By teaching spin at the gym grants me a free membership. Sweet right? I’ve been teaching there since last February. Last week was the first time I used the gym other than teaching a spin class. Why?
Gym Phobia. Gym Phobia is many things to many people, but it is essentially the fear of going to the gym and working out in front of others.
I obviously don’t really “fear” the gym since I go each week to teach spin. But why was I avoiding it the rest of the time.
1. I sweat like a beast .. There are certain colors I avoid with my gym attire. Gray is one of the worst ones. Oh let me just show you the exact outline of my sports bra by changing the whole shirt to dark gray because there is so much sweat .. ha!
2. The machines intimidate me. I feel like an idiot when I go to use a machine and I don’t even know how to adjust the seat.
3. I compare. When I’m running at the gym I think people are judging me how slow I’m going, that person is in such better shape than me, or how I don’t look nearly as good in my yoga pants as that girl does.
… You know what all of these are? Excuses. Everyone sweats.. get over it! Everyone had to learn how to use a machine the first time they used it. No one is judging.. and if they are who cares what they think.
The bottom line is… WHO CARES about everyone else! Everyone is at the gym to be healthy, reach their fitness goals, and workout. Nothing should get in the way of becoming the best, healthy version of yourself.
Each gym session I become more comfortable and confident in myself that the above excuses just seem silly.
Anyway back to the workouts for this week.
Monday 12/09
Plan: teach spin class, volleyball game
Actual: 2 mile run – increasing the speed every .5 miles, played volleyball game
Monday mornings my spin class is 5:45 am. There was rain that froze over the night before and was not feasible to drive in the morning. I called the gym to cancel and later they called me back that no one came anyway.
Tuesday 12/10
Plan: subbing a spin class, 10 minutes stair master
Actual: Taught 1 hour spin class
The spin class was awesome! The room was packed and everyone was full of energy! One of my favorite reasons to teach. Didn’t end up doing the stair master. They were all taken with people even waiting behind them to use them. Never saw the gym so packed before.
Wednesday 12/11
Plan: 2 mile run
Actual: 2 mile run at a faster pace, 1.5 mile walk while studying, 10 min stair master.
The run felt good. Slowly getting my running endurance back. Today was focusing more on speed. Right now I’m studying for my RD exam. I’ve been bringing my notes everywhere. I actually got a lot of studying done while on the treadmill. Since I missed the stair master plan yesterday, I squeezed it in today.
Thursday 12/12
Plan: teach spin
Actual: taught 1 hour spin class
See spin playlist below.
Friday 12/13
Plan: 4 mile run (faster than last week)
Actual: 4 miles on the treadmill at the gym. Negative splits! No walk breaks!!!
Going into the run I wasn’t really feeling it. Half way through I almost quit. I kept telling myself I did it last week and I can do it again. It was harder with increased speed.
Saturday 12/14
Plan: teach spin class, 12 minute stair master
Actual: 1 hour spin class
2 people came to my spin class today… womp! It started snowing hard about a half hour before the class was about to start. I wasn’t really surprised. I didn’t want to drive in the snow either! The gym was empty. Decided to skip the stair master and get home before the roads got worse.
Sunday 12/15
Plan: 3 miles run/walk 2:1, increasing the speed every run interval
Actual: 3 miles run/walk 2:1
Why do the 1 min walk breaks seem to go by so fast and the 2 minutes feel like forever!? This workout kicked my butt. The speed pretty much goes 3x the pace I regularly run at. I was able to stick to the 2:1 the whole run this week.
Feeling good about this week. Definitely feel like I’m getting back in my running groove.
(1 hour spin playlist)
Do you have any gym phobias? How did you overcome them?
I was the same at first, making sure to wear baggy clothes whenever I went to the gym whenever I first signed up because compared to most of the girls there – I was well out of shape!
Three years along the line and now I’m even wearing those fitness tights! I have come a long way and now I don’t care about the others in the gym, not in a comparison way anyway, I am there not to look good at the time, but to feel better with myself both inside and outside afterwards. Being active makes such a big difference in my day-to-day life 😀 And don’t worry, I suffer from all of the above too, except the phobia part, you get over it eventually 🙂 x
I get how you feel, I feel so self conscious if I’m having a ‘fat day’ in the gym. Have you ever thought about learning how to lift properly with free weights? That really helped my confidence when I started out 🙂