8 Simple Weight Lifting Tips For Beginners

I think we can all agree, weight lifting can feel pretty intimidating as a beginner. A big part of this is that up until recently, the boys have been allowed to believe that weight lifting was “their thing.”

If you walk in to almost any gym, the free weights section is usually heavily dominated by men. But trust me when I tell you, it is NOT theirs, and you belong there just as much as any one of them.

Lifting Is Good For Every Body

Lifting is a way of connecting with your body that sharpens your mind-muscle connection and allows you to isolate your muscle expenditure more than almost any other exercise.

What does that mean?

It means it feels amazing and empowering and allows for a huge amount of control when it comes to building the body you want to live in. Therefore, lifting is for EVERYONE. Yes, you too! But I completely understand that because of all the testosterone hanging around that part of the gym, it can feel intimidating to break into it.

So, if you are a beginner to weight lifting and you’re not quite sure where to start, here are some tips to help get your foot in the door. And once you’re in there, I promise, you’ll start feeling right at home in no time.

Figure out when you can have the place to yourself

First things first, find out when the gym is relatively empty. This doesn’t have to be your plan forever, just for now while you’re building your relationship with the gym and building confidence in yourself.

Even though I can guarantee that even in a gym full of people, no one cares about you as much as you think they do, I completely understand that it feels much less intimidating to be a beginner at something when you’re sure no one is watching.

So, one of the best things you can do for the first few weeks is to find out when the down times are at your gym and make it a point to make that your gym-time for a while.

One really easy way to figure this out is to open the Google Maps app on your phone, and go to your gym’s page. There is a graphic just below their basic info that shows you what their typical attendance is by hour and day! It’s not a precise science but it’s certainly a great place to start to make sure you’re not showing up at peak bro-time.

Don’t be afraid to watch a million weight lifting videos

YouTube is truly an endlessly helpful resource. You can start by watching videos about what exercises target which muscles. Then you can watch videos of people doing those exercises and talking about what it should feel like in your body.

You can even spend some time watching specifically what NOT to do if you’re worried about giving yourself away as a beginner—even though, again, no one at the gym is watching you or judging you. They’re too busy worrying that everyone is looking at THEM!

When I was just starting out lifting, I watched a ton of Whitney Simmons’ videos. I still do sometimes!

You can even bring the videos with you and review them while you’re at the gym. Everyone is on and off their phones while they’re gymming—trying to find the perfect song, reviewing their workout plan, or just taking a breather and looking at Insta.

Long story short, if you’re sitting at a machine, or even if you want to take a beat in the cardio section to watch a video, no one will think twice about it. So feel free to bring your “trainer” with you in your pocket.

Go in with a plan

Walking in to the gym and seeing the huge array of different equipment can be super overwhelming.

For months I would walk in to my gym with every intention of bucking up and making “today” the day I started lifting, but when I got there I would look around and think “Where would I even start, I guess I’ll just stick to what I know—the treadmill.”

I highly recommend that while you’re prepping yourself by watching YouTube videos, you make yourself a short list of exercises that you plan to do and what machines or equipment they use.

That way, when you arrive at the gym, you know exactly where you’re going and what you’re doing.

The other bonus of having a plan is that you’ll know when you’re done. There is no better feeling than knowing definitively the moment that you’ve finished what you came to do and now you get to go home feeling accomplished and proud. 

Give yourself permission to be a beginner and not know everything today

It’s okay to master just a few machines or exercises at a time! You don’t have to learn the whole gym in one week!

After you feel super comfortable just showing up to the gym and owning your space with a few new exercises, you can always branch out and add in one or two new ones. Or! You can even learn an entirely new set of exercises if you want to really shake it up and expand your repertoire.

Either way, in the beginning, the most important thing is to focus on building a relationship with the gym. Just like with any relationship, you don’t want to go too hard too fast. Just take it slow and be consistent. Build up your confidence and start learning what you do and don’t enjoy and make adjustments from there.

Don’t start too heavy

If you have to err on one side or the other, it’s much better to be on the side of lifting “too light.”

In reality, correct form is half the battle for making your workouts effective—especially in the beginning. But if you hurt yourself by trying to start too heavy you will A. be out for a few days if not longer and B. be discouraged from jumping back into it.

Starting light and really working on your mind to muscle connection is what will allow you to make the most of every single workout and is what makes the experience begin to feel so, dare I say, meditative, over time.

If it hurts—stop

This may seem obvious but let’s be honest, we can be proud. Sometimes it’s hard to slow your roll due to an unplanned injury. But I’m here to remind you, if you can feel that something is off, it’s never worth it to “push through.”

Stop, and make a mental note of the exercise you’re doing and where you feel the pain, and Google it later. I promise you will find 100 people on the internet who have had exactly the same experience, and a few particularly smart ones will be able to tell you how to tweak your form etc. for next time.

Also, if it hurts a little while you’re performing the exercise, I promise it will hurt a LOT tomorrow—so it’s just not worth it. Always remind yourself that this is a long-term journey. You have your entire life to try that exercise again and nail it without pain.

Create your own ambience with music

Buy some wireless headphones! There is an unspoken rule amongst gym-goers that if someone is wearing headphones (especially an over-the-ear pair), that they don’t want to be talked to, looked at, or otherwise engaged with.

Plus, as soon as you put those headphones on with your favorite pump-up jams going, you will feel like you’re in your own little world. It makes it infinitely easier to stay centered and let everyone else just disappear into the background so you can focus on you.

This is the pair I use and I highly recommend them! They’re noise-cancelling, comfy, and being wireless is an absolute must so that you’re not having to worry about navigating around a cord on top of everything else you’re thinking about. 

Don’t rush the process

The final tip: be patient with yourself.

Know that every single person you see in the gym, or even the ones on YouTube that you’re now learning from, they were all beginners at one point. They all had a Day 1.

The only difference between you and them is that they’ve had more days between their Day 1 and today to PRACTICE. That’s really all this is.

In 100 days, you’ll have been lifting for 100 days.

But that can’t be true unless you are brave and get started today.

You can do it!