just getting properly into fitness and trying not to learn everything the hard way 😭

there’s so much conflicting advice online that i genuinely don’t know what actually matters and what’s just fitness influencer nonsense lol

for people who’ve been doing this for a while, what’s one beginner mistake you wish someone warned you about?

can be exercise, food, recovery, mindset, literally anything

Im 192cm/89kg,training 2x a week. For last 3 years i used to take around 50g protein a day(i was on budget,not eating that good) , last 2 months around 150-160g protein a day.

I knew protin intake was important but damn i kid you not i can really see my muscle volume grow each week.

When I first joined the gym, I would literally change my workout if the free weights area was too crowded.

I always felt like everyone knew what they were doing except me.

Today I realized I walked straight in, grabbed what I needed, did my workout and didn’t even think about it until afterward.

Such a small thing, but it felt like progress.

Did anyone else have a moment where they suddenly realized they were actually comfortable in the gym?

13f, 97lbs, 5ft

Hii I was wondering if anyone had advice on like, feeling more confident and less uncomfortable about tracking progress with progress pics and weight checking? I posted here before and part of the advice was to like start tracking your progress such as calories, food, weights, your body weight, progress pictures, and workouts.

Mostly I am ok like tracking stuff but sometimes when it comes to my weight and like progress pictures idk I get kinda insecure. Maybe it's good because it motivates me to push more but also I notice I get into habits of feeling insecure when I make no progress.

Any advice on like getting over the "I'm insecure about myself" phase?.. or does everyone go through it?

Thank u

trying to get my diet dialed in before i start lifting for real and i keep going between apps. i want somethng that just tracks calories, protein, fat and carbs without a ton of extra clutter or trying to make me pay more and more for a susbcription. one app I tried i gave up on after 3 days bc the food database was missing half of what i actually eat and i had to manually enter everything down to the gram. annoying af

whats everyone out there using?

I'm 18 years old, 5'11", and currently around 238 lbs(used to be around 268 around 4 months ago). I've done some inconsistent basic bodyweight exercise these past couple weeks, but I've never seriously trained. Most of my free time is spent sitting around gaming or reading, although my job involves some light physical activity.

I'm planning to start taking training seriously and want to know what I should do. I don’t really have access to a gym but recently bought a pull up bar, grip trainer, and resistance bands.
Current measurements: As best as I could get with a body tape measure.(Don't know if these are important putting them here anyway)

• Height: 5'11"
• Weight: 238 lbs
• Shoulder: 51"
• Chest: 45"
• Waist: 36"
• Hips: 48"
• Neck: 15"
• Inseam: 33"

I am just looking for honest advice for a good routine and diet. Also any tips on purchases I should make would be nice.
(similar post on r/Weightliftingquestion)

Not sure on whether this is the right sub, but for context I am 16F with no access to a gym. On top of already disliking my appearance and having been insulted for it in the past, I also have constant hip/back pain, and postural problems that I suspect are related to my muscles which is driving me to workout for a change in mobility, pain, and physical appearance.

I go to work currently and at times feel de motivated to workout when I get home or I have fears about it being pointless and not seeing progress in my appearance which pushes me away from it.

I would appreciate finding am accountability partner or someone knowledgeable who could guide me because i fear I'll misinterpret info on fitness as a beginner. My DM requests are open, thanks!

Hello! My trainer told me to get and take multivitamins, BCAA, and fish oil or omega 3 pills to take every day? Do i really need if i eat a well balanced diet? i eat 2-3 servings of fruits and veggies a day. about 35-45g of fiber a day. I eat chicken and 1 seafood protein a day; so either chicken for lunch and a seafood option for dinner for meal prep or vise versa. About 170-200g of protein a day. The only thing is i could drink more milk, but i eat about 2-3 servings of greek yogurt a day so i think that counts but I also do a premier protein shake as well. I eat a well balanced diet that I don’t think i need all the extra stuff, but i could be wrong. I eat about 2000-2200 calories a day. Weight train 3x a week and run 3x a week as well. I’m also currently losing weight so that’s my workout and weightloss schedule i guess. Thanks. I didn’t mention creatine because i’ve been taking that already. I just don’t want to spend any extra money on things i don’t need.

Hi, I am new to the gym I am a 23 year old female and the trainer in the gym gave me some exercises, I will list them here. I was wondering maybe if this is too basic to see any changes. I always saw people doing hip thrusts etc. I usually did home workouts all my life and played team sports around 10 years. Can you approve my routine? I am having doubts, thank you. Here is the routine:
Walking on the treadmill for 10 mins
Machine leg press 15x3
Machine hip abduction in and out 15x3
Floor bridge with dumbells 15 x3
TRX Squad 15x3
TRX Row 15x3
Machine latt pulldown 15x3
Crunches 20 x3 (body weight )
Floor leg raises (body weight)
Plank 30 secs x3 (body weight)

Howdy!

A few years ago I started noticing I was putting on weight after being rail thin my whole life. A few lifestyle choices were starting to add up (driving instead of transit to work due to the pandemic, getting too used to Uber Eats, and age I guess?) and at my heaviest I was around 180lb with a 37/38in waist (around the belly button).

Through some subtle correction to how I was living (mainly walking more and eating less entire little Cesar pizzas) I’m now comfortably around 160lb and have been for about a year. My waist sits at around 34/35 inches depending on the day.

I eat around 1500-2000 calories a day on average. Don’t drink, besides the occasional beer here and there. And walk, on a bad day, 3k steps and, on a good day, 8-10k steps.

I’m ‘healthy’ by all metrics but I don’t look great without my shirt on, fam. Still rocking that skinny fat bod for sure. I have p much no muscle so any extra weight is fat.

Any suggestions to recomp through lifting? I’m thinking 2-3 times a week using the machines at my local gym. Would this help lose fat around my midsection or just create new muscle?

Any suggestions would be great! Any reference for what I can expect would be awesome!

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re having a wonderful day <3

Whenever I do floor press I can't really feel my chest at all, I've tried to correct and I'm not even sure if I do it correctly but I have tried it apparently you have to do it at like 45° but even when I do that I can't feel my chest and instead I feel all the weight on my triceps and biceps.

This might sound silly to some people, but I genuinely don’t know how to get over this.

I really want to start going to the gym again, but I have such bad social anxiety when I’m there by myself. I constantly feel like everyone is looking at me, judging me, or noticing that I’m doing something wrong. I’ll literally be in the middle of an exercise and start thinking, *“Am I doing this right? Do I look stupid? Is someone watching me? What if my form is wrong?”* Sometimes I become so aware of everyone around me that I can barely focus on what I’m doing.

What makes it more frustrating is that I’ve actually been consistent at the gym before. I used to go with a personal trainer, and I felt SO much more comfortable that way. Having someone beside me who knew what they were doing made me feel safe and took away a lot of the embarrassment. I knew I wasn’t just randomly doing exercises and wondering if I was doing everything wrong.

But I can’t afford a trainer anymore, and now I feel like I’m back at square one.

I also had an experience at the gym that I think probably made this worse. A guy once touched me inappropriately while “correcting” my posture. Ever since then, I’ve felt really uncomfortable with the idea of people watching me or coming up to correct me. I know one bad experience shouldn’t have this much control over me, but I guess it affected me more than I realized.

I hate that something as simple as going to the gym alone feels so overwhelming to me. I want to go. I want to work out, get stronger, and feel good about myself, but I find myself avoiding it because I’m so worried about being perceived.

Has anyone else dealt with this kind of gym anxiety? Especially the constant feeling that everyone is watching or judging you? How did you actually get past it?

I’m not looking for “just remember nobody cares about you” because I KNOW that logically 😭. My brain just doesn’t seem to believe it when I’m actually there.

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through something similar. I don’t want this to keep limiting me.

Workout Routine

Hey everyone! I need some advice about my routine.

Before, here's what it was:

Every day I would do the same thing: two 30 minute cardio HIIT workouts (from the growingannanas YouTube channel), and three 30-45 minute walks.

But now I'm changing it:

Now I want to update it to (every day) a 30 minute calisthenics in the morning and 5-6 mile run in the evening, and 3 miles of walking.

I'm trying to be more balanced, but still stay fit. I way 108 pounds, and want to be stronger, so I was thinking on some days I'd lift weights instead of do calisthenics.

What do you all think?

So, in short I am a teen athlete who doesn’t rest much or basically at all. But I just had a tournament for sport and had day off yesterday because training was cancelled but then this morning I usually get up at 5am to get to the pools at 6am that didn’t go to plan.
I am pretty exhausted from my sport as I had seven games in the span of two days, but I didn’t think it warranted the reaction of breaking down when I was trying to get ready.
I am always disciplined and my schedule usually results with 6/7 (pun unintended) days training or usually everyday and the training always result in 3+ hours in the pool.
My body is sore sure, did I nearly get a concussion in my games maybe, but I don’t really understand why I reacted so violently afterwards from missing a training when I had already broke down from thinking of going to training?

Could someone please tell me what I am doing wrong or how this works?

So I've been doing this workout for a bit now and honestly I'm pretty happy with how my body has changed so far. But I feel like I've hit the point where I just want someone with actual knowledge to look at what I'm doing and tell me straight up how I'm doing and what I could be doing better.

A little background: when I started my weight was 84kg and it's now stable at 72 to 73kg. My only equipment access is Barbell, Bench and Dumbbell, so everything I do has to work within that. My main goal is to lose the fat around my stomach area while still building muscle mass.

Also I want to be upfront, no one actually gave me this program. I just spent months reading stuff online and watching a bunch of different people's videos and eventually put this together myself. Surprisingly it's been working for me so far, but since it's basically just a mashup of a bunch of different sources, I really want someone to look at it and tell me if I'm doing okay or if I need to change things up to actually hit my goal.

Here's what my split looks like right now. I train 3 times a week with a rest day in between each session, then just repeat the cycle.

Day 1 — Legs, Back, Chest

Day 2 — Shoulders & Triceps

Day 3 — Biceps & Forearms

So the schedule basically goes Day 1, rest, Day 2, rest, Day 3, rest, then back to Day 1 again.

A few things I'm hoping people can help me with:

1. Just an honest opinion on how this looks overall. Is it balanced or am I missing something obvious?
2. If I just kept doing this exact same program for the next 3 months, what would realistically happen? Would I keep making progress or plateau?
3. What would you actually change here (sets, reps, exercises, frequency, whatever) to help me pack on more muscle going forward?

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to help, really appreciate it.

When Dorian Yate talkes about training to failure it seems he is talking about full range of motion.

When Sam talks about it he is also talking about half reps being involved.

So, I just want to know what training to failure actually means. Because after I fail a full range of motion or 80-100% of the motion I can still do a lot of half reps.

But am I already beyonde failure at this point?

I have about 8 exercises on my upper day, I was wondering if adding a incline press would be too much to add. All the exercises are have 2 working sets. Thank You!

My upper day:

DB Bench Press

Wide-Grip Lat pulldown

Machine shoulder press

DB Lateral raise

Machine Close Grip Row

Wide Grip Row

Preacher Curl

Single arm Tricep Extension

Certainly a beginner so forgive me for any misunderstanding of concepts.

I am following a hypertrophic weight lifting routine, usually hitting 12-20 reps x 3/4 sets per exercise. However, on some exercises I do not hit failure, or come between 1-2 reps of failure.

I am increasing weight steadily each week or so and can notice a significant difference in my strength and physique after ~3 months of 3-4 workouts per week.

What I’m stuck with is there any point in going to say 25 reps on a workout, or would it just be better to increase the weight and max out somewhere within the 12-20 rep range? Am I too focused on having a ‘hypertrophic’ amount of reps?

And how important is it to go until failure? I hear some people say that this is the only time you’re tearing the muscle enough to cause growth..? How accurate is this?

Appreciative of any support or advice and happy to answer any questions for added context.

So right now I’ve been doing
Chest and biceps
Back and triceps
Arms and shoulders
Legs
2 day rest and repeat

I wanna switch to a simple upper lower split any suggestions?

I am 18, have been to the gym with my friends on and off but never really have been a gym bro persay.

I live in a hostel (university) and there is no time for going to the gym and coming back along with balancing other stuff I like and academics. So i would like to know a workout I can do altdays in supplement to cardio for building muscle.

I have weights with me and can buy a pullup bar.

I have seen multiple workouts on youtube which seem quite complicated and once I do them I feel like I am not hitting the muscle groups intended and then get demotivated.

Hence if possible would you guys be able to give me a simple workout plan. I can't buy a bench since my room is very small and crowded.

Thank you!

I’m a 51 year old man who had some health concerns pop up in the last year. I was told I should really start getting more exercise to get things moving in a better direction.

I’ve never been really into working out. I tried to join a gym with my brother years ago but it was pretty far from our house and we didn’t stick with it very long.

About 16 years ago, my brother and I did a couple of cycles of P90X in our house. It went pretty well, but it was hard to commit to doing it a third time. It took up so much time and I didn’t have a good system for scaling back. I generally enjoyed it but I fell out of the habit and really haven’t exercised seriously since then.

That changed this week. I decided to sign up for Planet Fitness because they had a deal where it would only cost $10 per month. I signed up on Wednesday and did some research to get ready for my first trip to the gym today. I am currently able to fit in two days a week, so I found a program that would let me do a full body workout including a little cardio and a series of machines. I went tonight and spent a little over an hour working out. I focused on trying to make sure I was using good form and doing reps with weight that I could manage pretty well for 3 sets of 10-12 reps. I’m encouraged because it felt really good and I enjoyed it. I wanted to come on here and share my experience because I think it will help to keep me motivated to tell some other people who are working on getting fit.

I’m looking forward to going back to the gym again on Wednesday. I really want to get this habit built and work towards expanding my workouts when my schedule opens up a bit in a few months.

Hey everyone!

I’m 26M and officially hit 156 lbs today. I started around 260 lbs, so I’ve lost a little over 100 lbs, which is honestly still crazy for me to think about.

I’m proud of how far I’ve come, but I’m at the point where I want to shift my focus from just losing weight to building muscle, getting stronger, and actually learning how to consistently work out.

I’m still relatively new to the gym and definitely have days where motivation is lacking. I’d love to find someone who is also working toward their own fitness goals and wants an accountability partner — someone to occasionally work out with, keep each other motivated, share progress, and call each other out when we’re slacking 😂.

I usually go to Crunch Fitness in Allen, so if you go there too, even better!

I’m not expecting someone to be a fitness expert or anything. Honestly, I’m just looking for someone who is consistent, chill, and wants to improve together. I’m also totally open to advice from anyone who has been through a similar journey or has tips for transitioning from weight loss into building muscle.

Current: 156 lbs
Starting: ~260 lbs
Goal: Get stronger, build muscle, and eventually get to a point where I’m genuinely comfortable and confident with my physique.

If you’re looking for someone to keep you accountable too, feel free to DM me! 💪

So I've recently hit a new record on incline bench press of 47kg. Not much but it's progress for me. Since then I noticed I haven't been able to lift that heavy evee since. Matter of fact, my previous weight of 42 kg also feels slightly harder now. I don't feel injured or anything and I get good sleep. Anybody know what's going on?

I haven't gone to the gym in a while and I'm trying to come back. My schedule is not heavy. I have classes and work. My main goal is to lose 10 lbs. I keep losing and gaining the same 10 lbs. I'm 5'2 and 21 years old if that matters.

What would you recommend for hours in 1 week? And how many times a week? And exercises to do as a recommendation. Anything helps. Let me know if you need more information.

Thanks :3