Hey, guys, it's Tyen.
So a while back, I did a Beginner's Guide To The Gym video,
and that video was meant to show you guys how to use common equipment in the gym.
That video has garnered a lot of views,
probably our most watched video on No Sweat, so go and check it out
if you haven't yet.
And I got a lot of comments thereafter to do a part two, to show you guys specifically
how to plan a gym workout.
There are a lot of different fitness plans for different fitness goals,
but today I'm going to show you what I do with my beginner clients.
Before I start, I always ask my clients these two questions.
Firstly, what are your goals?
Are you trying to lose weight?
Are you trying to tone up?
Are you trying to gain strength?
What is it that you want to achieve out of training?
The second question I ask is how much time can you dedicate to your workout session?
A common excuse that I hear is "I don't have time for the gym",
but there really isn't a right time.
You can do 2 hours, one hour, 30 minutes.
It really depends on your schedule and how quickly you want to achieve your goal.
I train a lot of females and one of the most common things that
they tell me when they start with me is that they want to tone up.
And that actually means to lose weight and build lean muscle.
Most of my clients are okay to dedicate one hour for their gym sessions,
so these are the guidelines that I will work with to plan the workout session today.
I will dedicate the first 10 minutes for warm ups.
Now warming up is something that a lot of people neglect,
but it's very important for injury prevention.
You want to make sure that your muscles are warm
so that you don't have any kind of muscle soreness after.
And plus, it will also help you loosen your joints before the actual workout,
making your muscles less likely to tear later on.
For the warmup, I recommend a ten minute incline
walk on the treadmill or on the elliptical machine.
Depending on your fitness level,
you can also do it without the incline. The goal here is to basically
get your heart rate up to 100 BPM, which is the ultimate fat burning zone.
Once you're warmed up, we can start the actual workout session.
For beginners, I always like to start off with the legs.
This is because this is your biggest muscle group.
You always want to start off with bigger lifts and more weights
because this really helps you to maximize the calories burnt
at the beginning of your workouts
where you have the most amount of energy.
I know a lot of girls watching this might think
"I don't want to lift weights because I don't want to get bulky."
But what you might not know is that lifting
weights actually can help you but more calories than cardio.
There are two machines I'm going to show you
that are great for legs that you can find in almost all gyms.
One of them is the Smith Machine.
I always recommend my clients try to work their way up to using the Squat Rack,
but the Smith Machine is great for beginners
because there's suspension and it's a lot safer to use.
One common question I get asked is "How many sets and reps to do?"
For sets, I recommend if you're a beginner, start with three.
And for repetitions, I will go anywhere from eight to 15.
I know that's quite a large range.
However, what you want to do is you want to start with lighter weights,
and as you increase your weights as the sets go by,
you want to reduce your number of repetitions.
So I am going to show you how to use a Smith machine.
You're just going to hold the side of the bar, right by the cushion.
You're going to go underneath the bar,
make sure that the cushion is right where the top of your back is.
This is wrong because it's on your neck, what you want to do is to adjust to this position.
Push against the bar,
unhook, and then you're going to sit back into a squat.
Keep your chest up, push into your heels,
squeeze your butt at the top and straighten your back.
Now, important thing, you do not want to round your back.
This is really dangerous.
You want to always make sure that your butt is being pushed back,
your chest is being pressed forward, and you're pushing into your heels.
The great thing about this machine is that when you're doing your squats
it also maintains your posture.
The second machine I'm going to recommend is the Leg Press Machine.
Now this really helps to target your quads, your glutes and your hamstrings
depending on where you place your legs.
So this is where I like to place my legs, I like to place it quite high up
because I love to target my hamstrings and my glutes.
You're going to kick off just slightly.
We're going to unlatch it, and then you're going
to let the weight come to you. Knees, bring it to your chest.
Don't be scared that it's going to come collapsing
on top of you, because this also has a safety lock.
The important thing about the Leg Press Machine
is that you do not want to lock your knees.
You always want to make sure that it's under tension
so that you can really feel it at the back of your legs.
Once you're done, you're going to push it,
lock the machine and you're done.
We're going to start off the first set with no weights, and for the second and third set,
we're going to increase the weights.
This is how you do it.
Another question I get asked is, "How long do I rest between sets?"
For beginners, one to 3 minutes is great.
You want to make sure that your heart rate does not drop and it remains high.
And plus it gives you enough time for you
to regenerate energy to really smash it in the next set.
But if you're too tired, then just take it easy.
You can always reduce your rest time as you get fitter down the road.
After you target your legs,
we're going to move on to the Upper Body.
Now, your upper body consists of your back, chest, shoulders and arms.
Now your back is your second largest muscle group in your body,
so you're going to work on this next.
This here is the Lats Pulldown Machine
and it helps you to work your back and your biceps.
It actually works the muscles that you would use when you're doing a pull up.
Over here we have a bar and you have the adjustable weights.
What you want to do is you want to start light as a set go by,
you'll want to increase the weights.
So you're going to hold onto the side of the bar,
sit down,
keep your back straight and your chest up,
and you're going to pull the bar to your chest and release.
Try to bring your elbows to your waist.
A common problem is that people like to hunch their back.
What you want to do is straighten your back, keep your chest up, and pull.
You also don't want it to be a situation where you're jerking.
So a lot of people, as they do it and the weight is too much,
they start to do this.
What you want to do is just make sure the weight is something that you can
manage and focus on squeezing your back.
Once you're done, stand up to release.
And for your next set, you can just simply increase the weights.
The second machine I recommend that you try is the Chest Press Machine.
Now this is great for targeting your chest, shoulders and your arms.
So we're going to start off with the lightest weight
and then you're going to put your arms at the side,
keep your chest up
and press.
Importantly, you don't want to lock your elbows.
You want to always make sure that it's under tension, keep your the chest up,
your abs tight and your back straight.
Once you're done with the set, you're going to increase the weight for the next set.
An often neglected upper body muscle group is the shoulders.
Now your shoulders are very important for you to work because it helps you
to improve your posture as well as improve your overall upper body shape.
There are tons of shoulder exercises that you can do with dumbbells
and free weights and even resistance bands,
but today I'm going to show you a simple one
using these 2 KG dumbbells and these are Lateral Raises.
So what you want to do is keep your body straight, pull your arms to the side
and slowly come down.
You're going to feel it and your shoulders and your arms.
And even though these are only 2 KG dumbbells, I promise you
by the 10th rep, you're definitely going to feel it.
Very importantly, don't jerk.
So don't use your body to jerk.
This is a common mistake when you're doing this exercise.
You're just going to squeeze your core,
squeeze your butt, whole body straight and focus on your shoulders.
And after you're done with the upper body, you're going to move on to the abs.
Even though you use your abs in almost every single exercise, I still recommend
you finish off your workout with a static and dynamic ab exercise.
For the static ab exercise, I recommend 30 seconds of Planks.
Here's how you do a Plank exercise.
You're going to rest on your forearms,
straighten your body, squeeze your bellybutton into your spine,
squeeze your butt and hold the plank.
You want to make sure that your butt doesn't come up too high or too low.
For a dynamic ab exercise, we're going to do 10 reps of Leg Raises.
This will target your lower ab area
which is an area a lot of people tend to be weaker in.
You're going to lie flat down, make sure that there's
no space between your lower back and the mat.
Press against the mat, keep your legs up.
And bring your legs down,
squeezing that lower belly into the mat and pulling your legs back up.
If you want, you can also bend your knees to make it easier for you.
If not, you're going to challenge yourself.
Straightening your legs, coming as low as low as you can, and up.
You always want to keep your lower abs under tension.
I always allocate time at the end of my workouts to do a good cooldown.
And this is because you want to stretch out your muscles
as well as have a gradual recovery of your heart rate,
and your blood pressure.
Now I'm going to go into a Cobra Pose
and this is going to help you to stretch your abs, which you just worked.
We're going to hold this for 20 seconds.
The next exercise I'm going to show you is the Child's Pose.
So you're going to draw your hips back,
and this is a good back stretch. You can hold this for another 20 seconds.
And if you're up for the challenge, you have just a little bit more energy
and you really want to increase your calories burnt, then go ahead and do some more cardio.
Head on over to the treadmill or elliptical machine and just get all the energy out of you.
And with that, you're done with your workout.
A great tip I have for you beginners is to keep a workout journal.
And I know it sounds super tedious for you to write down the number of sets and reps that you did,
but it's really helpful for you to see your progress over time.
Even in the No Sweat app, like after a workout,
I do ask you to kind of do a little bit of journaling, to record your feelings
to kind of record exercises that you might have found difficult.
And then, if you look back at your log,
you can see like, "Hey you know, I used to feel really tired doing this exercise,
and then now I feel just a lot stronger.
I can do more sets, more reps and increase my weights."
Lastly, it is so important for you to just listen to your body.
A lot of the times when you know you're a beginner
starting out at the gym, it's a very common mistake for you to go in
and then feel like you need to work out like five to six days back to back.
Don't do that. Workout, push yourself as much as you can,
and then if you feel like you need to take the day off
or even two days off, definitely listen to your body and relax when you have to
because you will get stronger over time if you are consistent.
Okay, that's all I have for you for today's video.
I hope you now know how to construct your own workout program.
And if you're looking for a more long term
program that you can do at home with no equipment at all,
then go and download the No Sweat App.
With the No Sweat app, you'll get personalized workouts that are tailored to your fitness goals.
You'll get one on one fitness assessments with me,
and yes, I do personally respond to each and every single one of them.
So if you have any questions then
shoot them my way over there.
You'll also get access to livestream chats and workouts, and even exclusive invites to
our meet and greet sessions.
The app is completely free to download,
and once you download it, you'll get one week for free.
And after which you have the option
of signing up for a one year, three month or one month plan.
And if you sign up for the one year plan, you'll also get a free set of No Sweat resistance bands!
And if you're looking for some supplements to your home workouts,
then head on over to our No Sweat store to check out our merch.
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I'll see you guys in the next one, take care. Bye!