Going to the gym for the first time as a woman can be quite nerve wracking, there is no doubt about that.
There are a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes that come to mind, but don’t let your FOWO (fear of working out) stop you from setting physical goals or trying something new. I asked 14 of my girlfriends what were the top reasons why they didn’t like going to the gym and rounded up 4 most common ones. In this blog we will take a look at 2 of those, with part 2 coming soon! It’s time we take back our FOWO, and I’m here to tell you how!
FEAR #1 I don’t want to bulk up, so I don’t want to go to the gym.
Bulking is a combination of diet and exercise with the goal of gaining more lean body mass. A massive portion of the training to bulk up involves what someone eats. Believe it or not, bulking up is not an easy thing to do. You have to be extremely specific with the amount of exercise and type of fuel that you give your body to get the results that you want. Having said that, I’m going to be perfectly honest with you here. If you exercise, you will gain muscle and if you gain muscle, you will gain weight and that is just the way it is. At the same time, you will also probably lose fat percentage, your waist, hips, legs, arms will all appear more ‘toned’, and your energy levels will skyrocket. This ‘toned’ look that we see on Instagram models is all the craze right now, and as a trainer, I get a lot of younger women asking me to help them get more toned by giving them cardio routines or light/no weight exercises.
I get a lot of surprised and even nervous looks when I tell them to incorporate squats, bench press, deadlifts or any other ‘manly’ lift into their routine. The most common response I’ll get is ‘oh no, but I don’t want to bulk’.
I’d like to make a quick observation about that statement. There is a very small percentage of women who actually try to bulk up and these are primarily professional athletes and professional bodybuilders. They work with very specific weights at very specific rep ranges in order for their muscles to hypertrophy. The average women will not be working at these rep ranges, unless she has a specific goal. By incorporating compound lifts like squats or bench press into your routine and staying in a 12-15 rep range you will be increasing your strength without necessarily causing hypertrophy to your muscles, meaning that no, you won’t go up a jeans size, your muscles will begin to gain more definition and you’ll get one hell of an endorphin rush after too.
Doing an easy workout (whatever that may be for you) won’t bring about any physical change since you will be exercising at a level that your body has already adapted to. You must push your body in a way that it is forced to adapt to the increased stress you are putting on it, and you’ll only be able to achieve that by increasing the load with which you are exercising. So ladies, don’t be afraid to leave the cardio section. Take the plunge and try something new. Weights are your friend whether or not you are striving for that summer body!
FEAR #2 I don’t know what to do.
It’s understandable that no one likes to look stupid when trying something new. When we are uncomfortable we always think that everyone’s eyes are on us. Well I’m here to tell you that they actually aren’t (sorry!). When I am at the gym I rarely notice what anyone else is doing because I am always absorbed in my own workout. Having said that, it did take me a while to become comfortable in a gym setting, so here are a few tricks I did when I was first starting out.
- Use the internet! One of the best things about YouTube is that everyone loves to film themselves giving a tutorial. There are tutorials on virtually every exercise known to man. I used to watch them and plan out a workout before I would get to the gym so I wouldn’t look confused when I got there
- Bring a friend! Go workout together if you are nervous about heading to the weights section. At least if you make a mistake you’ll have a friend to laugh about it with you, and it will diffuse the tension of trying to look absolutely perfect while exercising.
- Ask the weight room staff. Every staff member who is not simply working the front desk will have their BCRPA certification (or equivalent). They are qualified to help you with any machine/exercise you may be having trouble with. It may not be the ‘coolest’ thing to do, but you know you’ll be getting the best advice possible by a trained professional.
Read PART 2!
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Lydia-Rose Kerouac-Dube
Professional Training Coach
Innovative Fitness Kitsilano
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