Lemme tell ya a story girl.
I’ve been working out and lifting for a long arse timeeee – however, every 6 months or so I have to step into a new gym. It’s just the life we live- I’ve made peace with it but one of those 2 times a year I have to step into a gym where I do not speak a lick of the language – yup- Germany. This scares the Heebie-jeebies out of me!
N let me tell ya- it’s not even all just in my head – gym etiquette in Germany is different than gym etiquette in Canada so…..
I feel I can speak from experience when I say the # Gym-timidation is reallll
Try walking to a squat rack w a bunch of guys in muscle shirts staring and trying to talk to you in a language you don’t understand.
Here are my top 3 ways to help myself get over that hurdle yearly cause ya’ll know I need to lift some things once in a while.
1/ Visualize the person you want to become
– does that person lift?
– are they confident AF?
– what makes them different than you now? and how do you move closer to that?
2/ Don’t jump for the big guns right away
I know I know this seems counter intuitive – get the hard stuff out of the way, eat the frog, what we resist the most…. yada yada yada – I know all dem Pinterest quotes – I have a whole board of them Here and I believe that sometimes we need that harsh love of “ excuses don’t get results”
However – jumping for the goods right away {in my personal opinion} can shoot your confidence way downtown. It can become so overwhelming that it causes you either chicken out or ditch right after without doing anything else.
So my strategy is to hit an exercise/ machine you can crush and are mad confident in. It doesn’t need to be anything uber cray cray. I personally go for some shoulder presses. Something about lifting heavy $*!^ over my head makes me feel powerful and confident AF. But for you it may be a 20 min walk on the treadmill. Whatever you know you can crush no prob – 2 crunches? yea girl crush it!
This little bump of confidence will give you just the spark you need to go hit that squat rack or whatever it is that’s intimidating you. Even if you do one rep of that thing that intimidated you- you’re further than you were yesterday and then you can build on it tomorrow!
3/ Three words: Pump Up Music
Have a killer playlist that just makes you want to move that body! Ya feels?
I just recently created this one HERE – it’s been pumping me up whenever I am a bit nervous of well- basically anything but in particular my workouts!
There is so much research into our bodies responses to external stimuli like music that ti’s crazy not to utilize it’s powerful properties. I recently read somewhere that music w a lot of base in particular can boost our confidence – no wonder Meghan Trainer was all about dat base!
Bonus: Develop a growth mindset by asking yourself :
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What did I learn from today’s gym sesh?
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What steps did I take to make it a successful gym sesh?
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Where did you fail? {remember failure is good yo ✌️- it grows a growth mindset}
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How did you keep going when things got tough?
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What can you learn from your opponent today? {aka da gym}
PPS: There’s a thing or 2 about growth mindset and gym-timidation over on the Sweaty Yogi Rambles Podcast – go check it out for some totes unscripted rambles!
Afterwards to make sure that you keep growing and keep kicking that Gymtimidation to the curb anytime it rears its ugly head!
Those are my best kept secrets to making sure that gym-timidation doesn’t ruin my workout mojo.
DO you have any secrets for ditiching that gym-timidation? Or any way you boost your confidence in or out of they gym?
Lemmenoe Sweaty Friend & I’ll catch ya next time!
