I’m scared of going to the gym

but I struggle to explain why, it’s a very strange feeling

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Being scared of your first time is normal. Just set your expectations low, don't expect it to be the best thing ever until you've got your groove figured out. It can help if you have a partner that's more experienced, but that's not a must.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I first started to go with a friend of mine last summer. At that time I was afraid of both going with someone and going alone, but going with someone was more bearable. Now I have gone to the gym more or less 20 times with multiple friends and my anxiety - although being still there - is quite low.

      However, I tried to go on my own alone only very recently. I manage to do so three times, but two out of the three were unsatisfying sessions. The main reason is that, even though I tried to go there very early (7 AM), it happens that the squat spots are all taken so I cannot do my routine as planned and it gets me nervous.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        I don't mind going alone but I hate waiting for machines or the rack and bothering people. Most people there are friendly but serious lifters can be rude if you interrupt their routine or hog the rack. Then there's the people who want to 'help' you and then give you terrible bro science tier advice.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      You are talking about butt sex, aren't you?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Seriously. Having a gym buddy is a great way to get over that initial nervousness. You can also spot for each other if you decide to try the free weights.

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I used to do acting in college, and everyone gets the jitters when they feel like they're exposing themselves to a massive audience. Whats interesting about the human mind is that new neuron connections occur when you place yourself into uncomfortable situations. This is can certainly be seen with children who are regularly thrown into a new world with new experiences and new people, and they manage by mirroring the behaviors they observe to be accepted in the environment they're in.

    Anyway, trick your mind into thinking that you are not feeling nervous, but excited. I've been to the gym on my own before and its not a big deal. Everyone isn't thinking about you, and who gives a crap anyway. I have more important shit to worry about than others looking at me. Thats the way I perceive it.

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Had the same thing when i started going OP. No one in the gym cares about you, they are working on themselves. Go to the gym to focus on yourself. There are plenty of dumber, more autistic people than you in the gym so you have no excuse.

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    You are scared of being judged. You certainly are being judged so it makes sense.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Its because you think people are judging you for being weak.

      They arent

      People are the gym are too busy focusing on their own shit to care how much you lift or what you look like. The only exception are the homosexuals that hog the bench and squat racks but spend 80% of their time on the fricking phone while doing so.

      What they said.

      I used to feel the same way. I wish I could give you more advice than this, but I don't know any other way: stick with it.

      Eventually you will lose the fear. It's uncomfortable to go somewhere when you're scared to do so, but do it for long enough and one day you'll find yourself feeling relaxed and even welcomed at the gym. Everyone is there to better themselves, and they'll think only good of you when they see you do the same.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Honestly it's a good place to make new friends. People who are concerned with improving themselves are the of people you want in your life.

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Most people will be helpful. Become a regular and you'll make friends by simply sharing a common goal (fitness). You're doing this for that, to be the best you possible...for you. No one else.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >Become a regular and you'll make friends
      Lies. Eight months in a no one talks to me. Everyone just stares.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >Lift regularly
      >Meet cool dude and we become lifting bros
      >Regularly lift with each other
      >Other regulars get used to seeing us together
      >he suffers from BPD and severe depression
      >he stops answering my texts and calls
      >go a solid week lifting without him
      >hit up his sister who I’m cool with and find out he committed suicide
      >other gym regulars ask me where he is
      >I tell them he moved to California for a new job(we’re in Florida)

      I know lift for the glory of my bro. It’s kinda lonely at the gym now. Might switch.

  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I'm afraid to post on IST but it's very easy to explain why. A group of criminal terrorists follows me everywhere I go on the internet and gangstalks me irl, harassing me and going through my trash and things like that. They have high-level surveillance access so they can watch me on security cameras around town and track me via satellite. Likely an unholy alliance between one of the Five Eyes countries and China. Just now when I loaded the site they made like four new threads (Monster Energy drink) to harass me. This has been going on for years now.

    When I go to the gym, they go too. Your fears are a bit irrational. Be thankful that your life is less complicated than mine.

  7. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Its because you think people are judging you for being weak.

    They arent

    People are the gym are too busy focusing on their own shit to care how much you lift or what you look like. The only exception are the homosexuals that hog the bench and squat racks but spend 80% of their time on the fricking phone while doing so.

  8. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I have the same but with homegym

  9. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    You are probably scared in most social situations and this is not a haha nice quirk that I share with my internet friends that are like me. It will wreck your life. You won't escape it by bullshit behavioral advice either

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      this. too much joking around about this sort of thing on here, especially for people like me who came here too young and grew up scrolling this garbage website.

      social anxiety, being a hermit, weirdo, outcast, is not "cool", it is not "based", you are not being true to yourself by retreating into yourself. you are becoming a freak.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Being a hermit because you're scared of people is cringe
        Being a hermit because you hate people is based

  10. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Frick your feelings and grow up

  11. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I also used to be scared. Got sick last year, didn't leave my bed for six months, needed a surgery. Shit was fricking grim. After that I decided that I want to go to the gym, but I was scared of going there alone. Wanted to find a lifting buddy, but since I spent half a year in bed, my relationships with people suffered and I cut contact with most people. I waited and kept asking the remaining friends whether they wanted to go to the gym, excuses everywhere. I was always a skelly but after so much time without exercise it was even worse. Couldn't lift a 5kg dumbbell over my head. Finały I realised that waiting for people is nonsense, because people failed to visit me when I was sick for such a long time so there is no reason to wait for them to go to the gym with me. I was scared of all kinds of shit, being the weakest guy at the gym and possible reactions to it were really fricking terrifying. But I had to do it, so I did it alone and:
    - not once I got laughed at, people didn't care
    - when someone talked to me it was mostly tips on how to do exercises correctly so I don't hurt myself
    - one guy approached me last week and said he remembers me when I started going to this gym and I had to use light dumbbells for everything and now I'm squating 1pl8 (which is shit, I know, but I'm only starting) and going strong and he said 'good work, keep at it'
    Now the only thing I feel about it is how big of a pussy I was to let this fear keep me from taking care of my health.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >mostly tips on how to do exercises correctly so I don't hurt myself
      Those people are great.

  12. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    As others have said, so long as you're not doing something colossally moronic (and often even then) nobody at the gym cares about you.
    If your schedule and gym allows it, go at like 4am. If the place isn't yours entirely, it's populated by like 1-2 other dudes who care about you even less and are often there for about the same reasons, or are too weird to care about anything but their total weirdness.

  13. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Don't be scared. You'll be fine.

  14. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Wow, I posted this thread this afternoon (I live in France so it was during the afternoon for me) and now it's 3 AM here and I see plenty of new posts. Thank you guys, IST is a really warm community.

    Yes indeed I feel scared in most of other social situations. I think the problem is that I don't see myself like other people see me. I do not see myself as an adult, but as a anxious child because that's what I really am inside of me. But of course nobody can see it from an external point of view.

    I do not feel legitimate to ask if someone is nearly done with their squat, even though I need it because my routine requires me to start by squatting. I do not feel legitimate because I consider them as "above" me just because they seem confident and they are, in addition to that, muscular, and I tend to associate muscular men with edginess and anger (because they have the power to assault people thanks to the strength acquired at gym). I feel like I'm completely crazy when I say these words, it's not the "rational" part of me who is talking, but more of the young child who was afraid of going to PE at school for instance. Students good at PE also tended to be those who bullied me. I don't know, maybe I'm doing wrong associations.

  15. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >it’s a very strange feeling

  16. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    it is scary but what separates pussy as homies from men is doing things even if they make you scared

  17. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Visited a local gym for like a year or so. The workout session got way more effective than home exercise but it reminded me quickly that I hate people. Always using the equipment I wanna use or quite the opposite asking me how many sets do I have on my shit because they want to use it, hell usually even the locker room is so crowded that i can't change comfortably.

  18. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    if you're a skinnyfat DYEL then you missed your chance at making it, you're just embarassing yourself taking up space from someone who actually needs those weights

  19. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Just go to the gym blindfolded and the gym wont know your there and you wont be afraid of the gym thats what I did and now i'm not afraid of going to the gym

  20. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Just to be clear, everyone will look at you, everyone will look at what you're doing, everyone will judge you. I'm not joking. But that's ok. You'll do it too. Just make sure to watch plenty of form videos to make sure you don't look too moronic. It's ok to look like a beginner, just don't go in fricking up everything. There's no shame getting two or three pt sessions to get your form down.
    Oh and no one's judging you in a bad way, I'm always glad to see people working out, but goddamn do i look and judge

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      True, now whenever I feel like I'm fricking up and someone is watching I just go with it, worth case scenario I made their day better, or I might end up in a greentext here, so it's a win-win situation

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