Your first gym visit can be intimidating, but a full body workout can be yours easily and with a bare minimum of gym equipment – ideal if you are looking to get fit in 2020. All of these 5 exercises can be done with a barbell and most can be done with dumbbells if you find the idea of storing an Olympic bar in our shed a bit too much. Together they will work everywhere, giving you a full body workout without a single bit of tricky jargon or any trending fitness fads. These are tried and trusted.  

While machines can be great tools to concentrate on each muscle group, if you want to effectively build muscle mass and also shed fat, the best way to go is to do compound exercises with free weights, be that dumbbells (the small ones which you can easily buy and use at home) or barbells (the big ones) – although please note that the deadlift in particular is ideally performed with a barbell. 

The Big Five compound exercises activate a range of muscles and are an excellent way to build strength and muscle mass, at the same time. Here, we'll go through these Big Five, simple exercises that you should do to get ripped soon. 

There are three key elements to effectively gain lean muscle mass: rigorous exercising, a healthy diet and rest. If you skip either if these, you might see slower muscle development and or even worse, injure yourself in the process.

Bulking is a popular word among bodybuilders, it means putting on weight so your body can transform your carb and fat reserves into muscle mass. This definitely doesn't mean you can gorge yourself on pizza and pasta all day long, though.

Once you found your maintenance calorie level (if you have an office desk-based job and you are an average built male, that's around 2400 calories per day), eat 5-700 more calories on top of that, mainly more protein and good carbs. That should be plenty to fuel your body to gain more muscle (and not fat).

Supplement-wise, you only really need two: protein powder and creatine. The former will help in the muscle repair process and latter will boost performance. Both are safe to use and there is a wide variety of offerings so you can choose a flavour you prefer.

With creatine, we recommend you get the unflavoured variety because it mixes well with any liquid and you only need a small amount to keep your creatine levels saturated. This means you can mix your 3-5 grams of creatine with anything in the morning (water, juice, even coffee) without having to worry about an aftertaste.

Before you start doing any exercises, make sure you're all warmed up. Do 5-10 minutes of cardio plus a set or two of each exercise with smaller weights, to wake your muscles up. 

Important: if you are new to weight lifting, start even the 'proper' lifting with smaller weights you can easily manage and work your way up slowly, over a period of days, weeks or even months. No need to rush into an injury, you won't impress anybody with pulling your back doing 120 kilo deadlifts. Be sensible and if you are ever in doubt, just ask. There are plenty of PTs lingering around in any commercial gym and also, most of the buff people in gyms are more than happy to give you unsolicited advice.

You might also need to consider looking at the best ways to lose weight if you have not exercised for years.