Fearing The Gym

I read a number of blogs about many peoples first experiences with the gym, or from the perspective of someone who has lived a unhealthy lifestyle and is trying to find a new way.

Many of these are the fears they have – that people are looking down on them because of how they look, how quickly they exhaust themselves to others, or their perceived weaknesses.

As a 15 + year gym vet I will let you onto a little secret:

No one cares…

Or if someone looks down on you because you have a 50 inch waist, while they have defined abs.

Or that you have to walk the treadmill because you can’t manage a gentle jog.

Or you can only bench 10kg for 12 reps and they can bench 100kg for 5 reps.

Then those people are losers pure and simple for spending their time looking down on others.  Rememeber the saying

“The wolf does not care of the opinion of the sheep”

Just keep telling yourself that you are the wolf.

…But anyway, I can assure you those people are the minority.

Most people are worrying why they gain 2 lbs or why they feel weaker than last week or many other personal concerns.

I always remember my first day in the gym.  I was on the shoulder press machine doing 10 reps of 10kg lifts for 1 set.  When I got off the guy after put 30kg and started doing many sets.

“Oh no…” I feebly thought, “how pathetic am I, I will never be that strong…”

3 months later I was doing the same weight for 3 sets for 15 reps.  I don’t use the shoulder press machine anymore because I got to a point where I could stack the whole damn thing and got bored and switched to dumb bells.

I have many experiences of where I thought I would never be that good ranging from body weight to bag work, where I thought I could never do it.  But with everything I have persisted with I have been able to do it.

The guy lifting 30kg probably didn’t have a second thought when he followed me doing.  And now when I  load up a bar, I don’t think anything of it – I don’t feel superior if the guy is lifting 10kg or shame, if he lifts 100kg.

Going back to that day 15 years ago I could have let it put me off and quit, but I persisted and saw gradually progression.

Maybe you read this today after having your first gym session.  You started running and the treadmill and had to switch it to a slow walking pace after a minute as you gasped for air.

You imagine a shame, everyone looking at you laughing – but it’s either imaginary or from the minds of the sheep.

You think about quitting, but you won’t because next time you will run for 1 minute 30 seconds and after that two minutes and so on, until it gets easy and you increase the speed or the gradient and keep finding ways to push yourself that extra step.

You may feel fat, out of shape of weak now – but that will not be your future, as long as you don’t fear the gym.