A new member's first few weeks on gym equipment are often spent guessing — adjusting a seat to the wrong height, using a machine for the wrong muscle group entirely, or avoiding a piece of equipment altogether out of uncertainty.
Skipping the seat and position adjustment
Nearly every machine has an adjustable seat or position built in for a reason. Skipping that step is the single most common cause of a machine feeling "wrong" or ineffective for a specific person's body.
Chasing weight before form
Adding load before movement quality is solid is how minor strain becomes a real injury. A lighter weight with full, controlled range of motion beats a heavier weight with a shortened, rushed one.
Avoiding free weights out of unfamiliarity
Machines feel safer to a beginner because the movement path is fixed, which often means free weights — dumbbells, barbells — get avoided entirely, even though they're frequently a better long-term investment for real strength.
Most of this is solved by a trainer walking a new member through equipment once, properly, in the first week — not by the member figuring it out alone through trial and error.