New and super nervous!!!
armydreamers
Posts: 175 Member
Hi ladies! I just recently learned about stronglifts 5x5 and I want to try it. I'm SUPER nervous. I've never worked out in a gym before. Only girly studios (I do yoga, barre etc types of workouts usually). So this will be something new. I'm trying to decide what gym to join (thinking someplace cheapish since I will only be using the weights) and maybe buying a handful of personal training sessions since I have no idea what I'm doing. Thoughts on that?
I'm just so nervous to walk into a gym especially into the weights section where all the men are! This is judgemental but they all look so douchey. Lol
Any tips?
I'm just so nervous to walk into a gym especially into the weights section where all the men are! This is judgemental but they all look so douchey. Lol
Any tips?
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Replies
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it is scary. it's super-scary. only thing that got me into a gym was i really really really wanted to do this lifting thing. so, some general thoughts.
- it helps so. much. if you have some idea of what you're going in there to do. you're sorted on that if you have sl picked out. even if you need to figure out how to do the actual lifting/whatever, that's not the point. you'll be going in with something to work on and that's a major point.
- i lift in community centres in a big canadian city mostly, so ymmv. but i can tell you i relate to the douchiness look and the sheer scariness of the people. but i've been doing it for two years and 90-plus % of the people i've seen in weight rooms are a) really nice, b) respectful, c) too interested in their own workouts to bother you anyway. the huge majority of the dickishness i've seen in weight rooms has been mutually-consensual stuff. i.e. when two bros are friends and they're dicks to each other because that's their idea of a social life. i 've witnessed lots of that and also witnessed that they usually behave perfectly fine to the strangers who are lifting right beside them.
- only caveat is i'm 50 now and was 49 when i started to lift. so i was not at all in the target demographic for guys who do hassle women in the weight room or just see them as a source of cheap attention or let-me-show-off-ishness. i haven't heard of a whole lot of it in this group though, and most of the women here are more like you than like me.
and you can always come in here and talk about it, and we'll make fun of them for you and say supportive things. so do it because it'll probably turn out to be one of the best 'tough to do' things you've ever done in your life.0 -
Thanks for your response! Honestly I'm not worried about anyone bothering me, I'm more embarrassed to walk in without any experience and looking like an idiot! Do you think it's worth using a trainer a few times to show me form or is that s waste of money? My thinking is if I have an experienced person with me at first I'll be able to gain the confidence to go on my own.0
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I'd say if you're nervous or have no experience lifting, invest in a few lessons. It's a great way to get started and correct any issues with your form. It's always a little awkward when you first enter the weights area but as above most people are really nice and will help you out of you need it
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armydreamers wrote: »Thanks for your response! Honestly I'm not worried about anyone bothering me, I'm more embarrassed to walk in without any experience and looking like an idiot!
it's really hard to do that; i know. i got started by taking a few evening classes through our parks board for 'women on weights'. it was largely useless for what i wanted, to tell the truth - but that's more about the individual trainer/course and not the idea itself. but it got me in the room and that meant that by the time i found sl i was too hooked to be shaken off by intimidation.
i can see how you would benefit from the moral support if nothing else. in itself that may be a great reason to find someone for a couple of sessions at least. if you're looking i would try to emphasize that you want to do sl and that you're going for strength (as opposed to 'tone' or 'weight loss' or 'figure' work). and that you want to do compound lifts (not 'isolation' which is usually just one body-zone at a time). it might have helped me early on if i'd known those terms.
in terms of actual form intro: probably really helpful. the only caveat is. not to discourage you but there's a huuuuuuuge range of trainers out there and sooooooome of them are pretty crappy/misinformed. so getting 'a' trainer is like getting 'a' pair of shoes . . . you know? again: emphasizing what you're after can help you to narrow it down.
for me the upside of waiting a year+ was that by the time i did start looking i had a much more dialed-in idea of what i wanted and how to eliminate the people who weren't a good match. the downside was that spending a year+ just doing trial and error on my own hampered my progress and gave me time to learn bad neurological habits without knowing it.
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Do you think a male or female trainer would be better? I'm probably going to do it thru 24hour and I'm guessing they'll just assign anyone to me. I don't have $$ to try different trainers since I'm only going to buy 5 sessions. Should I tell them that I'm specifically doing stronglifts?0
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I would suggest telling them you are decided on strong lifts and be able to explain the routine a little if they haven't heard of it. You will want them to help show you form on all of the lifts, so it helps if they know what you are wanting in particular.0
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armydreamers wrote: »Do you think a male or female trainer would be better?
honestly, that just isn't a call anybody can make for you. who are you comfortable with? for me the only criterion that really mattered was: i wanted someone who would take me seriously. fwiw in my case that person has turned out to be a man, and neither of the women i tried to work was right for me.I'm probably going to do it thru 24hour and I'm guessing they'll just assign anyone to me. I don't have $$ to try different trainers since I'm only going to buy 5 sessions. Should I tell them that I'm specifically doing stronglifts?
you can reference the site/programme. if they haven't heard of it, then tell them the five lifts you are planning to do. then tell them you'll be using a 5 by 5 format and your goal is strength. if they're worth anything they'll accept that and just teach you to do the lifts. after all, that's what you're hiring them for, right?
i wouldn't personally go near a globo gym. i'd maybe sign on to use their space it if there was nothing else. but i can't say i've heard much that was good about any trainer affiliated with them. and i've heard enough that was bad to make me just want to save my money until i could make an informed choice of my own. it isn't the expertise levels (although that seems to be very patchy). it's the fact that so many of them are not disinterested parties. they're not working for you; they're working for an organization which is paying them (and sometimes pressuring them) to sell you stuff.
so here's what i think. a reputable place/trainer will allow you to test drive them first. NO commitment, no sight-unseen packages, no 'we'll give you just anybody'. they should let you arrange for a single session in which you tell them what you're about and they show you how they work. and there should be no strings. it's a job, you're hiring them (or not hiring them). you get to interview them. i wouldn't trust anyone who didn't work it that way. my trainer and i emailed for a while to get a benchmark feel, and then he let me know how mcuh he charged for a one-time drop-in session. so i did the drop in, we worked together for that one session with no sell jobs, and now i give him a cheque every month and go once a week.
i guess maybe i'm over-cautious but you say you don't have much money to burn on trial and error, so it would suck if you had to blow what you do have on buying something (time) before you even know if it's what you're looking for.0 -
It does seem like there should be an initial free or low fee type of set up with the trainers. I did mine at a 24 hour fitness and while the trainers weren't the best, I never actually had to pay for any of the sessions that I did with them. I did the initial one that the club offered everyone where they do a little sales pitch at the end but don't have the money for that so the guy still showed me bench, squats and such. Since we didn't get to deadliest I later asked for a little help and the female that time insisted on a session because form is quite important.
I don't know about my new gym because it's smaller and the main staff is the guy who used to do bodybuilding competitions and his wife, so I can't say there but doesn't seem like they'd made you pay a lot on a package without first testing the waters a little.0 -
They will probably assign someone to you, but usually you get a little time with them first to explain what your goals are and to see if you mesh with them. Kind of like an interview and to see if they understand what you need from them.0
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I started at 24 Hour and it was fine. When I joined, I told them what I was interested in doing and they recommended someone who was able to help me with my form. She showed me other exercises, which was fine. It gave me a little extra knowledge. It also gave me the confidence to enter the scary free weight zone. That being said, I now have a home gym. The 24 HR I was going to got too crowded, when they closed a location a little further away and we got a lot of those members.
I also watched a ton of videos on proper form. I read a lot of posts on this board and on the main board. I asked questions and got lots of info from the wonderful ladies here. Welcome aboard!0 -
Most trainers don't know what SL 5x5 is, but they know how to do the individual lifts and can show you. For perfect form, though, I would watch videos of the lifts online -- Mark Rippetoe and Allan Thrall have good ones -- and read the book Starting Strength.
Re: gyms, half the people in there have no clue what they are doing. Most people will not pay any attention to you unless they are watching to see when you will be off a piece of equipment they want to use.
I belong to Gold's Gym, which is $25 a month and never super crowded. Nobody bothers me. In fact, the guys don't blink twice when I'm the only woman in the weights area -- which I'm usually not. They guys are super polite and friendly but nobody hits on me and everybody is just all about working out. I did trial memberships at 24-Hour Fitness and LA Fitness, and I like Gold's way better.0 -
armydreamers wrote: »Hi ladies! I just recently learned about stronglifts 5x5 and I want to try it. I'm SUPER nervous. I've never worked out in a gym before. Only girly studios (I do yoga, barre etc types of workouts usually). So this will be something new. I'm trying to decide what gym to join (thinking someplace cheapish since I will only be using the weights) and maybe buying a handful of personal training sessions since I have no idea what I'm doing. Thoughts on that?
I'm just so nervous to walk into a gym especially into the weights section where all the men are! This is judgemental but they all look so douchey. Lol
Any tips?
I am also new to this and plan on starting SL 5x5 on Monday. I'm going to watch all the videos I can on form so I am more prepared and hopefully don't embarrass myself! lol. I just joined a gym last week (Planet Fitness) and have mostly been doing cycling and machine weights. I even used the squat rack and did bent over rows with barbells where "the big boys" are. No one looked at me funny when I used a measely 20 pound weights for my squats. If they do, you just need to decide not to care what people are thinking. You are doing this for you and not for them. Good luck and feel free to add me as a friend. We can be newbies together.
So glad this group is here! 0 -
armydreamers wrote: »Thanks for your response! Honestly I'm not worried about anyone bothering me, I'm more embarrassed to walk in without any experience and looking like an idiot! Do you think it's worth using a trainer a few times to show me form or is that s waste of money? My thinking is if I have an experienced person with me at first I'll be able to gain the confidence to go on my own.
I did three sessions with a trainer when I started and found that to be the perfect number. You could probably even get by with two. You can also video yourself at home (I used a broomstick in place of a bar) just to make sure that what you're doing looks like the videos you see on-line. Finally, I heartily recommend buying a copy of Starting Strength. The author goes into hand position, eye position, etc. at length. I reread parts of it all the time just as a reminder.
You'll be amazed at how quickly it all feels normal, promise.0 -
scrittrice wrote: »armydreamers wrote: »Thanks for your response! Honestly I'm not worried about anyone bothering me, I'm more embarrassed to walk in without any experience and looking like an idiot! Do you think it's worth using a trainer a few times to show me form or is that s waste of money? My thinking is if I have an experienced person with me at first I'll be able to gain the confidence to go on my own.
I did three sessions with a trainer when I started and found that to be the perfect number. You could probably even get by with two. You can also video yourself at home (I used a broomstick in place of a bar) just to make sure that what you're doing looks like the videos you see on-line. Finally, I heartily recommend buying a copy of Starting Strength. The author goes into hand position, eye position, etc. at length. I reread parts of it all the time just as a reminder.
You'll be amazed at how quickly it all feels normal, promise.
I've heard a lot of good about that book - Starting Strength. I'm going to get it today. Also, last night I watched YouTube videos by Alan Thrall - Tame Untrained and he is very good at explaining and demonstrating squats and deadlifts. What to do and not to do.0 -
I was really nervous about going into the gym when I first started. I read everything I could get my hands on, watched some videos on form. When I started, I tried to go in when there would not be a lot of people.
Honestly, most people are into their own thing and are really not looking at what anyone else is doing.
I guess I have become a regular in the gym now, so I just get the head nods from the guys. In the 3 months that I have solely doing free weights, I haven't run into any women lifting in this section. Doesn't bother me anymore. On a side note, I always think it's very nice when one of the guys offers to lift stuff off the rack for me, or move my plates etc. Best one, is one of the guys who squats heavy, was teaching his son and his friend how to squat properly...they were done and offering up the squat rack to me...one of the kids went to take the 'big boy' plates off and the dad was like nope, leave those there, she needs em.
Good luck!0 -
lwhayes820 wrote: »I've heard a lot of good about that book - Starting Strength.
it is a good book. very technical and mechanical though, and once i've been lifting for a while i started to realise some of what he says is a personal opinion stated as fact. but for me it was a good place to begin, because i really need that 'when this muscle extends it moves that joint' breakdown because i'm very physical-actions dyslexic. "just do the movement and it'll be right" demonstrably fails to work, with me.
fwiw: when i started working with my trainer after about 18 months on my own with just starting strength, the main thing he's been unhappy with was the rippetoe focus on 'eyes down' and a steep torso angle in the back squat. but that could in fact have been my own interpretive fail, because without knowing it i was practically doing good morning/taco-stype squats. i also found that starting strength's approach to the overhead press just confused me with rippetoe's whole hip-bounce idea. but i think that's a personal thing. i find strict military much easier to do and made more actual progress that way.
alan thrall has been great too, as well as funny and smart.
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canadianlbs wrote: »lwhayes820 wrote: »I've heard a lot of good about that book - Starting Strength.
it is a good book. very technical and mechanical though, and once i've been lifting for a while i started to realise some of what he says is a personal opinion stated as fact. but for me it was a good place to begin, because i really need that 'when this muscle extends it moves that joint' breakdown because i'm very physical-actions dyslexic. "just do the movement and it'll be right" demonstrably fails to work, with me.
fwiw: when i started working with my trainer after about 18 months on my own with just starting strength, the main thing he's been unhappy with was the rippetoe focus on 'eyes down' and a steep torso angle in the back squat. but that could in fact have been my own interpretive fail, because without knowing it i was practically doing good morning/taco-stype squats. i also found that starting strength's approach to the overhead press just confused me with rippetoe's whole hip-bounce idea. but i think that's a personal thing. i find strict military much easier to do and made more actual progress that way.
alan thrall has been great too, as well as funny and smart.
Thanks for the feedback...will keep that in mind as I begin.0 -
canadianlbs wrote: »lwhayes820 wrote: »I've heard a lot of good about that book - Starting Strength.
it is a good book. very technical and mechanical though, and once i've been lifting for a while i started to realise some of what he says is a personal opinion stated as fact. but for me it was a good place to begin, because i really need that 'when this muscle extends it moves that joint' breakdown because i'm very physical-actions dyslexic. "just do the movement and it'll be right" demonstrably fails to work, with me.
fwiw: when i started working with my trainer after about 18 months on my own with just starting strength, the main thing he's been unhappy with was the rippetoe focus on 'eyes down' and a steep torso angle in the back squat. but that could in fact have been my own interpretive fail, because without knowing it i was practically doing good morning/taco-stype squats. i also found that starting strength's approach to the overhead press just confused me with rippetoe's whole hip-bounce idea. but i think that's a personal thing. i find strict military much easier to do and made more actual progress that way.
alan thrall has been great too, as well as funny and smart.
I read Starting Strength cover to cover when I got it, then went into the gym and stood in the rack and didn't know what to do at all. I tucked my tail between my legs and left. That was when I hired a trainer for a few sessions. Now that I'm in the groove, though, I frequently go back and check what he said about grip or foot position (or eye position--and I'm curious about what's wrong with the "eyes 4 to 5 feet in front of you" suggestion for the squat). It's not gospel, but it's a good reference, and I'm a very text-oriented person and recall things I've read much better than things I've heard or seen.0
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