Remindher - Confidence in the Gym

Lifting weights is one of the best things a woman can do to strengthen her body and mind. Gyms are a fantastic place to work on this, but many women report feeling intimidated by the gym environment, either steering clear altogether or avoiding the weights room and sticking to cardio equipment or assisted machines. While any fitness is better than none, lifting free weights is where you will see the biggest change to strength, technique and body composition so it is empowering to break through and start training with weights!

The biggest block many women face is a lack of confidence to step onto the gym floor. Confidence in yourself is important to overcome discomfort and challenge to get into the habit of training regularly to make progress in your strength, body composition and mental wellbeing!

Here are some tips to help build confidence in yourself at the gym:

1. Remember you deserve to be there as much as anyone else. No matter your experience, age, size or strength you deserve to be in the weights room just as anyone else in there does. The gym is a place to work on you.

2. People are not there to judge you. People come to the gym to work on themselves, they are not there to judge others. However, the environment of a gym makes a huge difference to whether you feel intimidated and judged or not. I find small independent gyms, owned locally, tend to have a better culture and support system than big globo-gyms or franchises. While this is a generalisation, finding a space where the staff and other members have a non-judgemental policy plays a huge role in how you feel on the floor!

3. Don’t compare yourself to others in the gym. Remember everyone is there to focus on themselves and they all started somewhere, no matter how advanced they may be. Comparing yourself is a sure-fire way to feel disheartened. Every expert was once a beginner, focus on your journey, and being better than the person you were yesterday.

4. Practise. Habits build from repetition and the more you repeat something the easier it gets. Even if you feel uncomfortable, try getting out there and putting in the practise, both in your exercises and actually attending. What can help is starting by training at a time that is quieter or training with a friend or group to build momentum and reduce resistance to going.

5. Educate yourself - get coaching or training so you feel very comfortable with your form and technique. When you know you have correct form and technique, you feel much more comfortable performing exercises and are less likely to resort to exercises you do just because you like them or back to cardio equipment.

6. Strength train even if you cannot get to a gym. You can still get amazing results from training at home! Having minimal equipment is no barrier to still seeing amazing results. Strength training is what causes the positive response in the body, so following the home versions of the program you will still see incredible results

Remember that confidence comes from stepping outside your comfort zone towards what you want. Sometimes it may feel a little daunting but your health is worth it!