“Gym”-timidation: How to Overcome Your Fear of the Gym

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Like most years, part of my goals for 2019 was to go to the gym. I have started out strong, and I really enjoy it! But, taking those first steps in the gym were terrifying. Let’s call that feeling “gym”-timidation.

We all see the models and gym rats on Instagram and Facebook. They have worked hard!!! And they have the bodies to show it. But trying to work out in the midst of those people who know what they’re doing is freaking SCARY!

When I went to the gym in previous years, I stuck to the classes to get my workout in. It was a lot less intimidating to be told what to do and how to do it within a group setting than to strike out on my own with all the possibility of judgment and shame hanging over my head.

That was the plan for this year as well. Just stick to the classes and call it good. But to make it work with both mine and my husband’s schedules, I couldn’t go to a class.

I would either be showing up late or leaving early every day, and that is distracting for the others in the class. I could feel the familiar prickles of fear and anxiety creeping in.

Then I remembered that my particular Vasa had a “women’s” gym! Huzzah! I’d been saved!

I skipped in there ready to begin my workout among other women with similar goals. I stopped short when I got to the doorway because even in the women’s gym, there were girls with beautifully toned and sculpted bodies that knew their way around the machines and the weights.

CRAAAAAAAAP. There went my plan.

But then I realized that everyone starts somewhere. If I let that fear or “gym”-timidation set its hooks in me, I would never get to start and I would never progress.

So I hiked up my leggings, turned my music up and went to town. I started with some basic lifts and stretches that I had remembered from previous classes, worked up my nerve to try machines and do free weights and honestly had a blast!

Yes, those girls with the bodies I’m working to get are still there, but they are (for the most part) super friendly and nice.

Yes, I still mostly don’t know what I’m doing. Yes, that fear still tries to make its way into my brain. But then the endorphins push it out and all is well in the world.

Yes, I blast my dirty music *probably* too loud and shake my booty in between sets. Yes, I’m a dork. And YES, I am having fun at the gym!

So my point is. Don’t let that gym-timidation get the best of you. Everyone has to start somewhere. If your gym doesn’t have a “women’s” gym, go in with some exercises in mind–or written down (I made a list on my phone) so you can just focus on that.

Turn your music up so you can ignore everyone and everything else and let loose my friends! You’ve got this!

*Side Note- it has never been in our budget to utilize personal trainers, but MaLee has had great success with hers! So that is another way to combat gym-timidation because you are working with someone who cares about your success and knows what they’re doing!*

-Tara

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