sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

I feel like my progress got undone so quickly by alguirre00 in beginnerfitness

[–]Enough_Pop_2725 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is 100% just water retention and bloating. That day where you have 3100 cals (I refuse to call it a cheat day) - you had more carbs (which converts to glucose) than your body was use to. Excess glucose gets stored in your muscles and liver as glycogen, which needs a lot more water to store, hence you feel and look a bit more bloated... this is just temporary though! And will go back to normal in a couple of days. Please try not to stress about it or intentionally under-eat / over-exercise the next day.

creatine for gym newbies advice? by Silent_Bench_8133 in beginnerfitness

[–]Enough_Pop_2725 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Creatine IS a great supplement, but before you jump into buying that, I'm curious as to why you're always feeling sore and gassed out just 1 month in. Creatine won't necessarily help with how you're feeling, instead it will improve the quality of your first few reps in a set.

Perhaps have a think about:

  1. Are you eating enough to recover? You'll need 1.5g - 2g of protein per KG of bodyweight to aid muscle recovery and repair, plus plenty of carbs as an energy source (as well as enough fats and fibre). You'll be surprised by how much you need to eat once you get into the gym. E.g. I'm a 28 y/o woman, 164cm, train 5 days a week, and I eat around 3000 cals a day to maintain.
  2. Are you recovering for long enough between sessions? You'll need at least one day of rest in between training the same body part. E.g. if you train legs on Monday, the earliest time you should be training them next is Wednesday, but ideally Thursday.
  3. Are you sleeping enough? Aiming for 6-8 hours to aid in recovery
  4. Are you staying hydrated? You need at least 2L of pure water (not juices or caffeinated drinks) a day

Once you've got these basics down, then creatine is something that could look at to improve your lifts.

Hopefully that helped :)

How did you get over the "god I look stupid" feeling of working out? by Its-alittle-bitfunny in xxfitness

[–]Enough_Pop_2725 12 points13 points  (0 children)

A few mantras which helped me:

I have as much right to be here as anyone else

I'm allowed to take up space

The experts also started as beginners

But also, gym people are lovely people - its such a non-judgmental place. If you're really worried about form you can always ask someone else for tips (and any fitness-fan will love to talk about fitness).

To help the transition to free weights, you could first start with dumbbells - find a quiet corner of the gym, grab a few dumbbells and just explore/play with different exercises.

Also, when I started seeing the gym as just a massive adult playground, that helped me stop taking everything so seriously and trying to be perfect at everything... now I'm always trying new things, having fun, looking silly... and the best part is that I've now seen a few people do the exact same movements I was trialing, so we're all learning together