Phase 1 session 1: Fearless lifting
Transcript:
Why fearless lifting?
I’d like to preface this with a few things. I don’t mean to pass any judgement or sound dismissive at all, this comes from a good place and I myself struggled with anxiety. I even had gym anxiety and still experience that sometimes. So please don’t take any of this the wrong way.
So you might be here because you feel intimidated by weights or by the gym floor in general. You might avoid certain exercises because you’re afraid of doing it wrong or you lack confidence with it. You might even avoid certain lifts because you’re afraid of hurting yourself.
One thing I often hear is they feel like people are looking at them, and while that might be true, sometimes people are so self conscious that someone looking over in their direction will trigger them. Our goal is to end up in a position where if someone is looking at you, it’s because they’re like wow she knows what she’s doing, look at how much weight she’s lifting.
First and foremost, it’s important to start small and focus on proper form as well as mobility. Don't be afraid to start with lighter weights or even do bodyweight movements in your spare time. So many of my clients have done really well with learning new movement patterns by practising them outside of the gym.
As far as limitation of mobility goes, here’s an example. If you can’t get into a squat position you shouldn’t be adding much weight to it, you can do lighter goblet squats or light Zercher squats but definitely don’t go to back squats, until you’ve worked on developing the correct movement pattern.
By looking at these key areas and becoming more used to the exercise you’ll increase your confidence and ability to do the movement. So rather than going to the gym floor and picking up a weight and thinking, oh my god I don’t even know if I’m squatting correctly, you can think okay, I know what a squat is, I know I can do it, I’m just adding weight to it now.
I’d suggest these steps…
Know the movement - if you’re training by yourself make sure you know what exercise you’re doing before going to the gym (you could watch videos to do this)
Start with mobility - Make sure can physically move in the way you need to before doing the exercise with weight and do additional stretches if necessary
Start lighter - you should be gradually warming up anyway and there’s nothing wrong with picking up a weight and doing just one set then changing the weight
Learn by doing - Don’t rush through the exercise, take your time and focus on the movement, focus on you and not what everyone else is doing around you
Reflect/review - Ask yourself these questions…How did that feel? Was there any pain or discomfort? Any instability? Figure out what you could do differently
So even when you’re training with a Personal Trainer, they don’t know what you’re feeling so being able to communicate these things will be so useful.
I can’t stress this enough, lifting weights can be uncomfortable, but it shouldn’t be painful. If you feel back pain, knee pain, anything like that, that’s not normal. It’s common, but not normal.
Sometimes people do move a certain way because subconsciously they’re afraid of hurting themselves again after experiencing an injury in the past, this can also affect your movement pattern which is something you should work on.
Accidents can happen, and minor injuries will occur at some point, but you can prevent repetitive injuries from working on your weaknesses. You can also reduce back pain and knee pain by strength training too, so don’t let that put you off.
Another aspect of this is that you should set realistic goals, no one should be going into the gym and doing a 1 rep max deadlift on day one, it just doesn’t happen. It can be easy to get caught up in what other people are doing or where other people are in their fitness journey.
Remember that practice makes progress, lifting weights is a skill that takes time to develop, and progress is not always linear. It is important to stay committed to your goals and continue to work on improving your technique and strength over time.
It is also really valuable to surround yourself with supportive people. So if your gym isn’t that friendly, you might want to get a gym buddy to train with or make use of an online community like this one.
Finally, remember that everyone started somewhere. No one was born knowing how to lift weights or use gym equipment. Even the most experienced lifters had to start with the basics and work their way up. So don't be too hard on yourself, be patient and enjoy the process.
