[ddwayspd]

I'm going to join a gym in the next few days and I want to do it properly! I decided a few months ago I was going to join one and I've found one that is on the way to work and is open 24 hours a day, no contract and pretty cheap (£16 a month)

I'm not strictly attempting to lose weight or anything, I'm fairly average all round - about 5ft10/11 (175-180cm) and about 12-12.5 stone (77-79kg/170ish lbs) but am not very toned, little bit of a gut etc... I've also realised recently I don't really have a lot of stamina; a short sprint/full speed bike ride and I'm properly knackered so really I'm aiming to improve my stamina and just get a bit more defined in the arms/chest/abs area.

I've never been to a gym before at all so have no idea how to use any of the machines. I'm sure most of them are fairly self explanatory and there's an induction when you first join up if you want it, but I'm just wondering what people would recommend as a routine to try and get into to achieve what I'm after, what the best machines would be to use, how often to go and how long to go for?

[MizzDaizzy]

Most gyms will do you an initial programme after asking you what you are looking to achieve and weighing you / taking measurements etc.

[uC4F0NVL]

Build up your fitness and practice your form first. Start small and choose weights you can do 3 sets of 15 reps with and stick to basic moves that train your biggest muscle groups. (Am I saying it right? Not very good with English gym vocabulary.)

Do that for a while and gradually move to heavier weights. When you feel you've good to go change it up and move to a more demanding training programme.

For warming up I recommend jogging or running for 10 to 12 minutes.

The staff at the gym and the regular customers will most likely help you so ask them to.

[TOOGUEITEME]

Stretch a lot.

[LoveTTatall]

My suggestion is do your homework on weight training. Educating yourself on it is the best thing you can do when it comes to exercise, there's just too much info readily available online not to. Lifting should really be part of anyone's routine in the gym. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns during the day, even when you're just sitting around doing nothing, and it has tons of health benefits.

As far as lifting, you NEED to train your whole body. Some people say "but running/the stair master is all I need for my legs." No, it's not, no matter how much you think it is. Also, don't use the word "define" or "tone." Muscle does one of these things: grows (hypertrophies), shrinks (atrophies), or maintains, you don't "define/tone" muscle. Similarly, you either retain your level of fat, gain it, or lose it. The relationship between those is what gets "definition."

There are lots of different ways you can put routines together... You can split it by bodypart (which I don't really recommend/like, but some prefer that way), you can train a full body routine (good if you're limited on time, can only lift 2x a week), or train an upper/lower routine (good if you can lift 4x a week, 2 upper days, 2 lower days) just as a few examples. More sports minded people tend to group their exercises according to certain movements, and exercises that assist a particular movement/action.

Balance between antagonistic muscle groups is important as they rely on each other (ie. abs/lowerback, chest/upperback, shoulders/rear delts, quads/hamstrings, etc).

Freeweights are much better than machines. They help your muscle coodination more, work your stabilizers more, and help with balance, etc and lead to better strength/muscle as a result.

Lifts/variations of these that should be staples in a routine are:
squats
deadlifts
military/shoulder press
rows
pullups/lat pulldowns
some type of bench press

This site's a great resource, I referred to it a lot when I first started lifting:
http://www.exrx.net/

This section has a directory of muscles/muscle groups and associated exercises with descriptions, and animations of how to perform them.
http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

I'm sure there are tons of helpful sites out there you can find by googling. It can be a little overwhelming at first just because there's so much to learn, but I thought it was fun/enjoyable when I first started, and was eager to keep learning more.

[GlictStiply]

Do some research such as stronglifts.com is a decent starting point...

Try and use freeweights because they use all your stabilising muscles as well and lead to better overall results then machines...

Dumbell / bench press
Pull / Chin ups
Shoulder press
Cable rows
Squats
Leg press
Bicep / tricep Curls

Do a basic routine like that... Dont bother doing loads of isolation exercises (single muscles).... Do compound exercises (large muscle groups at the same time)... The post above is pretty good listen to that.... Also when starting prob just do full body routine 3x p/w then worry about splitting it up when you get a bit more experienced...

[RerRoktoido]

Sounds like you've seen PureGym

I moved to PureGym about 5 weeks ago and very much enjoying it (great machines and at £17 a month is amazing)