How do you deal with insecurity in the gym?
I read a quote recently and wanted to share my story on how lost I felt when I started going to the gym..
“I always feel really insecure because everyone around me knows what they are doing and when I go to the gym sometimes it takes me a while to get into the sense of things so I will just wander around about and I always feel like I look really stupid doing that”
The reality is that most people at the gym only care about what they are doing. I’ve always found the gym environment funny. You’d think because there are so many people going to the same place to improve their health & fitness that they would be more social. Not at all. If you stop to take a look at what others are doing it’s usually something on their phone anyways.
I personally think it’s really cool for someone to go to the gym and try to improve themselves, even if they don’t know what they’re doing. Everyone starts somewhere after all.
The first exposure I had in a gym was when I was in grade 9. I wasn’t sure what sport I wanted to play, so I thought if I worked out I would be stronger and be in a better shape when I chose my sport. What I didn’t expect is that I would continue going to the gym and not focus on sports to the same capacity as I originally thought. The memories are so clear how it all went down. The vibe of the high school gym was ‘walk in a figure it out yourself’. There was only one rule. If you want to workout with weights, you had to do 5–10 minutes cardio first. Your options were; bike, treadmill or rowing machine.
I use to just walk around, lift stuff and typically stick to the machines because they were easier to understand. I remember being in grade 9 and trying to do my first bench press. The weight wasn’t an issue as much as the balance was! I was so wobbly! For a little while I had to stick to the machine version so my arms wouldn’t go crazy. Would I run a client through the same progression? No, but I was just a kid figuring stuff out.
After some time I finally got promoted. One gym teacher (Mr. King — who would call everyone ‘big guy’) eventually saw that I was going 5x per week and talked to me about. Asked what I was doing, my goals, etc. I told him I enjoyed it but really had no idea what I was doing. He said that he can help me learn some new exercises, but he doesn’t have the time to teach me them himself.
So he leant me a book of the most traditional exercises you can imagine. Each category was broken down by major muscle groups and had 2–5 picture examples of how to work it out. I had a week or two to photo copy as much of the book as I wanted, then I had to return it. Do I still have the copies? Absolutely, that thing holds more sentimental value than anything else.
I wouldn’t have been given the support had I not have tried things myself for a while. I remember being so encouraged that the grade 12’s would give me pointers. They realized I had no idea what I was doing, but just wanted to help a clueless kid out.
Ultimately it was instances like this that helped me stay consistent when I knew nothing. So if you feel like you know nothing — just find a way to have fun with it! I guarantee people are way more preoccupied with themselves to judge you anyways.
What’s the first ‘gym exercise’ you remember trying? Mine was probably Bicep Curls or Bench Press. Comment below! 👇
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