I know that this is what I thought.
I probably didn’t diagnose it as scared. I probably didn’t think about it all that much. I just didn’t think I belonged there. The gym wasn’t for me. I’d not fit it. The gym was for gym bunnies. The gym was a place where people who were super fit hung out.
I also knew that I needed to address my health & fitness. I didn’t want to continue down the path I had found myself on. I wanted to feel well.
Did that mean that I had to go to the gym?
Absolutely not. There’s no one way to embrace & prioritise your wellness. There’s no one diet, there’s no one method of moving your body. There’s no superior method.
BUT, like many, I had a gym membership that I had been paying lip service to. I needed to find the type of movement that I ENJOYED. << that is the best fit methodology for a positive impact on your health & wellness.
You need to find something;
1️⃣ you enjoy
2️⃣ you can incorporate into your life
3️⃣ you can and want to do consistently
It doesn’t have to just be one thing either. It can be a cacophony of things AND it might start as one thing and move to something else, develop & evolve.
Anyway, back to the topic in hand. THE GYM. If I was truly honest with myself, because I couldn’t see myself as being the assumption I had of what people went to the gym where like YES I probably was scared of the gym. Scared I’d stand out like a sore thumb, scared I’d be judged because I had no idea what I was doing, scared that I would mess up, scared that I was in an enviroment that I didn’t really feel comfortable in.
So, that’s interesting.
The majority of all those scareds were about what other people would think. I was stopping myself from trying something because of a scenario I’d imagined in my head, being judged by people that I’d slapped all together in a stereotypical avatar that I had created.
The funny thing is that we worry about being watched & judged ~ the reality is that the majority of people within ANY gym environment is that people are more interested in what they are doing rather than what you are doing. A couple of my favourite places to people watch are a coffee shop or an airport. Neither of these places provide me with the scareds that I am going to be judged, why am I letting the gym have that narrative? Most people are not people watching in the gym, most people are people watching in the airport.
Overcoming the I don’t know what I’m doing is one that’s not so much based on subjective worries. It doesn’t have such deep narratives attached to it that you’ve made up. Everyone is a beginner at the beginning. You don’t start as an expert at anything. AND every person in that gym had their first time one time. Your best way to navigate it is to make sure you have an induction at the gym. Get shown round. Get shown how the different machines work within the gym. You could also book a few sessions with a personal trainer to make sure you are getting your technique right.
Worried you won’t fit in? There’s different types of gyms, with different demo graphs, different vibes. Find a gym that suits you. There’s a likelihood that there’s a local gym that works for you.
If the gym is niggling at you as an option that might be fun for you then you absolutely should explore it. Chances are it’s nowhere near as scary as you think. Remember;
➡️ people in gyms are more worried about their workout than what you’re doing.
➡️ you don’t resist the airport because people watch there.
➡️ everyone starts as a beginner
➡️ find the right gym for you.
➡️ get an induction and ask for help.
Don’t let the fear of the unknown stop it becoming something that becomes known.
