Feel like an awkward moose at the gym?

Options
13»

Replies

  • jigsaw_me
    jigsaw_me Posts: 616 Member
    Options
    I'm another one who feels exactly the same that you do - although I was going for left-footed rhino as opposed to moose!

    I've cut workout short especially when Mr Intimo-Man is there - he's lovely and encouraging but I just feel EEEKKKK. I go to a very small family run gym and everyone is nice and friendly and all but there are some days where I just can't get over other people being there - other days it's fine.

    So what I do is I go, do SOMETHING and then give myself permission to leave if it's all too much,

    Most days I do more than I did the day before which is always my goal.
  • crazydaisy15
    crazydaisy15 Posts: 47
    Options
    I will join the chorus of people telling you that no one is paying any attention to what you are doing or not doing at the gym. But that's not going to help you stop feeling the way you do. I think the only thing that's going to get you over this fear is to just face it. Make yourself go. Make yourself stick it out. And then you will see how right we are, when we tell you that no one is looking at you. You are anonymous at the gym. I feel that way, and I know lots of people at the gym I go to, because I work there. But other than a polite wave, or nod 'hello', no one is worried about what anyone else is doing. I think for most people, workout time is private time. 'Me' time. So go have some time to yourself, and just remember than most of the other people there are enjoying time to themselves too, and not wasting it judging other people.
  • rbcrawford1
    rbcrawford1 Posts: 29 Member
    Options
    Today I fell off the stair climber, while trying to retrieve the phone I dropped, but only after I knocked my open bottle of water all over two, count 'em TWO, machines. And I did it right in front of the best female lifter in our gym (a competitive powerhouse).

    Everyone has awkward moose days. I find that no one is paying attention to general awkwardness, and very specific soup-sandwich-awkwardness...well, you can only bow and take your applause.

    On a serious note, I did bow, salute the aforementioned weightlifter, and declared "I quit!" And she answered, "Don't quit! Never quit! We all have those days."

    It helps to either work with a trainer at first or go in with a specific list of lifts/exercises you've researched and planned ahead of time. It minimizes the looking confused part. But again, no one is paying attention, unless you are literally falling off equipment while sending your personal items hither and yon.
  • astronomicals
    astronomicals Posts: 1,537 Member
    Options
    study your lifts and be confident in them..
  • amandalocke91
    amandalocke91 Posts: 1
    Options
    This made me laugh! I definitely feel like that. I live on a marine corps base and use the gym there, which is full of incredibly fit people! But there's nothing to be afraid of, everyone is there for the same reasons and no one is going to judge you!

Categories