Walking into a gym for the first time is the hardest set you will do all year. Everybody on our floor has done it, including the trainers. Here is exactly what the first month looks like at My Fitness, so that the only unknown left is which day you start.
Before you arrive
Bring indoor trainers, a towel and a water bottle. Wear whatever you are comfortable moving in — nobody here is dressed for a photoshoot. Come during opening hours, Monday to Saturday between 09:00 and 23:00, and ask at reception for a trainer. If you would rather arrange it first, call us and we will tell you which hours are quietest.
Week one: the walkthrough
Your first session starts with a walkthrough of the gym: the free-weight floor, the chest, back and leg zones, the cardio row and the two studios where classes run. A trainer takes you through five or six basic movements — a squat pattern, a hinge, a press, a row and a carry — with light weight, and writes you a starting programme. Expect to leave feeling like you could have done more. That is deliberate. The first week exists to teach the movements and to let your connective tissue catch up with your enthusiasm.
Week two: repetition, not variety
You will do almost the same session again, and that is the point. Repeating a small number of movements is how technique becomes automatic and how we know whether the weight should go up. Somewhere in this week you will be sore in places you did not know existed; a walk, water and a proper night's sleep will handle most of it. This is also a good week to try your first class — the circuit sessions and the aerobics class are the easiest entry points, and every station can be scaled down.
Week three: the weights start moving
By now the warm-up weights feel light and your trainer will add load. This is the week most people first enjoy training rather than simply completing it. It is also when the schedule gets tested by real life, so pick your fixed days now and defend them. If a session has to go, use the short fallback — squats, rows and presses for thirty minutes — instead of skipping the week entirely.