Lovely workout this morning. While I didn’t get in at 5:30, I did pretty much started my day with a workout, a shower and a nice walk.
Now that I’ve got pics of myself out there, I feel free to rant about something.
I work for the gym where I work out. It’s a nice. You know, friendly — a clean, well-lighted place.
One of the things that one runs across in the fitness industry[1] quite often is someone who wants to get more fit but is afraid they won’t “fit in” – too heavy, too old, too many disabilities…
Friends, the picture in my previous post was hardly that of a svelte gym bunny. And I don’t catch any shit from anyone. Ever[2].
My gym, having a good, warm pool is very popular among the elderly for aqua fitness. There are people who come in who need walkers.
But they come in.
If you want to join a gym and are worried about whether or not you’ll fit in?
Stop worrying. No-one really cares. Well, okay, some of the hard cores will approve of someone making a start on the fitness journey. Other than that, it’ll be mostly blissful indifference ‘cause they’re sweating too hard to worry about it. But a lot of the fear is in your mind. Seriously.
It took me a long time to get the guts to go into the weight room. I was doing my dumbbell workouts, and I was seeing a lot of success with them. I was happy with my progress, but wanted to go ahead and start using the weight room at the gym where I had a pool membership. But I was scared – scared of being mistreated, scared of being made to feel I didn’t belong, scared of looking like an idiot.
If you read things like Testosterone Nation and some such, with a lot of their very harsh comments about fat people, it’s understandable that you might be a little scared. I’m increasingly of the opinion that it’s a loudmouthed minority[3] who really only behave that way from behind the computer screen. I mean come on, if a woman is strong enough to lift a 15 lb kettlebell, she’s strong enough to brain you with it from behind. Who wants to risk that? You’re much more likely to face online nastiness than you are actually in the gym. Not trashing the site. There’s some good info there. Just read the articles and ignore the chest beating. Or, hang it up and go to Stumptuous for your info. It’s just as macho. <grin>