The gym is a stressful place. And for someone with social anxiety of any kind, the gym is where all your nightmares come true. Cold sweats. Instant regret. And you know what, prior to my recent gym experience, my number one tip would have been: Never go to the gym. It is stupid and terrifying and only dweebs go who feel the need to overcompensate in their life.



But clearly that was just me hiding from going to the gym, because that’s what people with anxiety do. We hide from things that are uncomfortable. We make excuses to avoid this awkwardness. And the gym can be one of the most uncomfortable and awkward places in the world. So without further ado, here are my tips for going to the gym with anxiety. They are not in order of importance, so just live your dreams and pick any of them that help you and ignore the ones that don’t. Disclaimer: This doesn’t apply to a boxing gym per se, this is more for people looking to go the gym in general. Sorry suckas. LESSSGOOOOOOO.



Tip #1: As the Greek God of Enslaved Child Labour says: Just Do It. But in your case, make like a classic sexual mistake and Do It With a Friend. Don’t try going to the gym alone first. It’s a very intimidating experience. You have to go through the sign-up process, people asking you all kinds of questions, you’ll want to walk out the door immediately. Find an excellent, understanding friend who is already well established at a gym near by and have them hold your hand through the process and you will have succeeded in joining a gym. I would even suggest doing a training session with a personal trainer and your friend because doing it alone with a strange personal trainer is a nightmare I would never wish on anyone. Also if you are with your friend there is a less chance of you walking the fck out of there at the first sign of any awkwardness.



Tip #2: Treat Yo-Self. This one is a biy tougher, because I know we all don’t have disposable income for those sweet ass gym clothes. But. If you do have any extra kwan, do yourself a favour and buy yourself at least one ballin’ gym outfit. You can find some pretty inexpensive yet still fly clothes on Amazon. It might take a couple of tries with sizing, and returning (cuz obviously we ain’t going shopping and trying on clothes at an athletic store bc that idea just seems crazy), but once you’ve got your ballin’ outfit, you might just feel like going to the gym a little more because hey, you spent the money, might as well flaunt your new gym look. GYM LOOK ON FLEEK. *I googled “Ethical sportswear brands” and fck me every brand that showed up was expensive as fck but Adidas was one of the only major names on the list and you could prolly grab some outlet adidas and look fleek and still be four happy faces out of five on the ethical scale.*



Tip #3: Try An Activity. This one might not apply to everyone, but as this is a boxing blog, it won’t be a surprise to know that 90% of my gym time revolves around boxing. Which is awesome. Because I love boxing. Lifting weights? Not so much. Actually kind of hate it. Pretending I’m the ultimate combination of Mayweather’s technicality, Wilder’s power, Joshua’s physique, Lomachenko’s grace, and Crawford’s slickness is really more my jam #boxingflex #therealones So if there is an activity you like, be it anything, yoga, muay thai, boxing, cycling, try that instead of just doing Leg Day, Arm Day etc… because those I find are more intimidating to get into. It still counts as going to the gym my dudes! And you will feel better and more confident that you went.



Tip #4: Go to a Class. I am fronting when I present this tip. I have never been to a class. They freak me out. Way too scary. Large group situations doing things I am not completely confident in, no chance. I’m actually fronting in this whole article because the only reason I was able to get into the gym was because my high school friend is a professional boxer who does personal training and so it was a safe enough environment to try it out, but even then took months of working up to sending that trying-so-hard-to-be-casual DM saying “Hey man, if I wanted to take some boxing lessons with you how would it work?”. #gymprivilege

So maybe this isn’t a great tip. But combine this tip with Go With A Friend and it should be much more do-able.



Tip #5: Google Is Your Friend. I know this one seems simple, but man, I always forget you can just google anything in the world. My partner is a genius who also took me on a gym day and showed me how to use all the machines, and on her phone she had “Basic Arm Day Workout” and a list with pictures and everything. I had been going to the gym for months. Literally months. And had never googled “basic arm day workout”. I am an idiot. Literally the only arm exercises I was doing were things I saw in movies and sometimes my partner showed me what she did at Body Pump and I would mentally note it and add it as my new arm exercise. Sometimes I really wonder if I have anxiety or I am just really, really dumb.



Tip #6: No One Cares What You Look Like At The Gym. Say it again for the people in the back: No One Cares What You Look Like At The Gym. Honestly tho. Still working on this one. I still believe everyone cares. I believe I am constantly being judged at the gym. And you will probably feel like that too. So I guess the only way we can get over that is to keep telling ourselves, people actually don’t care. Even if they maybe do. They really don’t. Ooof. We’ll work on this one together.



Tip #7: Track Your Progress. We are getting out of the anxiety phase and more just the gym phase but I really find tracking your progress with little videos or notes on goals you have reached or beaten helps motivate you to keep going to the gym because you are like “holy crap I am actually getting better at something”.



This post is actually going to be organic because if anxiety at the gym has taught me anything it is that it always rears its ugly head in new and unexpected ways. So as I continue to grow and learn I’ll update this.



For now, hopefully this helps you face your fears even a little and you can finally get out to that gym and your mom will finally get off your case about going to the gym cuz she low key body shames you and you don’t have to think “SHUT UP MOM” anymore cuz you finally go to the gym and she was probably right anyway because you are going to be healthier and that was her main concern (OR WAS IT MOM YOU SNAKE!?!).