This post is something a little different, not a review for a change, but something more personal/lifestyle related!
For years I have avoided going to the gym, there was a time at university when I had membership for a year and I think I went three or four times. Definitely not worth the money I paid for it, and as it was a up front lump sum payment so I didn’t even feel bad about seeing it leave my bank account each month. While most of it was just pure laziness there was another side of not wanting to go to the gym…
…the fear of the gym…
I know this sounds silly, but I also know a lot of other people feel the same way. My ideal gym would be at home, on my own, when no else was around. I have tried apps on my phone, which got used for about a week then forgotten. I’ve even got zumba DVDs and the game for the Nintendo Wii, these worked well for a short period of time, until other events got in the way or I came up with excuses to not do it.
Gyms always make me feel uncomfortable, I have this constant feeling of being watched and judged for what I am doing. Anyone I tell this too comes back with “Thats not true”, but that doesn’t really help. Even if I have someone watching over my shoulder at work, I completely lose the ability to type or open files while feeling very self-conscious. I also know a lot of other people who spend a lot of time talking about everyone they’ve seen at the gym, so we come right back around to that feeling of being watched and judged.
So I ignored the whole gym/work out thing until very recently where I decided it could be worth giving it another go. My partner also suggested it could be something fun we could do together, something which I agreed with. I spend most of my day at work sat down, so doing some exercise is naturally going to have its benefits!
…Attempting to get over it…step by step…
I’ve found that its been a case of forcing myself to go and slowly, piece by piece of equipment, get used to going and feeling comfortable. I try to go three times a week and for the first two weeks I did have to convince myself that leaving the changing room was a good idea, real prep-talk “you can do this” type thing. I also spent these two weeks only on the indoor bikes, in a nice comfort zone, getting used to the environment.
I now take part in a gym class and know a few of the people who go, (including my partner and some work friends) which I find helps greatly and is probably my biggest push to actually going, but I do want to feel much more confident on my own. I also dread having pushy gym instructors (which luckily I don’t) as I know that if they get pushy I’ll just get stubborn and stop or will randomly start balling my eyes out.
…Still not 100% yet…
Even today, five weeks after joining, I still don’t feel completely comfortable and I know I won’t for a while. After doing a cardio session, I got as far as sitting on the leg press before realising I wasn’t totally sure of what I was doing so left straight away and came back home to finish writing this.
So for anyone else who feels the same I’d recommend trying a few things:
- Take it slow – some of my gym sessions have literally been 30mins – small but frequent to get used to being there.
- Go around the same time – I use my gym at work and have started to notice that the same people are usually there at the same time, this is then a matter of getting used to being around these people.
- Go with friends – lets be honest, a friendly face always helps and one of them will frequently come to my desk on his way to the gym, so I have no excuse but to go too.
- Try a class, with someone you know – I find there is less of the “everyone is watching me” feeling as generally, they are actually all watching the instructor instead!
Of course everyone is different, so what works for me may not work for someone else and I’m sure there will be a few people reading this who won’t understand what the problem is at all! Hopefully though, this may at least resonate with someone else! If anyone has any good comments about getting over their personal fears of gyms, let me know in the comments section below!
C.A.B 