You’ve been working all day, and you can’t wait for the chance to put in work at your local gym. You stroll into the gym and you are ready to hit the weights, when you see someone next to you swinging a 100-pound dumbbell. Your self-esteem starts circling down the drain, and you decide to come back tomorrow, or maybe next week, or whenever it is you can feel confident again.
The feeling described above actually happens more often than you think. According to dailymail.co, fifteen percent of women and four percent of men avoid going to the gym because of “gymtimidation,” or the fear of working out because of more “fit” gym-goers.
CEO Chris Rondeau of Planet Fitness, headquartered in New Hampshire, reveals that 85 percent of the population does not belong to a health club. Rondeau hopes that his fight against gymtimidation will help establish a “no judgement zone” — therefore encouraging more people to go to the gym. He also hopes that by having colorful purple and yellow walls and plasters around the gym will create a more friendly and fun atmosphere. He has also created commercials with the headline, “No Gymtimidation!” to define his gyms as ones void of judgment and intimidation.
Rondeau has also recently installed “lunk alarms” on each wall of his gym. Whenever someone grunts and throw judging looks at others, staffers and other gym-goers can trigger the lunk alarm, causing a harsh-sounding noise to spread throughout the gym.
According to Yvonne Tomas Ph.D., a renowned psychologist who specializes in self-esteem, instead of feeling sorry and gymtimidated, people should change their perspective by using these negative feelings as a motivator to pursue their fitness goals. “Turn that embarrassment into your motivator to get in shape,” she says.
Junior Weber Su often wakes up at 6 a.m. in the morning and bikes to his local YMCA. “I see some buff guys, but it’s not that I feel bad about myself. It’s good that they’re working out and keeping their body shape. I’m doing my stuff and they’re doing their stuff; they’re getting better and I’m getting better at the same time.”
Su expresses his thoughts on how gymtimidation is all mental. “I think people who are gymtimidated are just beating themselves up mentally that they’re really that weak, and they’re going to lessen their training because of it.”
When asked how to possibly beat gymtimidation, Su responds, “Just respect everyone you see.”
Senior Collin Liu is a regular gym-goer, but does not feel gymtimidation. “The gym consists of people of all shapes and sizes, and people exercise for different purposes or to achieve different goals. At the gym, people respect each other knowing that everyone there is just trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle.”
Liu reveals that if it were to affect him, like many people, he would feel uncomfortable going to the gym, and would have less commitment and go less often. “Not frequenting the gym will lead to even slower progress, and of course, more gymtimidation.”
Liu encourages gymtimidated people to work out with a buddy to ease their insecurities. “It’s all psychological. Going to the gym often is a good way to promote a healthy lifestyle physically and mentally. Not going to the gym often amplifies ‘gymtimidation’ and causes a domino effect of progressing even slower.”
