Intro

Autumn Rose Alvarez
00:00:07 – 00:00:28
Welcome to Gator Talk. My name is Autumn Alvarez. I’m a staff reporter for GGX. This week, we’re discussing how students like yourself can get acquainted in the gym, figure out what to exercise, how to exercise and learn how to build an exercise routine on your own. To help us out we have Mashouf Wellness [Center] personal trainer Sean Singh with us.

Interview

Sean Singh
00:00:29 – 00:00:35
Hi. Thanks for interviewing me. I’ve been training for about over a year, but I’ve been working out in athletics for 10 years.

Autumn Rose Alvarez
00:00:36 – 00:00:38
Nice. What first got you interested in it?

Sean Singh
00:00:39 – 00:00:54
Well, when high school started I wanted to be in sports because it’s a great way to talk to people and meet people. And then I fell in love with rowing and I wanted to be good at it. And to be good at anything, you have to work hard at it. Working out always comes with that.

Sean Singh
00:00:55 – 00:01:38
And so getting into that I realized a lot of my friends weren’t as interested in working out but I didn’t want them to fall behind because I wanted them to be there with me. And so I just got really into helping people and showing them how to do stuff. Further down the road I realized I could make a career out of that.

I wanted to be a physical therapist and personal training was just kind of the next step for getting there, obviously. I’ve always loved showing people how to do stuff properly and helping them find love for conditioning and training because I know not everyone does. And I’m kind of a weirdo in the way that I love going to the gym. I could work out all day, like I would, but it’s obviously not great to be in there too long. But yeah, just finding ways to also be around the gym more probably pushed me into training.

Autumn Rose Alvarez
00:01:39 – 00:02:05
Sports and training go hand in hand, it’s definitely kind of a middle ground for you. So getting started in the gym is a little scary at first. If you’re new, if you kind of just don’t know the equipment, don’t know what you’re doing, don’t know what exercise or what is best for you.

What do you recommend is the first place to start when it comes to someone wanting to join a gym or just get in the gym?

Sean Singh
00:02:06 – 00:02:55
I think obviously the first step is making the commitment to get there. I think showing up is part of the battle. They say it’s like half the battle is showing up. And then kind of take a walk around the gym. See where everything is, see what people are using, what people aren’t.

And if you’re going to Mashouf, we actually have some QR codes on equipment. You can scan that and it’ll show you how to do stuff. I think the hardest part is knowing what to grab at first. If you see any trainers around with their “trainer” shirts on, that aren’t training somebody, it’s a great resource to just say like, ‘Hey, how can I get started?’

But if you’re really just coming in on the first day, go out there and get on a treadmill. Just do some cardio, warm up a little, get the blood flowing. Just being in there and doing something will make you feel a bit better, a bit better about being there. The adrenaline gets going and you feel a little more confident about your surroundings.

Autumn Rose Alvarez
00:02:56 – 00:03:17
Definitely. Do you recommend that people have a game plan when they go in there? Like you said, start with cardio to warm up your body. Maybe it’s weightlifting for the first time or it’s like okay maybe I’ll do like pilates. What do you recommend?

Sean Singh
00:03:18 – 00:05:08
I think [Mashouf] has some good classes. I think taking a class is always a great way to just meet people in your community at the gym because I think people in the gym are going to be the best resource for you, like talking to them and figuring out what you want to do.

Find a goal if that’s important to you. If you want to build muscle in a certain area, then yeah go hit some weights and do some upper body workouts. I think it can be hard to figure out what the first thing you want to do is, whether you want to bench press or do some curls.

Again, talking to people, I think most people are very welcoming at the gym if you really talk to them. It may not always seem like that, [people] think it’s intimidating. Obviously, if someone’s in the middle of a set, that’s not the best person to walk up to. But I definitely think coming in there and thinking, ‘I want to do some upper body,’ there’s definitely at least two or three people that are going to give you tips on what to do. Everyone loves to talk gym in the gym. You know, It’s just how we chop up in the gym.

If it’s your very first day, I wouldn’t recommend having a super set game plan just because you’ve never worked out yet. You also want to see how your body’s going to react to different things. And just get in there and have the expectation that you’re going to spend a set amount of time there and try to work some things out that you’ll do.

A lot of people think they want to like Google stuff and I find it hard to find good information unless you’re looking at a sports journal. I know not everyone has the bandwidth to look for that and there’s a lot of dangerous stuff you can do. It can hurt yourself if you find the wrong things on Google.

I want people to talk to people around the gym and see what feels good and see if that person knows what they’re talking about. It’s a lot easier to see if someone knows what they’re talking about versus a Google article. They can all look professional but there’s a lot of stuff out there that really isn’t gym smart.

Autumn Rose Alvarez
00:05:09 – 00:05:44
Yeah, I know. I fell into the trap of Google and Instagram and then trying to figure out who has the best information, who has the right information. I was at the gym on Tuesday and I saw those QR codes for the first time. And I was like, ‘Oh, wow.’ It’s really cool that people can go with their phone and figure out how to use a machine. I think that’s really helpful to beginners. It’s beginner-friendly.

If someone has a set idea, like they want to go into weightlifting, should they start a program or routine?

Sean Singh
00:05:45 – 00:07:36
I would say if you’ve never picked up a weight at all, the first thing you do is pick up a weight and just see how that feels. I think building a program is very important, but you need to know what you want to do. You need to feel it out like, ‘’OK, if I pick up tens it looks light, but like is that light?’

If you get under it and try to do a bench press with it, it might be super light or it might be pretty heavy and there’s nothing wrong with that. Everyone starts at a different place. But I would say get loose before you work out. In terms of building a program, I think that’s when you really want to use these resources.

Talk to people that have been in the gym for a while and run on their own split, their own program they’ve set up. They’ve talked and worked with other people. It’s best to just use your resources, talk to someone you know that’s been in the gym for longer.

Don’t try to do like 15 things at once, I would say. Try to give yourself a little grace period when you’re starting a program or when you’re starting out in the gym. Everyone wants to be like, ‘All right, I’m going to be in the gym every day this week.’ And then they don’t go the second day and it becomes discouraging in their head because they’re like, ‘I told myself, I want to do this.’

And then Wednesday comes and you’re feeling bad about Tuesday. It actually keeps you from going on Wednesday. I think people need to understand it’s hard to make a lot of changes at once. Try to come in like twice a week and then try to come in three times a week and improve on that and following a program comes after that.

The program really comes when you’re coming in three or four days a week and then you can really follow that program. I find that people that want to jump into a program and go to the gym zero times a week discourage themselves because they come in once then don’t come in and then they feel bad and that carries over, you know?

You don’t want the gym to feel like a requirement. You want to make it part of your schedule and get comfortable going.

Autumn Rose Alvarez
00:07:37 – 00:08:24
And that comes to my next question because I’m the same way. I think I started going to the gym a year ago. I think it was actually a year, this month. And so I definitely got discouraged when I missed a day or I couldn’t fit it into my schedule.

As busy students, it’s kind of hard sometimes. You have your classes, you have to go to work and then you also want to take care of yourself. And so missing those days gets discouraging, it’s like ‘I’m not even taking care of myself’ or ‘I’m failing at this new thing.’

What do you think is the sweet spot for starting a routine? Do you think it’s four days a week? Do you think three days a week as a beginner? How should students approach it?

Sean Singh
00:08:25 – 00:09:57
First of all, getting that first day under your belt is huge. I think approaching it four days a week is a little aggressive. It’d be great if we’d all go to the gym every day and get one rest day a week, six days a week. Try to make it, like I said, two times a week at first, moving up to three times a week. But like slowly adding days versus ‘I’m going to make these four days’ because again, you don’t want to attach negative thoughts to that.

I really think it’s important for people to see that as something they’re building on. It’s cliche, but Rome wasn’t built in a day and your program isn’t going to be like that all of a sudden. Everything in the gym is a work in progress. Building muscle isn’t done in a week, it takes months.

Results come over time. It’s the same with just building up your routine, it comes over time. You need to slowly adjust that in. We all know how hard it is when fall starts and all our classes are every day of the week and your schedule just changes but you have to do that because there’s grades and stuff.

There’s no grade in the gym. And so it can be a little difficult to force yourself all of a sudden to have four days a week. I think building up to four days a week is ideal. I think people probably start out two days a week and I would challenge you to get into a routine of at least three times a week. That probably happens for about a month or two before people start thinking, ‘OK, I can get this fourth day in and I want to.’

Autumn Rose Alvarez
00:09:58 – 00:10:32
It’s like setting really realistic expectations for yourself and not putting on too much because as students we already have enough going on in our lives. Adding the gym, it’s great, but just starting easy and easing yourself into it is really nice. How do you think that nutrition and exercise and working out go hand in hand? I think lately there’s been such a pressure to have more protein, to have this, to have that. But also nutrition is kind of expensive. So how do you go about it?

Sean Singh
00:10:33 – 00:12:02
My approach initially was making the smallest changes in my diet throughout the day. Like I can skip this snack or I don’t need to eat this or I’ll have almond milk instead of whole milk. It’s the smallest change at first. You see small differences but you feel a bit better.

And then once you feel a little better in the gym or just in general, like walking around, you start to think, ‘OK, how can I make another change? What can I fix?’ And once you start doing that and start making more and more changes, you start hitting better numbers in the gym, you start working out better and feeling better and then it just kind of starts bouncing off each other. You want to keep fixing that.

In terms of accessibility to nutritious food that can be pretty tough. I would say, like Trader Joe’s chicken breast. Eating out is actually more expensive. I think eating unhealthy food can actually be more expensive sometimes. If you already cook all your own meals and you’re looking for more healthier options, then the price is going to go up.

I would say there’s a lot of fad diets out there too. People want to drop one macro and like, focus on protein and fats over carbs and stuff. I’m not a dietitian. I can’t tell you what’s right or what’s wrong but I would say that those fad diets are called fad diets for a reason. They don’t stick around for too long.

Autumn Rose Alvarez
00:12:03 – 00:12:26
Circling back to what we were talking about at the beginning, how the gym can be really daunting seeing people that are already seasoned in the gym and know what they’re doing and they have their muscles packed on already… How can students and how can people in general feel confident when they walk into the gym? How can they brush off any intimidation and just feel confident?

Sean Singh
00:12:27 – 00:13:05
The next time you’re at the gym or next time anyone’s at the gym, try to look around and get a feel for the fact that everyone is so internally focused on their goals in themselves that no one is comparing themselves with you. And you’re also not racing anybody, you’re not competing with the next person.

It’s not a weightlifting competition. You’re competing with yourself. You want to better yourself. And so try not to worry about the person next to you because there’s always going to be someone stronger than you at the gym and someone weaker than you, it’s just kind of how it is. We all start at different places and we all have different genetics.

Autumn Rose Alvarez
00:13:06 – 00:13:37
I’ve often fallen in that court of comparison so many times. In my case, I’m looking at girls and I’m just like, ‘Wow, how did they get there? I want to look like that one day.’ Like you said, you’re not in competition with anybody else except for yourself and you’re just trying to be there to better yourself.

What would you say to someone who may be struggling with body image, body dysmorphia and looking at themselves and not feeling good, not feeling at their best?

Sean Singh
00:13:38 – 00:14:40
The biggest thing I’d say is that you are not alone. I still struggle with my own body image. At the previous gym I worked at, a lot of the other trainers felt that way. I would say a lot of people that spend a ton of time in the gym feel exactly like that.

I want to tell those people, you’re not alone. I think dealing with that, it’s tricky and it’s challenging for everybody. Maybe try to stay away from some of the mirrors when you are working out. It is important to look at your form but looking at yourself the whole time can kind of discourage you.

I kind of explain to people, you’re not going to see those changes in a day or two days or three days. And also that number is very relative. You want to try and it’s hard. It’s easier said than done. Try to think about your workouts and how you’re doing and your performance more than your body because if your performance improves, I promise you it’s going to get better.

Autumn Rose Alvarez
00:14:41 – 00:15:11
I’ve definitely been there too, where you look at yourself and you’re just not happy and you’re like, ‘How can I change this? How can I change that?’ and you’re nitpicking yourself and pulling yourself apart a little bit. I’ve definitely had to stay away from the mirror and even in the gym. Even though I wanted to see my form, it’s better that I just stay away and I focus on how I feel.

Is there any last piece of advice that you want to give gym beginners out there?

Sean Singh
00:15:12 – 00:15:47
I would say just walk in with an open mind, make the commitment to show up first. That’s huge. Getting in there is really big. If you go into the gym, if you force yourself to go in the gym like twice in a week and you have no clue what you want to do, but you’ve made it there and you’re struggling to find stuff but you do something, that’s an accomplishment.

You’ve made it to the gym and you spent some time there. That’s huge. So I think people commonly want to just be at the top of the ladder but there’s steps to this. So just be patient with yourself.

Autumn Rose Alvarez
00:15:48
It’s going to take time.

Sean Singh
00:15:49
Definitely.

Autumn Rose Alvarez
00:15:50 – 00:15:53
Awesome. Well, thank you so much Sean, I appreciate your time.

Outro

Autumn Rose Alvarez
00:15:54 – 00:16:06
I’m Autumn Alvarez reporting for GGX. Thank you for listening and stay tuned for more episodes.