Confidence In the Gym
/Confidence in the gym is a very important topic to me as I believe this is such a barrier when it comes to all you beautiful ladies wanting to make a change. I have been there. When I first walked into a gym I was so intimidated, I didn’t know the first thing about the equipment, and spent the first year doing classes like body pump. Fast track 4 years on, and I could not be more confident when stepping into any gym. Obviously my actual gym I feel way more comfortable in, but give me any gym and I will make it a priority to walk in like I own the place. But I did not start off here - it took it’s sweet time for me to get to this stage.
Here are a few reasons why some of us girls can lack confidence in the gym:
it is such a male dominated space still. Even though females lifting has honestly changed the game, and we should be eternally grateful for those girls who took the first plunge, it is still hugely dominated by macho men who think they are the bees knees. They are not. Most of the time they are just in there training chest and arms and neglecting everything else. I can guarantee you will get better results than them. They are just arrogant and stupid, if you view them like that, and not as scary macho men, it makes life a lot easier.
You have constant fear that people are judging you if you are doing something wrong. I was so guilty of this to be honest. Once I evolved from Body Pump I basically just stayed on the smith machine for about a year. Just because it was safe and secure. But here is the thing - if your movement is not correct from the get go, and you jump on a smith machine, this is just solidifying your incorrect movement and this will hinder your progress. So just dive straight into the deep end and hit those free weights. Sorry that was a bit of a side track - to be honest, no one is watching you. When you are working out, do you sit there looking at others thinking “oh no she is doing that stupid exercise that will get her no where she has no idea what she’s doing”. I can guarantee if you are a half decent person the answer will be no. Also everyone is way too self absorbed with what they look like when lifting staring at themselves in the mirror to even notice anyone around them (guilty).
You feel as if you just don’t know where to start when it comes to weights. This is so common. And EVERYONE is in the same boat. Let’s take the example of learning to swim, or riding a bike, you have no idea how to do it until you get taught. it is the same with any exercise, any sport, and the gym. You can’t be expected to just know. No one does. This is what us personal trainers are there for. To teach you how to best workout for your body, mobility and goals. I cannot stress enough the value in investing in a personal trainer when you first start out. All we want to do is help you get to the body and feeling you desire. If you get a fitness professional to teach you from the get go, you will get to your results so much faster. Our aim is not to get you as a client and keep you forever. The aim is to get you to a place where you do not need us anymore to guide you, and you will have that confidence to go around the gym by yourself and be able to smash it with any equipment or machine. It’s like with any type of training, you shouldn’t need it forever. Unless you just want to keep coming back because you love the chats ;) that is fine too. But ultimately, the goal is to train you to a point where you don’t need to have a personal trainer anymore. You can teach yourself through books, youtube, instagram etc. However, this is so inferior to what a trainer can do for you. I learned this the hard way, but investing in a trainer was honestly the best decision I ever made, I learned so much about my body and what I should be doing to reach those goals I wanted. You just don’t know what you are getting on youtube or insta. What works for those fitness models, most likely will not work for you I hate to say. I you don’t want to invest in yourself by getting a trainer - go to books. They are the next best thing.
And lastly, find a friend who has similar goals to you, and train with them! Having a workout buddy is so fun and it keeps you accountable to someone else. You are more likely to achieve what you want and stay motivated if someone else’s results also depend on you.
I hope you enjoyed this read, and thanks so much for reading :). If you could take one thing away from this, please let it be - invest in yourself! Get a trainer, even if it’s just for a few months, you wont regret it. A great stat that someone recently told me was that you can reach 75% of your true potential when training by yourself, but with a trainer, you can hit 100% because they can push you that much further.
I wanted to thank everyone who entered my competition! I love doing things like this as it is my way of saying thank you so much to everyone who actually reads my blog posts. Please DM me on insta if you read my blogs so I can give you love on your pages :) I will announce my competition winner on Instagram later today! Hope you enjoy this read xxx