I started going to the gym on August 1st. Before that, I had put it off because of various excuses and I was waiting for the perfect time to start. I was worried I wouldn't be able to consistently go and so just avoided signing up. For whatever reason, the quote "Perfect is the enemy of good" really resonated with me, and I realised that the "perfect" time would never come, and I should just sign up to a gym. Going gym once a week is still better than not going at all.

I join a 24h gym, because I often find myself awake late at night doing nothing important, so I could just use that time in the gym instead.

Starting out

The first day I went with a basic workout plan from my friend (shoutout #), covering a couple upper body exercises. I then did a leg day with him. I now had a basic set of exercises to do, and I could just repeat them each week.

First month

I quickly found the gym very enjoyable and was going about 3 times a week, doing the full upper body workout and a leg day once a week. I have a massive bias against free-weights, because I was concerned about injury, so I mainly just used machines/cables. This month helped me build up the habit of going to the gym, and I was able to see some progress in my strength.

Second month

This month I began tracking my workouts on the Notes app. I recorded the date, exercises, sets/reps and left some notes about how it felt. I also had a more specific plan for each day and order to my workouts. Tracking the workouts was great because I could see my progress really well. I also began to track my diet to try and stay on a calorie deficit to lose some weight. During this month I did workout with other people, which is a good opportunity to get feedback on form and try new exercises. Unfortunately while trying a new exercise I injured my shoulder, which meant I had to take a week off the gym. I was worried I would lose my habit of going to the gym, but I was able to get back into it after a week.

Third month

I continued tracking my workouts, and eventually switched to using the 'Strong' app. I eventually stopped tracking my diet, opting to just track protein to ensure I was getting enough. I also began taking some simple supplements like multivitamins and creatine. I also went on holiday, but had a gym at the hotel so was able to keep doing some workouts, but I did probably end up eating more than I should have which is why I stopped tracking my diet.

At this point, I'd also started watching more fitness content online, which also helped me go harder in the gym. At this point I'm going to the gym 4 times a week.

Looking forward

I've now started following a push/pull/legs split, which I'm enjoying. It also means adding some new exercises to my workouts. I'm also trying to incorporate more free-weights into my workouts, but I'm in no rush.

I've now "found my weight" for most exercises and will focus on staying on weights where I can do 8-12 reps. I'm also going to try and increase the weight I'm lifting each week, but I'm not too worried about that. My focus is on form and consistency.

One thing I can improve on is diet, but for now just going to the gym trumps everything else. I still mostly go gym at night, often at 8/9PM. This is sometimes a problem because I'm tired from work, so am more prone to skipping the gym or not going as hard.