My Personal Progress Over The Years & Battling Gym Anxiety

Lift Clique Issue 003: January 23, 2025

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Greetings, earthlings. What are some ways you stop the putrid little voice in your head that pops up at gym time and tells you you’re worthless?

Headphones. Hydrate. Airplane mode. Those are a few ways I really plug in for my workouts and stay calm and focused. I remember a time, though, when it was really difficult for me to tap into another mode for my workouts. I wouldn’t always know which muscle group I wanted to work on until I got into the weight room. Then I’d feel confused about what movements to do, or the right order to do them in.

Of course with all that uncertainty came some anxiety—Am I lifting an embarrassingly low weight? Does this workout even make sense? Is everyone in here judging me?Thoughts like that kept me from really experiencing the sensation of living within and being connected to my body. And those thoughts didn’t organically just stop after I’d gained some experience—ten years into having a regular gym schedule, I still sometimes feel like an anxious newbie when I enter the weight room.

Here’s the story of my entire fitness journey, plus photos and tips for how I shut down negative self-talk in the gym.