Weight Lifting Tips - Don't Let All the Noise Intimidate You

You have done your research, you have bought your weight lifting gloves, you've psyched yourself up the whole ride to the gym telling yourself "I can do this." Well I am here to tell you that, yes you can do this and it won't even hurt, well at least not until about 18-24 hours later.

As a newbie to lifting weights it can be very intimidating as you step out onto the floor and look around and see Hulk wannabes listening to their I pods and singing when they shouldn't be singing. You can hear the grunting and groaning as they lift these massive amounts of weight and sweat pours from the body. You are again reciting your mantra "I can do this" over and over so you don't turn around and walk back into the locker room and head for the nearest Starbuck's to comfort yourself.

The first thing you need to remember is that you are a beginner and for your first few weeks you need to slowly progress the amount of weight that you put on each machine or that you choose from the free weight section of your gym. The second thing that you need to remind yourself is that you should not work out your entire body at one time and especially on the very first try at pumping iron.

Quality over quantity is key, it is always better to do 5 reps of an exercise correctly then to do 15 reps the wrong way and pay for it over the course of the next two days. Proper form is very important and one of the most helpful hints is that most pieces of equipment will have a picture with some basic directions on how to use it. You can also ask at the front desk of your facility, most clubs offer an orientation from a Personal Trainer. The Internet is an excellent resource for researching techniques and how to on this subject. My personal preference is to break up different body parts on different days. Here is an example of my workout routine:

Monday - Target Shoulders, Biceps and Triceps, doing 3 sets of each body part and 10-12 reps each time. Here are some of my favorite exercises; upright row for the shoulders, hammer curls for the biceps and dips for your triceps. I do each body party one time as my first set, take a 30 second rest and then repeat the exercises for the second and third time with 30 second breaks. By only taking 30 seconds in between sets you are keeping your heart rate up which is helping you to burn more calories. Don't worry about speeding through your lifting, really focus on your muscle as you lift up the weight and release it as you bring it back down. For example if you are squeezing and focusing on your bicep during each hammer curl it will really affect your results. If you are unfamiliar with the exercises that I have listed do a simple search on the Internet and you will find several sites with how-to's and step by step instructions.

I have been lifting weights along with cardio and proper nutrition for the past six years and have been quite successful for an average person. I have invested in a Personal Trainer at times and learned quite a bit from those 4-6 sessions. I subscribe to a couple of magazines like Women's Health or Shape and rip out the monthly guides on specific target areas. I laugh to myself because when all of the new issues come out you will see the people at the gym practicing them and even pretending like they came up with the move.

Don't fear the dumbbells in your gym, don't do the tango with the machines, just relax and let yourself learn. Yes you will make mistakes and your form won't be the best but once you have sore muscles and feel the "happy" burn that I like to call it, your mind will feel so much better that you will convince yourself this isn't that hard to do after all.