Have You Ever Felt Uncomfortable at the Gym?

The end of the year is the perfect time to write your list of “New Year’s resolutions.” Very often one of those goals is: “Get in shape,” “I want a fitter lifestyle,” “I want to lose weight,” “I want to look good for summer,” “I want to feel comfortable in my own body.”

And at that moment you know it’s time to look for a gym, dig your workout clothes out of the drawer, and maybe even work up the courage to contact a coach or personal trainer to help you with a routine and finally take on your personal challenge once and for all, while your mind tells you, “THIS YEAR, FOR SURE.”

A study by the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) shows that almost 50% of people who sign up at a gym quit before reaching 6 months of training. Out of every three people who quit the gym, two are women. As a result, another year will come to an end with the original resolution still unfulfilled and ready to go back on the list at the start of the next year, while you deal with the guilt and frustration of watching this goal slip through your fingers.

But… why does this happen?

One important cause, and probably one of the most overlooked, has to do with the comfort a person feels inside the gym. The more uncomfortable you feel in a place you go to of your own free will, the less likely you are to go back. That’s why you need to take a look at what is making you feel that level of discomfort.

• Is it that I don’t like the place where I chose to train? (THE GYM)
• Is it because I train on my own and don’t really know what I’m doing to get results? (TRAINING WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT I’M DOING)
• Does the coach or personal trainer I chose not understand me? (IGNORED NEEDS)
• The people around me all look better than I do. I find it hard to make friends. (INNER FEARS – ENVIRONMENT)
• I chose a schedule that turned out to be hard for me to keep. (MANAGING TIME)
• I chose a gym that’s far away from me. (MANAGING DISTANCE)
• I feel like I’m not making progress toward my goals, or that progress is very slow. (NO RESULTS)

To get stronger, you have to work smarter, not harder

Feeling comfortable has to do, first of all, with feeling welcome in the place where you train, like it’s your second home. You should feel that there are people in charge who take care of keeping the place clean and also of your safety, in the sense that the coaches or your personal trainer keep you from getting injured by a bad movement.

Working smart means getting the results you’re looking for in the shortest possible time and in an ecological way, that is, without affecting other areas of your life. To do that, it’s essential to have professionals who can advise you on training, nutrition and supplementation. Being able to talk to your trainer and share how you feel is extremely important: “I feel tired,” “I’m anxious,” “I’m still hungry on this diet,” “yesterday’s routine felt way too hard,” “I want to review my goals”… You should be able to say things like this, and for that you need to build a relationship of trust and adjust the strategy to get the results you want in the time you want. You can do this much better with proper guidance from someone who knows how to understand your needs and adapt to your goals.

It’s key to understand that all of us gym lovers started from zero at some point and found ourselves surrounded by people who were much more advanced and showing off their well-trained bodies, but that’s something that will happen in any area of life you start out in. Accepting that you’re a beginner is essential to embracing the changes you long for. You can challenge your inner fears if you connect with your inner motivation. To find out what it is, ask yourself: WHY DO I WANT TO SEE THESE CHANGES IN MY LIFE? This question is tremendously powerful; it will let you picture and lay out, with your personal trainer or coach, what you really want, and together you’ll be able to map out a proper plan that shows you how you’re going to reach that goal. That motivation will help you feel more comfortable at the gym. If you do all of this, chances are that a year from now you’ll take on the gym challenge again, but in a different way: “THIS YEAR, TOO!”