How am I percieved at the gym?

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13

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  • rcatr
    rcatr Posts: 374 Member
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    i'm also the girl that just grabs the first t-shirt in the stack to wear to the gym...and sometimes it ends up being my boyfriends - caveat - he's 6'6" and 220 and i'm 5'2". I'm not there to look cute so I don't care but i wonder if people think I just don't have clothes that fit me :laugh:
  • HealthyChanges2010
    HealthyChanges2010 Posts: 5,831 Member
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    Honestly? I have not often given it much thought to what others thought of me at the gym and I don't know why. There are other times and places I've worried needlessly about this person thinking this or that about me. But I'm a terrible mind reader and 99.9% of the time I am so far off base, I really need to quit doing it:laugh:

    When I began going to the gym 3 years back 200lbs more than I weigh today it never made me uncomfy because I knew I was in a place I wanted and needed to be, a place I could get healthy in. I couldn't possibly let myself get self conscience or I'd never have started getting fit.

    I have no clue how ppl perceive me. lol I guess I'm the girl that wipes the machines before and after use, picks up towels I see on the ground and toss them in the towel bin along with mine. If I'm picking up my deep water weightbelt for the pool I'll help others pick the rest up that got just dumped (some ppl put theirs away, some leave them sit) after class etc.

    Not sure how others perceive that. It's my gym too so I would like it to look decent when I work out. I figure why the heck not help out when I'm picking my own stuff anyhow/:wink::flowerforyou:

    Becca
  • dmcpage
    dmcpage Posts: 66 Member
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    I'm the girl who is always there and generally parks a bit crooked even if there is no one in the parking lot. I'm the one who takes subtle peeks at people on neighboring machines to see what pace or incline they are doing on the elliptical or treadmill, and try to do a bit better than them (as if it was a race, how much of a 12 year old am I?). I'm the girl who sits down at a machine to lift weights and surprises people because I don't think I look as strong as I actually am. I routinely lift/press sometimes double of what other girls at my gym do. I'm the one making contorted faces when I sink too low into a tricep dip. And I'm definitely the one who catches herself smirking when tuned in to the TV on the individual cardio machines if I'm watching a sitcom. Heaven help anyone standing next to me if I am rocking out on my ipod and in the zone because I will just start air drumming and not even know I'm doing it. I'm the girl who has to constantly towel off....seriously, I don't know how people can go without a towel at the gym or maybe I really just am that sweaty. I'm the girl you can count on seeing there tomorrow and the day after that..... :tongue:
  • KPaden1221
    KPaden1221 Posts: 433
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    i am the "ride the stationary bike ten miles, and weight train for 30 min and after ten min on the treadmill i think i might die, but make myself go atleast 20 more min" girl.. but i've not been that girl in months.. i think it's time to get to know her again....
  • LoveMy4Kids
    LoveMy4Kids Posts: 231
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    I wipe my shopping cart down with disinfectant wipes or lysol spray before touching it! Especially because I have my daughter sitting in the front of it!
  • LoveMy4Kids
    LoveMy4Kids Posts: 231
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    Ewww used cloths? Whats the point? Our gym has paper towel and spray!
  • MisdemeanorM
    MisdemeanorM Posts: 3,493 Member
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    I'm the one that chronically gets to the 7:15 am class at 7:20. If it's a crazy week, there's also a good chance that yes, that is the same shirt I wore to class yesterday and yes, I wore it all day and then slept in it and now am wearing it again but it's my goal to shower today if I can get done with class and to the grocery, the bank, home, make lunches, get my son ready, and be to work by 9 with time in there to shower. Otherwise - just don't smell me. I'll get to it when I have time to breathe!
  • LoveMy4Kids
    LoveMy4Kids Posts: 231
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    I'm the "I don't give a crap what I look like" woman with my hair thrown up in a pony tail! I glue myself to the tv the whole time and YES I wlll laugh out loud if something funny is on! If a machine doesn't have a tv I don't use it, lol. Don't care what ANYONE thinks of me when I'm at the gym, I'm not there to impress anyone but myself! And YES I wipe down each machine after using it EVERY time, I hate watching people walk away without wiping, they put the paper towels and spray there for a reason along with the big signs !!!!!
  • 623Hernandez
    623Hernandez Posts: 458
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    How I would be perceived is exactly why I don't go to the gym! I don't want to be perceived as the biggest and jigliest. The Big Jell-O Girl. I want a gym membership but, that will have to be a reward when I get to my goal weight. For now I am staying home and on unpopulated trails!
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    It is somewhat ironic that this topic is "how am I perceived" when, for the most part, I don't pay that much attention to what other people look like or what they are wearing. I do paid more attention when I was working out at the park district fitness center because it was small and they had limited machines (e.g. one bench press and one squat rack). I had to do so in order to work around the other people there.

    I am also in a different situation in that it is MY JOB to watch people exercising. But most of the time, I am looking only at their form. I don't really notice clothes or even physical appearance, but I do know who is engaging their lats properly during a row exercise and who isn't!
  • cdsledge09
    cdsledge09 Posts: 167 Member
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    I'm the fat girl who walk/jogs on the treadmill doing a C25K training program. I'm the one who breathes really hard during and after interval jogs but can't hear how hard I'm breathing, because I have my ipod up loud enough to drown myself out. Yes, I'm the one with the tomato-red face whose butt jiggles just a bit too much when jogging.

    And I don't give a rat's *kitten* what everyone at the gym thinks of that, because I am TRULY doing it for me. :)
  • peart47
    peart47 Posts: 25 Member
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    I think I'm the "how in the hell is that fat girl still running after 30 minutes?!" girl. :laugh:

    Last night I caught a very fit guy looking at me for extended periods of time many many times (did he really think I couldn't see him in the mirror?!). At first I thought maybe he was interested (haha) but then I talked myself into thinking he was just looking at me in disbelief. :laugh: We had started about the same time and were going about the same speed (7-8mph) on the elliptical and he was obviously majorly struggling after about 20 minutes while I was just chugging along watching TV. :tongue: He quit 10 minutes before I did. :wink:

    That's awesome! You go gurl!!!! Next time wink at him and see if he turns red...:wink:
  • Michellerw1
    Michellerw1 Posts: 367
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    The clumsy red-faced girl who looks waaaaay to happy to be sweating. I always have a goofy smile on my face after a good workout, or especially during a class. I guess I should adopt a scowl so I can look a little more "hard core". :angry:
  • cdsledge09
    cdsledge09 Posts: 167 Member
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    I love it!!! I am the Fat Kid at my gym. I almost always have on the way tooo big T-shirt (including odd sayings). The butt jiggles, I sweat profusely (mostly because I live in Texas, work out in a garage style gym, and its usually somewhere between 80-105 degrees depending on the humidity). I am always the last one in from group runs, huffing and puffing all of the way, but I am always hanging in there and doing the best I can. :laugh:
  • karissastephens
    karissastephens Posts: 324 Member
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    Im that girl with long blonde hair who DOES NOT WEAR HER HAIR UP. People think I do it to "look good" but really its because I hate my ears :blushing:
  • karissastephens
    karissastephens Posts: 324 Member
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    The clumsy red-faced girl who looks waaaaay to happy to be sweating. I always have a goofy smile on my face after a good workout, or especially during a class. I guess I should adopt a scowl so I can look a little more "hard core". :angry:

    THats not annoying! Thats someone I would love to workout with :)
  • XFitMojoMom
    XFitMojoMom Posts: 3,255 Member
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    I workout at home, so it's only me and my kids and my dog.
    - the dog probably thinks - why doesn't she take me out on a run, instead of using that dumb noisy machine.
    - the kids think "there's mommy exercising again"
    - the neighbors think - thank gawd she's exercising, maybe she'll look half decent sitting around her pool
    - I think, thank gawd there's no one here judging me!
    :laugh: :wink: :ohwell: :embarassed: :huh:

    I also go to a CrossFit "box" - I prefer to call a warehouse. No mirrors there, people leave all their BS at home, and their sweat on the ground. It's not how you are perceived, but how much you give - and I know the other two in my group appreciate that I put in 110%, because it motivates them to do the same!
  • cdsledge09
    cdsledge09 Posts: 167 Member
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    I workout at home, so it's only me and my kids and my dog.
    - the dog probably thinks - why doesn't she take me out on a run, instead of using that dumb noisy machine.
    - the kids think "there's mommy exercising again"
    - the neighbors think - thank gawd she's exercising, maybe she'll look half decent sitting around her pool
    - I think, thank gawd there's no one here judging me!
    :laugh: :wink: :ohwell: :embarassed: :huh:

    I also go to a CrossFit "box" - I prefer to call a warehouse. No mirrors there, people leave all their BS at home, and their sweat on the ground. It's not how you are perceived, but how much you give - and I know the other two in my group appreciate that I put in 110%, because it motivates them to do the same!
  • cdsledge09
    cdsledge09 Posts: 167 Member
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    You're the first person that I've seen on here that participates in Cross Fit. I just started with them here in Austin, and I love it!! I have yet to see the results, but its so much fun that I just keep going and sweating like a nut. You're right, no one there cares anything about looks or other superficial nonsense they're just there to challenge their strength and will. :flowerforyou:
  • whyflysouth
    whyflysouth Posts: 308 Member
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    Honestly I'm very certain that nobody even notices me at the gym. But sometimes I like to pretend they think of me as that crazy dude who's trying to break the elliptical by pushing it as hard as he possibly can. Or the guy who's sprinting on the treadmill in training to avenge his honor against his arch-nemesis who dishonored him and his family long ago - some kind of really cool back story that justifies all the seriousness I'm putting into the workout, lol. Working out seems so much cooler when you've got some kind of dramatic reason for it, like when Rocky was training to take down Ivan Drago towards the end of the Rocky IV... that was a cool workout sequence.

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