You've done it!

You've finally decided on which gym to join. The paperwork was just filled out and the desk attendant tells you to "get at it." You feel like a child in a candy shop; all of the different types of equipment that you have no clue about. All of the different muscle groups that you never even knew existed. So many options and it feels as though time has shortened down to the milliseconds as you slowly start to realize that you don't know sh*t about the gym. It's overwhelming, but that's reality slapping you in the face. At first you thought:

"Yeah I can do this, New Year New Me!"

And now you're thinking

"Oh my god I know absolutely nothing about anything in this jungle."

It's as if you were dropped onto a battlefield. You got the cross fitters on the left heaving, screaming their lungs out as their sweat bullets fly towards you. "Go, Go, Go!" Their instructor yells at them; while you stare in awe.

To your right, the biggest Hulk-like creatures lifting more than twice your body weight. They all have water gallons full of "clearly not water." Chugging it down as if it was water; then grunting their way through weights that seem impossible for you to handle.

In front of you, the cardio machines, and there are only a couple of people there. So you decide that you'll start with some cardio. You jump onto the treadmill, and you start walking at a slow pace. Then, all of a sudden the Soccer Moms' Association decides to hop onto every single cardio machine around you and you only.

Let me tell you, these ladies can definitely out walk any other person in the gym; so you're a little intimidated. They walk at a fast pace, and you decide to try to match them. After twenty minutes, they don't even break a sweat while you're over on the side gasping for air; wondering how they can muster up the endurance to walk so rapidly in such little time. It's the training necessary to be able to join the Soccer Mom's Association; trust me, I've tried applying. When I asked about the requirements they asked me how fast I could walk across a mall.

(10 minutes and 42 seconds by the way, yeah it's impressive I know.)

You take a five.

Next, you try to lift some weights. The "meatheads" aren't paying you any mind as you start with some lightweight bench presses. Up until a beast of a human comes up to you and grunts:

"That's my bench."

Ouch, well you better get out of their way before you end up full-body in the locker, or with your face in the toilet; jocks still do that right?

Ok, so obviously lifting might not be well suited for you, yet. Looking over at the cross fitters, with their faces rose red, rag dolling their way through their workout sessions; you decide that you don't want to work that hard just yet. So you know what you do?

You walk out. Maybe tomorrow?

But then it's a cycle, you go in for the first week; over think the situation, then end up leaving unsatisfied with the taste of toilet water in your mouth, as you think to yourself "maybe the gym isn't for me."

Wrong.

Getting fit is for everyone, and the gym itself is for everyone. Sometimes you need to work your way through and around the people in order to actually get a feel for the gym, so don't give up just yet! There are just a couple of things that you don't know that might help you before you start working out.

Everyone Has to Start Somewhere

When you walk in thinking that you're not doing a workout right; don't worry. Every single other person in that gym was in your shoes at some point. Even competition level gym goers have to learn new workouts. There are a variety of ways of adjusting the body to hit specific muscle groups, and people don't just walk into the gym knowing everything about fitness. Trust, there's nothing more inspiring than watching the fittest of people struggle to figure out their posture for a new workout.

Think of fitness as a craft. It takes copious amounts of trial and errors in order to get the movements right. Even when you get the right hip to foot alignment for a squat, it still might not be in the right range of motion. It takes time, studying the workouts as well as studying your body; in order to learn how you should go about the workout. Leading to the next point.

Understand that You Have to Start Small

I see this mistake happen all of the time. People really get excited about going to the gym, and I love the enthusiasm. What I do not want to see is people not stretching, going in balls deep trying to lift four times the weight they are supposed to lift for two reps. Then, thinking they did justice to their body; they end up eating three slices of pizza (Planet Fitness, stop with the pizza!).

It doesn't work like that. Your body needs to get adjusted to a workout regiment in order for you to see the results you want. When I first started, I was this 315lb dude trying to squat 280lbs thinking that I could totally do it. Two things, I ended up with the sorest quads, and I could've injured myself Hard. I was lucky enough to not get injured, but because I was putting too much stress on my body so quickly; I stopped going to the gym. All because my ego got in the way.

Eventually, I realized that I can't go in once a week, lift super heavy and end up at the same weight I started at. So, I started to read articles, and guess what they all told me?

DROP THE EGO!

I was really serious about losing weight, so I saw it through. One day I went into the college gym; where everyone and their mother was going to (it was packed like sardines), and they all saw this 315lb dude lifting two fifteen pound dumbbells for multiple reps. I didn't expect it to hurt, the only thing that was crushed was my self-esteem at the moment, but after I did four sets of ten reps my arms started to feel sore. Not only that, but I had the energy to lift more right after. I moved from dumbbells, over to the bench, then to cables. The workout was only about thirty minutes, but I felt sore and more importantly: I felt empowered.

I knew that if I could do this, and feel like I achieved something; then this could work for any other workout I wanted to try. As I looked into more workouts (Shout out to BodyBuilder.com) I noticed a pattern. Most of their beginning programs will tell you that your rep ranges should be from 10-15 at a light weight. You get to work your muscles thoroughly, as well as keeping some energy to progress. Unless you have the genetics of an Olympic God; then you're probably not going to have the muscle needed to lift heavy. Start small; losing weight absolutely does not happen over night.

Master Yoda was once a Padawan too.

Let's make 2017 worth something to ourselves!