- Overcome gym anxiety by taking a buddy with you to the gym: you'll feel more at ease, especially if they go to the gym often and can show you the ropes.
- Figure out your routine as much as possible before going to the gym so you don't feel too overwhelmed once you get there.
- Try to channel your anxiety into excitement: instead of dreading going to the gym, try to look at it as a thrilling new experience.
How to Alleviate Gym Anxiety
Find out as much as you can about the gym before going. Look at photos online, walk past the building in the days leading up to your gym day, scroll through the facility’s website—basically, get as comfortable as you can with the gym before you go so you know just what to expect. This may help calm some of the butterflies in your stomach. Some facilities offer tours to new or prospective members. Check out your gym’s website or speak to an employee to find out if you can tour the gym prior to working out. Researching the gym ahead of time may make it easier for you to plan your workout routine before going to the gym, which is one more way to alleviate some of the jitters. If you're nervous about working out in a crowd, avoid peak hours, if you can. People often like to work out in the morning before work, on their lunch breaks, right after work during the 5:00 rush hour, and on the weekends. Aim to go during regular weekday work hours if possible, before 5 a.m., or at night if your gym is open 24/7.
Practice deep breathing. You may be able to alleviate your anxiety by performing some simple breathing techniques. Deep breathing exercises may help calm your body down and focus your mind away from intrusive or repetitive thoughts. Try the 4-7-8 breathing technique: breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds, hold the breath for 7 seconds, and then exhale through your mouth for 8 seconds.
Start slowly. There’s no need to go from 0 to 100 in one day. Commit to going for 10 minutes on your first day—or even 1 minute. The next time you go, aim to stay longer. And even if you know you eventually want to get into, say, lifting, you don’t have to do anything scary or new on your first day in the gym: you can scope out the situation from afar and stick to less daunting equipment until you feel more comfortable. If you commit to staying at the gym for 1 minute, it’s likely you’ll end up staying even longer. But even if you don’t, that’s fine! You’ve already given yourself permission to leave.
Channel your anxiety into excitement. Sometimes a simple tweak to your perspective can make all the difference. When you feel your heart racing from nerves, say to yourself, “I’m so excited to be going to the gym today!” Intentionally shifting your perspective to be more optimistic can help turn those nervous butterflies into a fun thrill. Remember, working out is an act of self-love. Framing going to the gym as a form of self-care may make it less nerve-wracking. As a bonus, the physiological response to your anxiety/excitement will give you lots of energy to work out.
Use social comparison as motivation. When you first start working out, lifting beside someone with a Lou Ferrigno physique can be intimidating, but it's important to remember that everyone starts at level zero, and that with time and hard work, you'll start to feel more confident about your body and your abilities. Instead of feeling discouraged by comparing yourself to the people around you at the gym, try to use it as a motivational tool: if they can do it, so can you. Once you've begun working out more, you may also feel more confident comparing your current self to your former self: look how far you've come in a month, 6 months, or a year!
Work out with friends. The buddy system is a great method for facing an overwhelming new experience. There’s power in numbers, so take a class where you can meet new people, or invite a friend to go to the gym with you—maybe you could even ask a friend who already goes to the gym so they can show you the ropes. Not only can working out with a friend make you feel more reassured and confident, it can also hold you accountable for working out: studies show people who work out with friends are more likely to stay physically active than those who don’t. If you're a woman and feel self-conscious about engaging in male-dominated exercises, consider taking a women's-only class or going to a gym with women-only areas.
If you have a trainer or instructor, ask them what to expect. Lots of folks go to the gym alone, but if you’re taking a class or using a personal trainer, ask them what the game plan is ahead of time. They’ll likely be happy to tell you what to expect from your day at the gym, which can make it a whole lot less nerve-wracking. If you’re taking a class with someone you know, you could also ask them what to expect from the class.
Just start exercising. Ironically, the thing you came to the gym to do is a great way to overcome your gym anxiety. Exercising has been proven time and again to alleviate feelings of depression and anxiety and to boost your self-esteem. If you can manage to ignore your anxiety enough to start moving your body, your anxiety is likely to fade. If possible, consider starting with the workout you find least intimidating—for instance, if you’ve never lifted weights before but you’ve used the treadmill, stick to what you know on your first few days at the gym until you feel a little more confident. Listen to upbeat and/or familiar music or a fave podcast while you're there. It might keep you focused, energized, and comfortable as well as help drown out any noise from people around you, which could eliminate some social anxiety.
What is gym anxiety?
Gym anxiety refers to nervousness about going to the gym. If you’re new to the gym (or working out in general), walking into a gym for the first time can feel like entering a strange and mysterious land. It can be daunting to feel like you don’t know where to go or how to use the equipment, especially if you’re self-conscious about your body. You might experience symptoms of anxiety when going to the gym (or even just thinking about it), like a racing heart or uncontrollable worrying. You might feel like everyone’s watching you and maybe even judging you. Though the gym is meant to help you get into shape, if you’ve got gym anxiety, you might paradoxically feel as if you aren’t “fit” enough to be there.
Common Triggers of Gym Anxiety
You’re a beginner. Starting something new is almost always daunting. If you’re new to gym life or to working out in general, you’re likely to feel some anxiety on your first day at the gym just because you don’t know what’s going to happen: what equipment are you supposed to use? How do you use it? What if you mess up and everyone laughs at you? (You might logically know that they won’t, but it doesn't necessarily help.) Being a beginner is often hard, but the societal pressure that often accompanies working out—the pressure to be fit and conform to a specific body type—can increase your anxiety tenfold.
You don’t feel like you belong. If you ever had to transfer to a new school in the middle of the year, going to the gym for the first time might bring back unpleasant flashbacks of feeling like the “new kid.” You might feel like everyone has a clique already, and that you’ll just never fit in. It’s not just that the people at the gym are strangers; you might also feel like they’re solidly entrenched in “gym culture,” and you’re…well, not (yet!).
You’ve just switched gyms. Even if you’re no stranger to gym life, a new gym is a new gym. Adapting to change is always hard: there’s new equipment, a new layout, new people, new policies. If you’ve recently switched to a different gym, you might understandably worry about not fitting in with the new crowd or that things might work differently here than at your old haunt. What if you have to go to the bathroom and you can’t find it? You used to end your workouts with a refreshing smoothie, but what if this gym doesn’t have a smoothie bar? These might be small concerns on their own, but figuring out a whole new routine can be incredibly nerve-wracking.
You have to change in front of people. If you have to change in a public locker room, it can cause a lot of stress, especially if you’re not comfortable with your body. Some people change at home before going to the gym, but if you’re coming to the gym straight from work, it might not be an option.
Social comparison. Many people struggle with comparing themselves to others, and the gym is a really easy place to do that. If you’re new to the gym and uncertain about whether you belong and maybe self-conscious about your body or your abilities, you might find yourself unfairly comparing yourself to the Arnold Schwarzenegger-looking guy lifting weights in the corner. Not only is it discouraging to compare yourself to gym buffs, but you might also worry that other people in the gym are comparing you too. It can really mess with your head!
The gym is super crowded. If you’re nervous around crowds, going to the gym at peak hours can leave you feeling like your heart’s going to burst out of your chest. Being stuck in a crowd of strangers can be overwhelming enough on its own, but having to work out amongst them can really make you anxious.
You’re a woman trying to use male-dominated equipment. Working out isn’t just for dudes, but there’s still a lot of societal pressure on women to only work out in certain ways or to leave certain equipment to the men. If you’re a woman who wants to try strength training, it can be intimidating to go to the gym and see only men using that equipment. Even if nobody says anything, you might still feel uncomfortable being the only woman using a male-dominated piece of equipment.
Final Thoughts
Gym anxiety is common, and it usually goes away in time. It's easy to feel like you're the only one experiencing anxiety, the only one who feels uncertain or as if they just don't belong, and that shame can make the anxiety even worse. But remember, even the big buff muscled all-star deadlifting next to you probably experienced gym anxiety at some point. Not only will you likely overcome your nerves in time, but odds are, to everyone around you, you just look like a normal everyday person working out at the gym. "Fake it 'til you make it" is a cliché for a reason. You will make it, we promise.
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