Getting into exercise isn’t just a matter of summoning the willpower to sweat for half an hour on the treadmill. It’s also about overcoming your fears. And there can be many of them.
The word “lazy” doesn’t apply here. It would be more accurate to say that you were scared more than anything else.
So what are your exercise fears? And how can you solve them so that you can get the body you’ve always wanted?
Fear Of Hurting Yourself
If you’ve not done much training in the past in a gym, you can fear hurting yourself. You worry about feeling pain beyond the usual discomfort of exercise, such as a torn muscle or ruptured ligament.
These fears are genuine. People do hurt themselves in the gym. But there are several ways around the problem.
The first is always to practice proper form. Doing an exercise in the right way dramatically reduces that chance you will seriously hurt yourself.
Second, don’t use heavy weights. Go for more reps instead until you feel more confident. If you’re starting out in the gym, there is practically no reason to add enormous poundage to the bar.
Third, warm up before you start training. Do a lightweight practice set if you’re doing resistance exercise. Sure, your gym session will take a little longer than usual. But that’s better than injuring yourself, right?
Fear Of Looking Foolish
Sometimes you can fear looking foolish because you don’t know precisely how to use a specific piece of equipment.
The solution to this problem is easy: just watch what other people do. Most will get the technique right (or not radically wrong). Then you can copy them when it’s your turn.
Fear Of Looking Bad
For years, brands have been empowering women and men in the gym by providing amazing clothes. There’s no reason, therefore, you have to turn up to an exercise class looking frumpy. You can adapt pretty much any look you like these days. Gym clothes look just as stylish as their regular counterparts.
Fear Of Failing
Fear of failure is something that dogs a lot of people throughout their lives. They’re unwilling to take on new challenges, just in case they fail, and it reflects poorly on them.
Fearing failure at the gym is no exception. You want to lose weight, but you’re unsure whether you’ll be able to do it. To avoid thinking badly of yourself, you avoid going altogether and never get closer to your goals.
The trick here is to avoid setting the bar too high. You should set achievable, manageable objectives – things that you can do in a month or less. Then keep track of how close you’re coming to achieving them.
Goals can be as simple as turning up to the gym three times a week or going for a 20-minute jog on the treadmill on a Monday evening.
Long-term goals are always the result of short term objectives. So use that as your motivation to get to where you’d like to be.
Recent Comments