The Beginner’s Guide to the Gym

Editor’s note: This one is for the beginners. For those who have never stepped in the gym. Or those who have but feel lost. Or those who just don’t know if they should.

Absolute basics, by our resident pro, Ankush Datar. He’s a regular contributor who is spilling the fundamentals from 16 years of experience.
He explains it all: the equipment you will find, the movements you will hear about, his five-day lifting plan, and tips for effective training. Read it for a refresher. Or share with a fresher.

Ankush is an investment professional and an active blogger on wide-ranging topics spanning psychology, health, wealth and how they converge in everyday life. The good news is his book came out last month. It’s called “The Health and Wealth Paradox” and you can find it on Amazon today. Take a look. Get it. Read it. As always, for questions and feedback, just respond to this email.

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I’ve had a love-hate relationship with the gym for the past 16 years. I love it for the mental wellness and sense of self-worth it has given me. I hate it because showing up and doing the hard work isn’t always easy, but then, that’s also what makes it worthwhile.

If you’ve decided to hit the gym this year, here’s everything you need to know.

I. Why the gym matters

First, let’s address why the gym deserves a place in your fitness journey.

It offers something irreplaceable: a controlled environment with specialised equipment designed specifically for strength training. While running can be done in parks and yoga at home, proper strength training requires tools you typically only find in a gym—from basic dumbbells to sophisticated resistance machines.

Many people say the gym is boring—and they’re right. But that’s precisely the point. The monotony is where the magic happens. Growth is slow and time-consuming, requiring consistent effort over time. The gym’s predictable environment eliminates variables that might affect outdoor workouts, letting you focus solely on progressive improvement.

Most importantly, strength training isn’t just about building muscle or losing fat—though it excels at both. It’s about fighting the natural muscle loss that comes with aging.

This condition, called sarcopenia, begins as early as age 30. Regular strength training maintains muscle mass, supports bone density, improves metabolic health, and enhances overall functional fitness. This makes everyday activities easier and helps prevent age-related decline.

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Let’s break down what you’ll actually do at the gym.

A. Understanding your tools

1) Free weights—like dumbbells and barbells—allow for a full range of motion and engage stabilising muscles, making them excellent for compound movements.

2) Machines offer guided movements that isolate specific muscles, reducing the risk of form-related injuries and making them ideal for beginners or targeted training.

Free weights demand more balance and coordination, machines provide a safer alternative for individuals rehabbing injuries or focusing on muscle hypertrophy without overtaxing stabilisers. Neither is superior; they serve different purposes and complement each other. The best results often come from incorporating both into a well-rounded workout routine.

The goal really is to contract the muscle effectively, regardless of the tool you use.

Note: This guide is focused on strength training, so we are skipping the cardio machines like treadmill and elliptical trainer.

B. Understanding your movements

1) Compound movements engage multiple muscle groups simultaneously.
Imagine picking up a heavy box from the floor—you’re using your legs, back, and arms all at once. That’s a compound movement. In the gym, exercises like squats, deadlifts, and bench presses mirror these natural, multi-muscle movements.

They form the foundation of most strength training programmes because they’re efficient and functional—they train your body to work as a coordinated unit.

2) Isolation exercises, as the name suggests, target specific muscles individually. Think about doing a bicep curl—you’re focusing solely on the bicep muscle. They help strengthen lagging muscles and refine your physique.

A well-rounded workout programme includes both types of exercises. Typically, you’ll start with compound movements when you’re fresh and have more energy, then move to isolation exercises to further target specific muscle groups.

C. Structuring your workout

Two popular approaches are:

1) The Push/Pull/Legs Split (PPL): It organises workouts based on how your muscles naturally work together. Think about how you move in daily life: you either push things away from your body, pull them towards you, or use your legs to move around. This workout split follows the same logic:

• Push days focus on any muscle that helps push things away from your body—mainly your chest, shoulders, and triceps. Think of movements like pushing open a heavy door or pushing yourself up from the ground.
• Pull days target muscles that pull things towards you—primarily your back and biceps. These are the same muscles you use when pulling open a drawer or climbing up a ladder.
• Leg days concentrate on your entire lower body, including quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. These sessions strengthen the muscles that help you walk, run, jump, and maintain balance.

2) The Bro Split: This traditional approach dedicates entire days to specific muscle groups—chest day, back day, arms day, and so on. You might spend Monday working only chest exercises, Tuesday on back exercises, and so forth.

While this approach is straightforward and popular, I found it had limitations. When I focused intensely on one muscle group per session, I often felt too sore to train effectively the next day.

My switch to Push/Pull/Legs made a significant difference. My muscles recovered better since I wasn’t overloading a single group in one session.

If you’re interested in understanding the science behind this, I’d recommend Jeremy Ethier’s detailed video explanation. It helped me understand why this approach worked better for my body. It touches upon a meta-analysis by Brad J Schoenfeld in 2016 which states that training each muscle more than once a week can lead to more growth than training a muscle once a week.)

Another practical advantage of Push/Pull/Legs is its flexibility. You can adapt it efficiently to a 3-day or 4-day workout schedule depending on your availability. It simply felt more sustainable and produced better results for me.

Both approaches can work, but I’d recommend starting with Push/Pull/Legs.

Here’s a sample 5-day workout plan that incorporates these principles:

Make a workout plan that ensures you target your muscles or achieve a specific goal. This plan should be non-negotiable.

Note: Weight training isn’t gender-specific. There’s no such thing as male-centric or female-centric workouts. The fundamental principles of muscle development and strength training apply universally. Your goals might differ, but the tools and techniques remain the same.

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III. Tips for effective training

These ‘newbie gains’—as they’re called in the fitness world—happen because your untrained body responds quickly to new demands. Even basic exercises can trigger significant adaptations in strength and muscle growth during this period.

Enjoy them while they last. 😉

Here are more tips for everyone:

1) Form first: Perfect your technique before adding weight. This isn’t just about safety—proper form ensures you’re actually targeting the intended muscles and getting maximum benefit from each movement.

2) Understanding progressive overload: Here’s a fundamental principle that many beginners miss: to get stronger or build muscle, you need to gradually increase the demands on your body over time. This concept is called progressive overload, and it’s simpler than it sounds.

This means slowly increasing either the weight you lift, the number of repetitions you perform, or both. For example, if you can comfortably do 10 push-ups, try for 11 next time. If you’re lifting 5kg dumbbells with good form, consider moving to 7.5kg.

3) Time under tension: This term simply refers to how long your muscles are working during each exercise. Instead of quickly lifting and lowering weights, try slowing down your movements. Lower the weight slowly, hold it in the final position for two seconds, and then lift it back up. This increased time under tension helps build strength and muscle more effectively.

4) Rest periods matter: A common mistake many beginners make is not resting enough between sets, thinking shorter breaks mean a better workout. This isn’t true. Your rest periods are as important as the exercises themselves.

For compound exercises (like bench presses, squats, or deadlifts), take about three minutes between sets. These movements tax multiple muscle groups and your central nervous system, so they need more recovery time.

For isolation exercises (like bicep curls or leg extensions), one to two minutes is typically enough. These movements are less demanding on your system, so you can recover relatively quickly.

There are exceptions to these guidelines depending on your goals:

• For building pure strength: Rest 2-5 minutes between sets for peak performance and safety.
• For muscle growth (hypertrophy): Rest 30-90 seconds for balance between intensity and recovery.
• For endurance: Rest 15-45 seconds to sustain elevated heart rate and build endurance.

That time between sets isn’t wasted—it’s when your muscles replenish their energy stores, allowing you to maintain proper form and intensity in your next set. Use a timer on your phone if needed; proper rest is as crucial as the lifts themselves.

Never feel pressured to cut your rest periods short. A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that longer rest periods (3 minutes) between sets led to greater increases in muscle strength and size compared to shorter rest periods (1 minute).

5) Recovery matters: Before wrapping up our essential tips, let’s understand a fundamental principle: how your muscles actually grow. When you lift weights, you create tiny tears in your muscle fibres. During rest and recovery, your body repairs these tears, building the muscle back stronger than before—but only if you give it proper nutrition and rest.

This is why the gym alone isn’t enough. Your workout creates the stimulus for growth, but the actual improvement happens while you recover. And this is why factors like rest, nutrition, and consistency are just as important as your actual workout routine.

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IV. On personal training

What I didn’t understand then was that building muscle takes years of consistent work, doing the same exercises incrementally better. But here’s the reality: it often isn’t in a trainer’s interest to communicate this hard truth and risk losing a client.

Many trainers feel pressured to constantly create fancy, novel workout plans to keep clients engaged. This is why people often fail to stick with a trainer long-term—they’re chasing novelty rather than mastering fundamentals.

I’ve spoken with many trainers about this, and this is their consistent feedback. You can’t really blame them; it’s a systemic issue.

My father approached this smarter than I did. He understood that paying for the service would make the trainer accountable to him. He paid the gym fees before even visiting. Once he found a trainer who shared his long-term perspective, he committed to a full year without hesitation.

Note: If you are looking for some paid courses that can guide you through the process, here are my recommendations:

1) Jeremy Ethier’s Built with Science Course

2) Join an online coaching service like Fittr.

Standard Disclaimer: I don’t endorse any of these courses or links, just sharing them here for a better understanding of readers.

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V. Making it stick

1) Choose a gym within walking distance to eliminate transportation excuses

2) Keep your gym bag packed and ready with essentials so you can start your day in gym clothes or change into them immediately after work to build momentum

3) Find an accountability partner so you both can workout together and stay committed

4) Create an energising playlist that gets you motivated

And always remember: the hardest part is showing up. Once you’re there, you’ve already won most of the battle. The gym might seem daunting at first, but it’s simply a tool—one that, used correctly, can transform not just your body but your entire approach to health and wellness.

Start with these fundamentals, maintain consistency, and trust in the process. Your future self will thank you.