Confidence is amazing when you have, it but can be detrimental when you don’t. It’s very common to lack confidence in the gym, but don’t worry if this is you, as it can be easily fixed.
In this article I’m going to highlight a few of the areas that which people struggle with and highlight how this can be remedied and so improve your confidence.
Low confidence is just down to a lack of knowledge and can sometimes result in thinking to yourself that people are judging you for this.
I recently saw an individual carry out a few reps on the lat pull down (with not the best of forms) and then quite sheepishly look around to check if anyone is watching. At the time I wasn’t coaching so was able to go over and take 5 minutes to help them improve their form.
I explained about the muscles they were working, how to contract them properly, how to execute the exercise safely and correctly allowing them to get the most from it.
When speaking to this person they were keen to tell me that they didn’t really know what they were doing and were worried that people would be looking and thinking this.
I assured them that no one was as they would be busy doing their own workouts.
Following this and over the next few days I saw this person enter the gym, go to the very exercise machine we worked on and complete his reps with good form, not once stopping to look around. I could see that their confidence in this respect had greatly increased.
This person then asked me to take them through a full workout, as feeling confident from mastering one exercise, they wanted to know what it felt like to carry out a complete routine correctly.
From being nervous and a high build-up of anxiety prior to training, to feeling comfortable and confident now that is a transformation of its own!
My point is don’t ever worry about other people in the gym everyone is focused on their own session.
But when you know how to do something correctly you will not be thinking about other people as you will be focused on yourself and getting the results you wish for.
If you don’t know how to do an exercise properly and you need some guidance, take the first step by asking a ‘good’ Personal Trainer to show you. If you train at one of my gyms, I’ll always be happy to give you some pointers!
