push to git remote repo using a local copy

Given an existing private remote repository, to which I have access to, which contains only a README.md and a .gitingore file. Lets call this repo "myRepo".

Locally on my machine, I created a folder "myRepo", added some files to it and want to push everything to the remote "myRepo".

I am aware of the git init command. I would probably have to do git remote add "url_to_myRepo" then. Is this the right way to go?

And, my local folder contains a whole bunch of files which I do not want to be tracked by git. Do I have to create a .gitignore file before I do git init, or can I do it also afterwards?

Running git init just creates a local repository directory. Then as @jim-redmond advised you should run git remote add origin $URL, then git pull to get your local repository synced with the remote.
Then, you then need to git add files. You can add individual files explicitly with that command, but if you are going to add directories, you should probably have the .gitignore file created first. Then of course you need to git commit to have the files actually saved into the repository. Then you can run git push to save your committed files to the remote repository.

You need to do git remote add origin <url_of_the_repo>, and then you can do git push origin to push local changes to the remote repo.

If you don't want to track certain files in your local folder, list them in .gitignore. This way, git will ignore them and won't bother you that you have uncommitted changes.

EDIT: You need to commit your changes first using the git add / git commit commands.