Learn Turkish: İlk seanstan sonra omuz egzersizlerine başlamakta geciktik. - We delayed starting the shoulder exercises after the first session.

In Turkish, the verb gecikmek (to be late / to delay) requires the locative case (-dA / -tA) when expressing the action you are late in doing. To say "delayed starting" or "late in starting", you combine the standard infinitive -mAk with the locative case, resulting in başlamakta. It does not take the accusative case, even though the English translation "delayed starting" might make it feel like a direct object.

Why does omuz egzersizleri have the dative suffix -ne attached to it?

The verb başlamak (to start) always governs the dative case (-a or -e) for the thing being started. Because omuz egzersizleri is a noun compound ending in a possessive suffix (-i), you must use the buffer letter -n- before adding the dative -e, which gives us egzersizlerine.

The translation says "we delayed", but doesn't gecikmek usually mean "to be late"?

Yes, gecikmek literally means "to be late" or "to fall behind schedule". However, when you pair it with an action using -mAktA (e.g., başlamakta geciktik - literally "we were late in starting"), the most natural English translation is often "we delayed starting". It implies the action was put off or happened later than intended.