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Self conscious at the gym
Over the years I have heard a lot of reasons why people would rather train at home than in a gym. Now that my coaching program requires clients to be at a gym I am hearing the same excuse over and over “I don’t want to join the gym until I’ve lost enough weight to join”. Which don’t get me wrong I know where you’re coming from.
But it’s not like the gym entrance has a “You must be this thin to enter” sign.
And losing weight, to enter a gym so you can lose weight
Is pretty ass-backwards
The problem is that the gym can make people feel more self conscious than anywhere else
(except swimming pools!). And I get this, I’m self conscious in any new environment. I avoided coffee shops for 6 months because one time I ordered a coffee and the Barista asked me what I meant by that “Do you mean Americano? Or Latte? Or Espresso?”. “Erm a black coffee, and I want to then add some milk” I mumbled before going bright red. I didn’t know what I was doing and was very self conscious.
Just give me a fucking coffee!
So even though I’ve been in a gym 6 days a week for the last 7 years I get where people are coming from. But how do you banish that feeling?
1) Make sure you have a simple plan to follow, being competent at an exercise quickly banishes any insecurity
2) Turn up 5 days in a row in your first week, nothing destroys self-consciousness quicker than familiarity
3) Look around you, you will soon notice that nobody is really paying attention to you
Yeah I know that last one sounds a bit weak, but really, when most people are working out the only thing they are paying any attention to (for longer than 30 seconds) is themselves.
If a dude is bicep curling in front of a mirror a naked Natalie Portman could rock past him and he wouldn’t turn to look
I really hope this helps
Matt “naked who?” Smith
P.S. If you want to learn why I was getting a coffee (other than how awesome coffee is) then check out my WatchFit article on Black coffee for weight loss
P.P.S If for some reason you believe that Bulletproof Coffee is a good idea check out my article on the subject (and spit that bullshit drink out onto the floor whilst reading it)