A new guy’s joined our gym after 4 years off. He’s motivated but sore after his first session. I’d love to help keep him encouraged without overdoing it. Any tips for supporting someone new—especially with motivation, soreness, or sticking with it? What helped you early on?
StaneC
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He was in gym before, so he knows his ‘sourness’ . If he is motivated then he doesn’t need any encouragement, but if you have a small talk with him before, you sure can ask him how he is doing.😃
trimo2020
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things can feel overwhelming and become discouraging and he loses motivation. He's re-entering a lifestyle again, the gains will come, the frustrations will compile... don't worry too much about the gains or routine. just continue being a friend and or grab a mea together and chat about life. the lifestyle isn't about measuring where you must get to in the gym, it's just about showing up regularly, be a good friend and walk with him till it becomes routine to show up. the rest will follow easily
Carphill007
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Its easy to overtrain early on. I’d introduce him to periodisation and help him choose a lower volume workout with 3 days between muscle groups, only 2 working sets per movement and only two movements per muscle to start. I’d start him at 3 RIR and get his feedback on recovery to tweak as necessary. I’d build the volume slowly session by session, always aiming to stay below MRV.
10 comments
nothing wrong doing 3 x 10 barbell bench presses with just the bar. or do barbell squats instead of more complicated things like split squats.
if these felt easy, add weight NEXT session. even if he could easily bench 200lbs 4 years ago, its been 4 years.
also keep volume light. 3 sets for each exer is good. no need to go 5 x 15s or to failure or dropsets for now.