Gymtimidation- Getting started with entering the weights area

If you struggle with confidence or are a complete newbie to lifting weights at a gym, you might assume that everybody will be watching and judging you.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth! In the nicest way possible, most other people couldn’t give a s**t!!

What else should you know?:

1-      Everyone around you is probably just as self-conscious as you are. Even I still get self-conscious sometimes and I’ve been a regular in the weights area for 8 years and work as a PT!

2-      Everyone starts somewhere! You don’t need to be a pro before you even start – you go to the gym to get stronger and more confident

3-      Most people will be proud of you for even trying! As a PT, I feel prouder when I see someone new come in and try some weights than I do of the musclehead who’s there everyday for 2 hours

4-      Most people are too focused on looking at themselves to even notice you. Whether it’s looking at their own form during an exercise or having a cheeky flex in the mirror between sets, you’ll likely barely even cross their radar (unless you were to come in in a full clown costume!)

5-      Very few people will judge- and these people aren’t worth you giving them a thought! And even for these people, they aren’t just judging you, they’re judging everyone around them, because they can’t help but compare themselves to others. This says more about them than it does about you. Don’t let a few judgy people stop you from achieving your goals

So how can you conquer gymtimidation?

Step 1: Get a lay of the land.

If it’s your very first day in the gym, find a mat and do some basic stretches. Watch what other people are doing so you can get a good idea of what to do on any of the machines that are visible from there (just please don’t stare!!!)

After this, head to the treadmills for a walk and have a look what you can see from there. This gives you more time and a new area of the gym to check out the machines and see roughly what other people are doing. Again, I’ve been training for 8 years and would still do this if I go to a new gym! Spend as long as you need here until you can get out of your head and start relaxing a bit more.

Repeat these steps for as many days as you need to stop feeling intimidated and generally get more confident in the general gym environment.

The hardest bit about going to the gym is stepping foot through the door so you’ve already made great progress by doing this and you should feel very proud of yourself!

Step 2- Try some bodyweight exercises or some of the fixed pin machines you’ve had a chance to check out

After getting some confidence using the treadmills and doing some stretching, it’s time to start with some strength training. There are options: either do some bodyweight exercises in an area you’re comfortable in or start using some of the fixed pin machines.

For an easy bodyweight exercise circuit, you can do:

10 bodyweight squats,

20 bodyweight lunges,

10 pushups (on knees, against a wall or box etc)

Plank hold

(Repeat 3-4 times)

If you’re feeling more confident, head over to one of the weight machines and try that. There are tons of them around and most even have a QR code you can scan to see exactly how to use it. Put the weight down fairly low and give it a try! If in any doubt, you can also grab the nearest Fitness Coach or a fellow gym-goer to ask them how to use it!

Step 3- Grab some dumbbells!

Now it’s time to take a stroll into the dumbbell area!

Remember: Despite your gender, size, age or ability, you all still pay the same membership price so you have as much right to be in the weights area as everybody else!

After you’ve done your warmup on the treadmill, head over to the free weights area, find a bench that is empty (hopefully!) and chuck your water bottle down on it to claim it!

Grab a couple of 4-5kg dumbbells and we’re then going to just slightly add on to the circuit we did previously. So we’re now doing:

10 x Dumbbell goblet squats (holding 1 dumbbell at your chest level)

20 x weighted lunges (holding each dumbbell down by your sides)

10 bodyweight pushups

10 single arm dumbbell rows on each arm

Plank hold

(Repeat 3-4 times)

You can easily repeat this routine for months if that’s all you’re comfortable with! You’re still doing better than not going to the gym at all and you should still be very proud of yourself!!

Step 4- Work your way up to the barbells

It’s my dream that everyone gets the confidence to be able to strut into the barbell area of any gym and lift some heavy shit! I’ve seen the confidence it’s given both myself and all of my clients and the power that barbells have is amazing!

However, it’s important to first get stronger with the dumbbells. The main bigger barbells in the gym weigh 20kg and the slightly smaller one weighs 15kg so they’re rarely a place I’ll start with for new clients. (Starting with the lighter 2kg studio bars is fine for practice though!)

So, once you’ve gained strength using the dumbbells (roughly being able to goblet squat with a 12-14kg dumbbell, single arm row with an 8kg dumbbell, and holding a 6-7kg dumbbells in each hand for lunges) you can head over to the barbell area!

For all moves to start off with, use just the bar itself! Some exercises for using the barbell are:

Back squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, lunges, bent over rows and hip thrusts (and many more!)

So to add onto our current circuit, we can now do:

10 x Barbell back squats

20 x barbell lunges

10 bodyweight pushups

10 barbell bent over rows

Plank hold

(Repeat 3-4 times)

As you gain more confidence, you can make some different training sessions to include a mix of bodyweight, machine, dumbbell and barbell exercises! There are a ton of different options for what to do and where to go from here!

And I hope that by the time you’ve got to this point, you’re feeling a lot more confident in the gym and I’ve done my job with this help-sheet!

And if not, there are other options to help you feel more confident in the gym:

·       Book an induction or intro session with a fitness coach/ personal trainer

·       Join a gym class- preferably the studio classes where plates and lighter barbells are used to teach the basic exercises (rather than a spin class for example)

·       Free YouTube videos for how to do different exercises

·       Start properly with a personal trainer to hopefully help you feel less intimidated in the weights areas. I am always happy to help!