How to Start Working Out as a Hobby

So You Hate the Gym?

Do you hate the idea of working out or going to the gym? And when it comes to the gym, maybe you’re not all that interested in changing your body for looks. Maybe for health, maybe. But the idea of (1) going to the gym, (2) feeling pressure to change your body, and (3) being around a bunch of hot, jacked people — that sounds like a nightmare to you. Right? And that makes sense. But just because they’re jacked doesn’t meant they’re hot. Just kidding. 😋

In all seriousness though, the truth is that not everyone who is a regular at the gym goes there to be jacked, or to feel hot, or to do anything involving their appearance.

Most people know that going to the gym is a “healthy” thing to do, but there are some people who genuinely do not understand how certain people could be excited to go to the gym. And let me say, it doesn’t always start out that way— being excited for the gym, but its something that can happen pretty quickly by approaching fitness as a hobby, instead of a place to change your body.

That’s what we’re going to cover today; how to turn fitness and gym’ing into a hobby - for fun, for health, for community.

Think of the Gym as a Recreational Sport

Think of going to the gym the way a 10 year old gets excited to play soccer.

Kids are not naturally excited to burn calories and are not thinking about changing their bodies when they exercise. They’re thinking about their sport and their fitness differently.

They’re excited to play their sport, see their teammates, and they get excited when they make some progress over time.

Ideally, once you find your thing(s) that you enjoy at the gym, then you can lean into those things without any pressure to change your body. When you enjoy what you do, you stay relatively consistent with time. And this consistency will build up those healthy habits that most people strive for.

Not Everyone Is Focused on Their Body At the Gym

It will take time for you to feel comfortable at the gym but the only way you’re going to actually see things (the gym/fitness) differently is once you start get in and go, repetitively. You have to see for yourself. You’ll start to get excited about certain movements. You’ll start to feel the energy boost. You’ll start seeing the same people. And you’ll start seeing lots of different types of people; not just the jacked & hot people, but everyone else who is there for all the other reasons, that maybe you can relate more to.

Many people fear feeling “out of place.” But the truth is, there are all kinds of people with all kinds of goals at the gym. There is no expectation to change your body.

What you’ll find is that more than half of the people going to the gym aren’t talking about their physique much at all.

Most people are usually talking about:

• the skills they’re working on at the gym

• the PR they’re trying to hit today

• the progress they’re making with their lifts

• the cues they’re trying to work on

• the changes they’re feeling in their daily life from it

• and life / music / non-gym related things too!

Physique can definitely be a part of the conversation, but its not everyone’s focus and its not an expectation for that to ever be the case for you either. 🫶

There are many other goals and focuses that you can work on at the gym. Let’s talk about ‘em!

Now, To Make the Gym your Hobby

There are sooo many different ways that you can go about the gym.

What we would recommend is trying different styles of training and exercises each month, with a progressive plan in mind. Essentially, the goal is to open yourself up to things you may not know you would enjoy until you give them a good go.

Here’s how we would structure it.

Finding the Right Styles of Lifting

There are 5 different styles of training we recommend you starting out with, and trying. You can try them on your own as you please, or you could even try each workout style out for 2-4 weeks, and then progress into the next style.

Doing it this way will help to give you an idea of what it feels like to progress through workouts and see what you really like. Sometimes it takes multiple sessions to get an idea of what its really all about.

1️⃣ Muscular endurance:

Start here to help condition your muscles and joints. The goal is to feel challenged around 12-20 reps into the exercise.

2️⃣ Circuit training:

The goal then continues with high rep work, but with 3-4 exercises per circuit. This starts to introduce some cardio to the factor.

3️⃣ Hypertrophy:

The goal is to now challenge yourself by increasing the weight instead of reps. You’ll work with challenging weight for 8-12 reps. Going up in weight, once you get up to 12 reps.

4️⃣ Hypertrophy supersets:

The goal is going to be the same as the previous month, but now you’re pairing two opposing muscle groups together as a superset instead of doing single sets. This brings a little bit of that “circuit” feel to the mix.

5️⃣ Strength training:

Now the goal is to lower the reps down to around 5-8 and continue to challenge how much weight you’re able to lift with good form. If you’re able to work up to 8 reps, then increase the weight again. This is where people tend to enjoy hitting PR’s during sessions. If this is something you enjoy, you can also look into powerlifting or max strength training.

After you find the styles that you like, you can choose whether you want to stick with one style of lifting, or incorporate a combo of these styles into your routine.

You can also choose to continue exploring other styles of lifting as well, if none of these do it for you! There are lots of options beyond this, but these 5 give you a really good start and do so progressively and safely.

Finding Exercises You Like

This is a wholeeeeeeeeee other part of it. Sometimes its not just the style of lifting, its the exercises themselves that can be a little more fun than you want to admit. Especially as you start to see what your body is capable of and how progress works from week to week.

Meaning, you might not necessarily care about what style of training you’re doing, you just like to challenge yourself with specific exercises. For me, I always love a bench press, push-up, RDL, or pull-up variation. These are the things that I look forward to. But sometimes, I also just like to lift heavy and challenge myself with the weight regardless of the exercise. I always love an upper body day, and look forward to it. These are things that you will start to learn about yourself if you let yourself experiment with it.

For you, it doesn’t have to be an upper body day that you’re looking forward to. Maybe you’re looking forward to practicing handstands and shoulder strength. Maybe you’re looking forward to messing around on the TRX, or with the resistance bands, or with the smith machine, or barbells.

There are so many tools and toys in the gym that can genuinely be a good time to try.

Here are some exercise “styles” that you can also look into. Don’t limit yourself to one category; definitely try out a few different things from multiple, or all of the categories.

Exercise categories:

• Calisthenics (ie: pull-ups, push-ups, pistol squats)

• Powerlifting (ie: safety bar squats, pin press, deficit deads)

• Bodybuilding (ie: seated leg extensions, skull crushers, Arnold press)

• Strongman (ie: atlas stone, tire flip, log clean & press)

• Olympic weightlifting (ie: snatch, clean & jerk, overhead squat)

• Plyometrics (ie: skaters, box jumps, squat jumps)

And then there are also just tons of options for equipment that you can look into using, too.

For example:

• TRX

• BOSU ball

• Kettlebells

• Barbells

• Smith machine

• Dumbbells

• Exercise balls

• Medicine / slam balls

• Cables

• Machines

• Battleropes

• Pull-up bar

• Power rack

• Resistance bands

These are the basics at most gyms that you can get yourself familiar with! Look into exercises that you can try, using equipment that you already know is available to you.

Finding The Right Styles of Cardio

Having a balance of strength training and cardio is good for your heart and bones. We want to encourage you to find some things you like for each.

For cardio, you can look into a few different things:

• Jogging

• Hiking

• Swimming

• Incline walks

• Sprints

• Metcon

• HIIT circuits

• Kick boxing

• Dance class

• Fitness classes (OT, Barry’s, etc)

There are also options for equipment that you can utilize as well:

• Treadmill

• Stairmaster

• Eliptical

• Bike

• Jump rope

• Rowing machine

Look into the things that might interest you and try a few of these as well! Same with your lifting, take note of what you like and start to incorporate it slowly.

With both, you’ll eventually, and more than likely naturally start to progress with your lifts and your cardio.

the gym Community FEELS LIKE a TEAM

While the gym can feel intimidating at first, you’ll also start to slowly get to know people. Friendly waves, then conversations, and eventually you’ll start to have your community of people at the gym. Just like other sports or hobbies.

If you don’t have a community, or a hobby, then signing up for the gym can give you two-for-one!

Once you have your people/team, it makes it hard not to show up.

FINAL NOTES

Thinking of going to the gym as a way to work on your physique isn’t a bad thing.

But taking your focus away from physique and focusing on the fun of it can be the catalyst for healthy change & joy in your life, without any extra pressure of changing your body.