Recently, more and more people are starting to do fitness and go to the gym. This is understandable, probably everyone wants to have a sporty, toned body and good health. After all, the gym is not only weight training, but also a cardio load that improves the functioning of your cardiovascular system.
How to force yourself to start exercising?
But let's talk about everything in order. Very often, men or women want to go to the gym, but cannot force themselves for several reasons. One of the most common is fear and self-doubt. This is quite understandable when you find yourself in a gym where a large number of people are training, there are incomprehensible simulators and it seems that everyone is looking at you. You need to understand a few simple truths:

Any person was a beginner and did not know much, everyone started from scratch and only achieved results over the years. Don't be afraid of your ignorance.
Forget about ridicule or sidelong glances. In most cases, everyone who works out in the gym is focused on training.
Another reason is often the poor physical shape of a person. Many are ashamed of their fullness or even thinness. We can only advise you to boldly go to the gym. On the contrary, it causes respect when a person works on himself and wants to change his body. Fight your fears and insecurities, after the first results are visible, you will work with even greater dedication.
A fairly common misconception among women is that the gym will make them masculine. This is completely different from reality, a woman simply physiologically cannot build up the same muscle volumes as representatives of the opposite sex. There is no need to cite women from professional sports as an example, this is a completely different world, where everything is aimed at achieving maximum results. For you, working with weights will help get rid of excess weight, make the waist narrower, and the forms more toned and attractive.

Choosing the right gym
We hope the arguments above have influenced you, and you have decided to start exercising. The first step is to find a sports club with good equipment, as well as coaches and adequate visitors.
So, no need to rush and run to an expensive gym with bright advertising. A beginner can be attracted a huge number of simulators, although many of them are absolutely useless. It is best to ask for advice from your friends or their acquaintances. Among them there will definitely be a person who trains and will be able to suggest a good gym from his own experience.

We list the main factors that you should pay attention to when choosing a gym:

How fast can you get to it. You should not choose a hall to which you get more than 1 hour. The closer the hall is to your home, the better.
Equipment. Often in large fitness centers there are a huge number of simulators, but the most effective ones are missing. You will definitely need an Olympic barbell, bench press and squat racks, a wide dumbbell row, a horizontal bar and parallel bars, an adjustable bench, a treadmill.
The order in the hall is very important. The trainer on duty should keep an eye on it, and the visitors themselves should disassemble the shells after use.
Convenient dressing room and shower. It would seem elementary things, but they are also important. The dressing room should be spacious, with lockers that can be locked with a key. Warm water in the shower all year round is also a must.
Air conditioning system in the hall. Of course, this is not so important, but not everyone wants to train in a stuffy gym in summer and in a cold one in winter.
The congestion of the hall with people. Determine for yourself what time is convenient for you to study. Usually the largest influx of people in the hall falls on 18-20 hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Subscription cost. It all depends on your financial capabilities and preferences. Some people like to train in the basement gym, while others prefer a comfortable air-conditioned sports club. The choice is yours, but often large chains offer discounts on long-term subscriptions for 6 or 12 months.
Pay attention to the coaching staff of the gym. It is best for a beginner to study under the guidance of a coach, so it is very important to look at his achievements and education.
You need to approach the choice of the hall responsibly, you should be comfortable doing it, so when looking, try one-time classes to decide on the best option.

What equipment to take with you to training?
So what are the things you need to bring to the gym? In general, everything is quite ordinary:

A backpack or bag that can fit all the things you need.
Bath accessories, in the form of towels, flip flops and other hygiene items. In addition, we advise you to take another towel for classes in the gym.
Just remember that it is forbidden to go to the gym in bath slippers. This is inconvenient and extremely unsafe. You can miss a heavy pancake or other object on your foot. Therefore, we take comfortable sneakers with us, weights are also used for some exercises in the gym, but beginners will not need them yet.
For training clothes, any sports items that are comfortable for you are suitable - a T-shirt, shorts, pants. At the beginning of the workout, we recommend that you also practice in a hoodie in order to better warm up and warm up. Many brands produce special models of things for exercising in the gym.
Training gloves. Here the opinion of visitors to the hall is divided. It is convenient for someone to practice without them, but this causes the appearance of corns on the palms. Girls usually use these leather gloves, with cut off fingers, to keep the delicate skin of the hands. Again, to train with gloves or not is purely your individual decision.
Belt for weightlifting. Often, such belts can be freely taken in the gym itself. But if yours does not have it, then we strongly recommend that you purchase it. It will keep your back healthy and should only be used during heavy sets.
The training diary is very important. It can be an ordinary notebook, a notebook or a specially issued diary. You can record your results and progress in it. Not having a training diary is a very common mistake many beginners make, without which progress will be much less.
Bring a bottle of water with you or purchase one at the sports club bar. Do not feel thirsty, if you want to drink - drink. The body sweats profusely during exercise and you need to replenish the lost electrolytes.
After you have already decided to go to the gym, chose the right sports club and packed your bag with things, there is very little left. We need to sharpen ourselves a bit in the theoretical part. There is a huge amount of information about training on the Internet, we advise you to watch a video with the correct technique for performing exercises, so that in the gym you already have a minimal idea about them.

Unwritten rules of behavior in the gym
Among the people involved in gyms, there is a whole list of unwritten rules that a beginner needs to know and adhere to:

Follow hygiene. Your sports clothes and shoes should be clean, wash them after each session.
Women should not use too provocative or bright outfits.
No need to use perfume or deodorants. You go to the gym where people do hard physical labor.
Girls should carefully collect their hair in a ponytail, etc. It is not very pleasant to find other people's hair on the projectile.
Always take apart the equipment behind you and put dumbbells or pancakes in place.
It is not customary to talk a lot in the hall, joke loudly or laugh in front of the whole hall. This may disturb other visitors. Also, do not occupy the simulator and at the same time conduct small talk.
Watch your personal belongings, sometimes they are left on the simulators or benches.
As mentioned above, use a towel if you sweat profusely.
Well, the last rule - never step over the bar. In the gym, people are very superstitious, and this is considered a bad sign.

What to do in the gym?
So, you finally ended up in the gym and froze in amazement. There are many mysterious simulators and people who do incomprehensible exercises around. We advise you to spare no expense and hire a personal trainer. Such classes are more expensive, but they are very important for a beginner. It is necessary that a competent trainer from the very beginning of classes teach you the correct technique for performing exercises. In addition, he should write you a training and nutrition program based on your goals and capabilities.

Here it is worth stopping a little on food. Each person must understand that it will not be possible to improve their figure only by exercising in the gym. Whether you want to lose weight or gain muscle mass, you have to eat right. Nutrition is a very broad topic and we will definitely consider it in more detail, now we will list only the main dogmas:

Drink plenty of water. For men - at least 3-3.5 liters per day, for women at least 1.5-2 liters per day.
Try to exclude fast carbohydrates (sweets, bread, sugar) and unhealthy fats (butter, pork).
Consume more slow (complex) carbohydrates, in the form of rice, buckwheat and other cereals.
Add protein-rich foods to your diet - white meat, eggs, cottage cheese, fish.
Eat small meals, but often, every 2-2.5 hours. You should