Any kind of weight training is much different than being a runner or doing activities which involve your body alone. When you decide to get into weightlifting you will have to adjust to a different kind of work and different challenges as well.

Training with weights can bring you a lot of benefits, help you increase muscle size, build better bone density, and help you become stronger. Most beginners don’t know what to expect because there are so many different weights and because they are unaware of their own strength.

However, if you take things slowly and approach your training the right way, you will be able to adjust quickly and enjoy all the benefits that weightlifting has to offer. So let’s start.

Weightlifting doesn’t always just build mass

Many people think that weightlifting always leads to bulking and large muscles. This can be achieved with weightlifting but it requires a specific approach to exercising with a large number of repetitions and taking in more calories than you can burn in the gym.

A lot of people are like “I don’t want to lift weights and look like that”, but on the other hand, there are those who say “I want to look like that”. For both groups of people, it’s important that their fitness goal is achieved with a specific nutrition regimen and special training program.

Don’t overdo it

For a lot of people, the first issue is how much weight they should be lifting at the start of their gym experience. The truth is, there aren’t any rules when it comes to how much you should start with, no matter the program. Some people are naturally stronger, some are weaker, and this is perfectly normal.

The important thing is to start slow and make sure that you aren’t pushing your muscles too hard. For example, if you are getting into Olympic weightlifting, the first thing you should do is learn the movements and practice them with an empty bar.

On the other hand, if you are doing dumbbell exercises, make sure to use a weight that allows you to do as many reps as the program says without getting too tired. This is how you will slowly get your muscles used to the pressure without having to suffer through terrible muscle soreness.

Do the exercises properly

Apart from giving your muscles a go and feeling the weighs, your goal at the start of your weightlifting career is to learn proper technique and make sure that you are doing the movements correctly. This is essential because it’s how you will ensure that your workouts are effective and that you are properly straining the right muscles.

Doing exercises the right way is also essential to ensure that you don’t get injured. You probably heard a lot of stories of people getting hurt in the gym, but this only happens to those who don’t do the exercises properly or simply try to lift weights that are far too heavy for them.

Start with a simple training program

Going to the gym and doing random exercise is not going to get you anywhere. You need to follow a program and not just any program, but one that is strictly designed for beginners so that it can help you get through the starting phase.

The program should have exercises for your upper body which involve push movement and your upper body also needs a pulling movement exercise. You also need an exercise for your core or your posterior chain, as well as leg exercises.

Look for a training program that includes exercises for all of these parts of your body so that you are working on your whole body with each session, not just your arms or any single muscle group.

Warm up a bit before exercising

You can’t simply get into the gym with cold muscles and start working out immediately. Even people who have been going to the gym for a long time have extensive warmup routines, and they know how important it is to do all this before training to avoid injuries. This is why beginners need a good warm up as well.

If your muscles are weak and aren’t used to a lot of stress, you need to make sure that they are properly warmed up before you do your movement. However, make sure that your warmups are just that, do them for a short time and try not to waste a lot of the energy you need for training.

Weightlifting is for everyone

No matter if you are looking to gain or lose weight, build some muscle with a lean figure, gain lots of big bulky muscles, be able to lift heavy weights, or you want to make your leg muscles stronger so that you can trek or run faster, weightlifting can help.

Basically, everyone can benefit from weightlifting, and this is why so many professional athletes like in the NBA or football regularly have to go to the gym as part of their training.

No matter what your goal is, weightlifting can help you, but you will have to pick the right training method and right program, followed up with the right nutrition to get the results you want.

These are the 6 essentials you should remember before hitting the gym. In the end, find a good gym where you can peacefully exercise and get proper help from instructors there so that you learn how to do the exercises properly.