Feeling too fat to step inside a gym?
I have solutions to this conundrum that afflicts so many overweight people. Use my approaches and you will never be afraid to set foot inside a gym ever again.
There will always be waves of overweight and obese people who consider themselves “too fat” to work out at a gym.
Being that you found this article, I’m going to assume that you feel this way (though some thinner people may be reading this just to see what I say).
There are solutions for overcoming your self-consciousness or your feeling of being “too fat” to step foot inside a gym.
The first one is to remind yourself what gyms are for. They serve many purposes:
• Build muscle
• Turn back the clock for older people
• Enhance athletic skills
• Train for a bodybuilding or powerlifting competition
• Improve health
• Lose weight
Do you see that last bullet point?
So if you were to enter your gym, nobody’s going to think, “Jeez o’ mighty, what is SHE doing inside this place? She doesn’t belong here! What IS she thinking?”
Remind yourself of that. Nobody is going to think you’re out of place no matter how hefty you are.
Who’s going to think that an obese person doesn’t belong on a stationary bike?
This reasoning alone may be enough to cure your feeling of being too fat to be inside of a health club.
But if it’s not, here’s another way to end this problem once and for all:
Put yourself in the shoes of the gym’s sales staff.
Pretend you have their job. Sales staff get a commission every time they get someone to purchase a membership.
Do you really think that any of those salespeople DON’T want overweight women or men buying memberships?
Do you have kids? If so, you’d agree it’s not cheap raising kids. There may be braces down the road, tennis lessons, computers, smartphones, clothes, shoes, hair cuts, the list is endless.
So imagine you’re a salesperson at a health club, and a 300 pound woman walks in, inquiring at the front desk about memberships, and you overhear this…and the other day you just learned your older child needs braces.
Hmmm…you’d be hurrying over to that person before any of the other sales staff could get a chance.
You’d welcome that person and start giving them a tour of the facility, hoping to dear God that they’ll buy a membership.
And they do! Yippee! But you keep your cool, of course, but you know that your commission will help pay off the braces.
And next week you see that 300 pound person walk through the entrance doors, gym bag slung over shoulder. Do you then think:
• Dang, she doesn’t belong here!
• Doggone, what IS she doing here?
• For Pete’s sake, she needs to leave this building at once!
No sir. In fact, you wish she’d bring in her family and friends, and in fact, you gave her your business card telling her you’d like referrals if she knows anyone who might want to join the gym.
You don’t give a hoot if they’re 300 pounds!
With all that said, how can you feel too fat to exercise at a gym?
A health club is a business. The owner, manager and sales staff want as many people (any size) as possible to fill it up on any given day. This means more money for them.
I see plus size people at the gym every time I’m there. I have never, ever, ever thought, “Good Lord, that person needs to exit this building; they don’t belong here!”
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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