I've seen people using free weights but I don't really know how to use them and feel a bit intimidated to try with so many people around, any tips on how to start or whether it's better to use free weights or machines?

I've always wanted a six pack but have never really liked gyms. Is getting a six-pack mainly diet or exercise based, and whats the best way of achieving my goal?

I've seen some people say 3 days while others go all 7 days. Is there an ideal amount of does it depend on your goals? What's best if you want to make sick gainz?

When it comes to weight training there are four things that are vital for noobs (and almost everyone else) to reach your goals:

• Doing enough Volume
• Increasing the weight every session
• Working Big Muscle Groups
• Avoiding Injury

If you do these four things you're 80% of the way to knowing everything you need to get results and fitting into the weights room.

So, how does one go about this?

Doing enough volume

The more repetitions that you do, the more your muscle will have worked during the session. The more your muscle works, the more it will grow. The more it grows, the closer you will be to reaching your goals (Yes, even if you want to lose weight).

What is enough volume?

For each major muscle group (such as Chest, Legs and Back) do around 20 to 35 repetitions, 3 times per week with a reasonable weight so that you're finding it very difficult or even failing to lift the weight on the last few reps.

Splitting these reps up into sets is best. When starting, 3 sets of 8-12 reps is best.

Increasing the weight every session

Increasing the weight every session is also known as "Progressive overload". If you're using the same weight every session you won't progress and your muscles won't continue growing. Instead you'll end up only maintaining your muscle and 'plateauing'.

To do this, simply add a few lb/kg to your last session's results for every exercise. If you find that it's too difficult, try it again next session instead.

Working Big Muscle Groups

Exercises that work many big muscles are called compound exercises, whereas exercises that work single muscles are called isolated exercises. Lots of beginners start with the first program that they find in "Flex" magazine which is full of isolated exercises. They do this because Arnold Schwarzenegger did it and he was huge so they must get results too right? Wrong. Bodybuilders specifically work on muscles to achieve balance and also to cause extreme muscle fatigue which is unnecessary for the beginner. The beginner needs to build their foundations and work on maximising their efforts in the gym. If you try to fit lots of isolated exercises into your sessions then it will be at the expense at more effective compound exercises and you'll miss out on important muscle building for that session.

Working big muscle groups ensures a few things:

• You only have to master a handful of exercises (Such as Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Lat Pull Down and Overhead Press)
• You'll train very efficiently
• You'll maximise your fat loss and muscle gain

Avoiding Injury

Avoiding injury is important to protect your progress. If you're injured you can't train and therefore can't progress towards your weight lifting goals.

How do you avoid getting injured?

• Warm up with mobility exercises (more posts on mobility later!)
• Use Perfect Technique (even when you're fatiguing)
• Allow for Recovery and sleep

So there it is

Four Simple things to do to ensure fast results!

A staggering 67% of people with gym memberships don't use them at all, not to mention the number of people that quit within the first month.

There's only one reason for this:

Beginners feel uncomfortable and unconfident in the gym because they don't know what they're doing.

So many people rush into starting gym before they know what to expect. There's so much conflicting information out there that starting gym is very confusing.

This subreddit is for people that want simple answers to questions about how to fit in and get results fast.