing your shoulder blades together and bringing your arms back. Hold this position for 3-5 seconds.

Row of the lower block to the stomach

workout program in the gym: Row of the lower block to the abdomen

The key point in this exercise: you need to pull the block not with your hands, but with your back. While pulling, fix your back and bring your shoulder blades. The video shows the technique and features of the exercise:

Row of the upper block to the chest

This exercise also helps build your back muscles effectively. The video below explains the execution technique and the main mistakes:

Exercises for the chest

Bench press

This basic exercise uses your pecs, triceps, and deltoids. The emphasis can be shifted by changing the grip: the bench press with a narrow grip loads the triceps more, and the wide one - the chest. Also, the emphasis on the chest shifts if you take the bar with a reverse grip, that is, with your palms facing you.

The video explains the technique of performing the exercise:

Pectoral Exercise

This machine allows you to do exercises that only work on the pectoral muscles. Do not bend your arms completely at the extreme points, do the exercise smoothly.

Dips on the uneven bars with a forward bend

training program in the gym: push-ups on the uneven bars

If you cannot yet do push-ups on the uneven bars without help, use an expander or a special machine for support. Tilt your torso forward to focus on your chest.

The technique for performing the exercise can be seen in the video:

In this article, you can find breast exercises in pictures.

Triceps Exercises

Reverse bench push-ups

How to work out in the gym: Reverse push-ups from the bench

Try not to spread your elbows to the sides. If shoulder mobility allows, lower yourself until the elbow angle is 90 degrees.

Extension of arms on the block

This exercise can be performed with a normal or rope handle. The back is straight, the elbows are close to the body and do not move.

Exercises for biceps

Standing barbell curl

This is a basic exercise that helps you work your biceps well. Here is a video of the exercise technique:

Lifting dumbbells

Unlike the previous exercise, when lifting the dumbbells, you must rotate the hands, as this puts additional stress on the biceps. At the bottom, the hands should look at each other, and during the rise, turn to the body.

Shoulder exercises

Bench press from the chest while standing

Before this exercise, it is worth doing a dynamic shoulder stretch: pick up a stick or expander and move your straight arms behind your back several times, and then forward again. Do not bend your elbows while stretching. The closer you place your arms, the more effective the stretch will be.

During the press, take the barbell behind your head. If she stays in front, it will put a lot of stress on the lower back.

Lifting dumbbells through the sides

When performing the exercise, the elbows should be slightly bent. Do not raise your arms above your shoulders - this can cause impingement (an inflammation of the rotator cuff).

Sitting dumbbell breeding

The body is tilted forward, the back is straight. Hand movements are similar to the previous exercise.

In this article, you will find an analysis of the technique for performing other shoulder exercises.

Exercises for the press

Crunches with legs on a hill

By placing your feet on a raised platform, you eliminate unnecessary stress on the iliopsoas muscles and harm to the lower back. If you want to make the exercise more difficult, pick up a medicine ball.

Plank on an unstable support

The bar works out all the muscles of the core perfectly. To complicate it, you can place your feet on an unstable support: in loops or on medballs, as shown in the photo.

Hanging leg raises

In a simpler version, you only need to pull your knees to your chest.

Workout program in the gym: Raise the knees to the chest

If this is easy, try raising your straight legs to the bar.

Training program in the gym: Raising the legs to the horizontal bar

How to choose the right weight and number of repetitions

Take such a weight that you can do the exercise 5-8 times. The last repetitions should be done with effort. If you can easily do all eight times, then the selected weight is too small for you.

Do three sets of 5-10 reps. Rest between sets should be 1-2 minutes, between exercises - 2-3 minutes.

If you are doing exercises without weight, you need to do more reps to properly load the muscles. For these exercises, do three sets of 20 reps.

After workout

After training, be sure to stretch: you need to relax the muscles that worked. In this article you can find exercises for stretching different muscle groups, and here you can find exercises with resistance bands.

From the very first workouts, you need to pay attention to your nutrition. In this article, you will learn what to eat before and after training to speed up your progress and not harm your body.

Do not hesitate, listen to your body and have fun.