Hi all,
I recently found out that as a part of my job I get access to a small gym in the building. I think it has your basic cardio equipment and some other stuff for building muscle (but small enough I don’t think there is equipment to do stuff like dead-lifts or whatever in there).
I don’t know anything about working out really, but I could stand to lose some fat, which draws my attention to the treadmill that they have. I am not so concerned about building muscle and everything that involves.
I have mostly neglected going to gyms for 3 reasons.
- They are usually out of my way
- I don’t usually have the time
- I don’t want to spend what they charge
All three of these are now non-factors now that I have found out I have access to this one.
I would be using it twice a week as that is how often I am actually at the location.
So my question is, since it’s not really something I have ever looked at - if I want to lose a bunch of fat, what do I do? I can try to diet first off, and I am glad to take suggestions on what worked for other people in that regard, but more so I just don’t know how long or how fast I should run, what equipment is good for this otherwise, or really anything about using a gym.
Please note that the facility is self-serve and has no staff - they just have cleaners come in each day to clean it, the rest is up to you. I do not have the money to spend on something like a personal trainer, and the location doesn’t offer such things as well given its self-serve nature.
Thank you.
As someone mentioned elsewhere in the thread, there is a baffling array of complex workouts, an infinite number of exercises, etc. But IMO the simplest way to get started is using the four basic compound lifts. Squat, bench, deadlift and overhead press. These are by far your best bang for the buck exercises that each work a large group of muscles. Ideally these are done using a barbell but you can still make good progress with dumbbells if that’s all that’s available. They Are quite simple to learn and a trainer is not necessary. Once you get in the groove and get really into lifting you will want to refine your technique and you will most likely find yourself watching more instructional videos for tips. But anyway it’s not rocket surgery. These basic compounds could carry you for two years and build an amazing physique.
If you only had two days per week, you could do squat/bench on day one and deadlift/overhead press on day two. If you can manage three days a week that would be a little better but anything is better than nothing. And many roads lead to Rome.
If you want to talk specific routines or apps to track them (apps make is very simple to organize this, and have illustrations/links to video instructions for all the exercises) let me know.
I started at age 40 so it may not be the most drastic transformation but this is me before compounds:
And this is me after 2 years+ of compounds:
170lbs ish -> 210lbs