THE GYM: A Beginner's Survival Guide

Aug 14

4 min read

So, you’ve made it to the gym. You’ve signed in, changed, and you have some kind of a plan in your hand or on your phone.

Or maybe you’re just going in today to find out if you want to buy a membership. That’s cool.

Either way, as you’re looking around, you’re starting to second guess yourself, because you don’t know what the heck you’re doing or what any of this stuff is.

Avoid this situation by reading this article!

Official Rules/ Regulations

Somewhere near the front desk, and/or on the website, there’ll be a list of rules that will generally include:

Indoor shoes must be worn (some gyms allow bare feet/socks in some areas, for specialized activities)
No food or beverages other than water
No dropping weights in areas where the floor is not designed for that
Re rack your weights or so help me god…
A handful of variations on the phrase “don’t be a jerk”

Familiarize yourself with this list and the specific guidelines of this gym.

UNSPOKEN Rules/Regulations of Most Gyms:

If someone asks to work in, let them
If someone asks for a spot, oblige them if it is reasonably convenient and you know how
Earphones in = no non-essential communication
Mind your own business, but assert your space if necessary
Being relatively loud is socially acceptable if you are lifting a lot of weight (aka considerably more than you weigh).
At busy times, only use squat racks and Olympic platforms for their most essential purposes.

Parts of the Gym

Stretching Area

Large empty room with wooden floor, beige walls, ceiling lights, and a central clock. Door and window visible. Calm, spacious atmosphere.

Different gyms might call it different things. Basically, it’s an area, usually with a soft floor, where you can stretch and/or do various bodyweight/mobility exercises. It will likely contain some equipment such as foam rollers and yoga balls.

Do not bring dumbbells or other equipment into the stretching area.

Cardio Equipment

People exercising on treadmills in a gym with large windows. Natural light illuminates the modern, spacious interior. Mood is focused and energetic.

There’s likely going to be a lot of this, especially to commercial gyms that cater to the casual gymgoer crowd.

If there is something you’ve never tried that looks interesting, try it.

Some gyms will have equipment with built in entertainment systems, as well as apps to track your workout.

The workout-tracking stuff is often dependant on use of a connected heart monitor, and tends to be unreliable at best. TV to watch while slogging on a machine, however, is a fantastic thing that should always be taken advantage of.

See the article on getting started with cardio (coming soon!) for more information. Be careful with spin bikes, they can bite.

Machines

These are weight machines. They are all designed for the purpose of one or two exercises only, which are usually listed on them along with an illustration. Because they are so specialized, they make it hard to do the exercise wrong, because they ensure you’re in exactly the correct position.

Sounds pretty great, right? For many people, it is. They are a godsend for beginners with poor balance/core stability, people with chronic balance problems, and people with acute or chronic injuries. (Older people with chronic back issues/osteoporosis are well served by these in particular).

However, the drawback is that if you are able to develop better core stability/balance/etc within a short time frame, sticking to these may hamper your progress, because they provide a lot of support that you would otherwise be developing yourself. In general, I progress my clients away from these if it’s practical.

Cable Machines

Empty gym with various exercise machines, including cable crossover and leg press, in a spacious room with white walls and dark flooring.

These are a different type of weight machine. They probably have various detachable handles for each one. They force you do take care of your posture on your own much more than the other machines, but still provide more stability than free weights. Some (such as the lat pulldown) also hit muscle groups that are much harder to effectively target with free weights, especially for beginners.

Free Weights

Blue bench press with barbell in a dimly lit gym. Weight plates visible, people working out in the background, dark and focused atmosphere.

Dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, basically everything you lift that’s not a machine.

Because any exercise you do with free weights requires you to engage your whole body to some extent, they are generally considered the most effective and efficient method of strength training. However, they’re also the easiest to injure yourself with if you don’t know what you’re doing. They also may not be suitable for some beginners, or people with some chronic injuries.

(Upcoming articles will talk more about free weights.)

Olympic Platforms

Weightlifting platform with a loaded barbell featuring red and green plates labeled ZEUS, on a wooden and black surface.

These are for weightlifting sports where dropping the weights is a part of some lifts, as well as a general inevitability in training. They prevent damage to the floor and weights. You’ll notice they have special barbell plates made of rubber next to them; this is so they bounce.

(“No dropping weights” rules don’t apply in this part of the gym; this is what these things are designed for.)

Crossfit Rig