How to Fight Gym Anxiety (100% Money Back Guarantee)
When you wanna start working out, a lot of people say that the hardest part is actually getting there. “Once you’ve gotten to the gym, you’ve done 90% of the work! 🤓”
Like, yeah, but what’s actually going to keep you coming back? More specifically, what are some of the common deterrents that might scare you off for good? I probably had 4, maybe 5 total “I’m gonna commit to the gym fr this time” phases until it actually stuck about a year ago. Here are some of the biggest stressors that you might be facing that could be holding you back from allowing your workout environment to be a total safe space!
1. “Everybody is watching me!”
I won’t even lie, I still struggle with this one a bit. Especially in a gym at a large, populous, public university, there are congregations of people at every corner, and especially if you’re new or maintain some sort of social anxiety like I do, it’s quite difficult to shake the feeling that they’re watching your every move. You kind of need to just double down towards the beginning, and really try to convince yourself that, while you are certainly in somebody else’s line of sight, everybody is at the gym for (approximately) the same reason. The TikTok videos you see of people walking around with microphones and fake plates on barbells and Sony A7 cameras? Those people got no lives anyway. Kidding but it’s your workout! Nobody else’s! If you need to find a private corner or go with friends to alleviate some of that stress, that’s always a good place to start. Cultivating your ideal workout environment is one of the most important steps that cannot be ignored if you want to enjoy it!
2. “Those people look more qualified than I do!”
Refer to my previous blog post about feeling healthy or whatever, but I’ll provide a short anecdote to elaborate a bit more.
In January, I’d started going every day. It was absolutely brutal. I felt like quitting and walking home to a sleeve of Golden Oreos and YouTube probably every single day.
Then one morning I saw a dude using a lat pulldown machine. To be honest, he probably wasn’t even using the machine right at all, but who cares. When I got closer, I saw that he had a whole leg brace on! Like, girl, go home! But now I’m thinking, “if this guy with one leg is here and he’s happy, then why should I complain?”
Obviously, you don’t have to work out if you have, like, the flu. Actually, please don’t come to the gym if you have the flu. But everyone’s gotta start somewhere, so ignore everyone else and perform at YOUR best.
3. “I keep locking eyes with people and they all look so mean!”
I’ve actually been fighting back at this one lately and I have a cheat code; you need to make up a fake persona for somebody that paints them in a positive light to destroy any stigma you might accidentally produce. No really, it’s delulu at face value but it works. Especially if you want to start conversations with people, or you just want to come off as generally unthreatening, finding some sort of common ground really humanizes the people around you. For example, I often work out wearing my AirPods Max because they’re sick af, so if I see someone who is also wearing them and I wanna talk to them, I can use that to compliment them in some way* or just to spark a brief interaction. (*DISCLAIMER: do NOT flirt with people at the gym. bad idea.)
You might see someone wearing a pair of sweatpants that look really comfy, or someone wearing an Angry Birds shirt or something goofy like that. If that little bit of proof helps you deconstruct the idea that people are negatively judging you, it’ll make coming back so much easier. Especially if you go regularly, you might see people on a frequent basis that you can have short exchanges with, or even share workout tips with!
These are just a couple of the strategies that I’ve used for uber-specific scenarios, but there are definitely tons more that I will elaborate on in the future, from what to wear, the pressures of shared equipment etiquette, and maybe others that will come up at a later date. Don’t let these things float in your head for too long if you want to feel fulfilled!
Signing off,
sam jenkins