You’re Going To The Gym… So Why Do You Still Feel Unsure?

Maybe you’ve been going to the gym for a few months.

Maybe it’s been a few years.

You’re comfortable enough walking through the door.

You know a handful of exercises. You can get a workout done.

But there are still those little moments where you’re not quite sure…

Is my technique actually right?

Am I using the right weight?

How hard should this set feel?

When should I increase the weight?

What do I do if the equipment I need is busy?

Should that exercise feel like that?

And if you’ve been going to the gym for a while, you might even feel like these are things you should know by now.

But why would you?

Nobody really teaches you this stuff

Most people’s introduction to the gym is basically:

Join gym → find a workout → try to figure it out.

You might watch a few videos.

Copy what someone else is doing.

Stick to the machines you’re comfortable with.

Follow a programme from an app.

And over time, you definitely become more familiar with the gym.

But familiarity and confidence aren’t necessarily the same thing.

You can be perfectly comfortable walking through the door while still quietly guessing your way through parts of your training.

Because knowing a few exercises isn’t the same as knowing how to train to achieve a rersult.

Gym confidence is made up of skills

I don’t really see confidence as something you either have or you don’t.

There are practical skills underneath it.

Things like:

Knowing how to set equipment up.

Understanding what good technique should look and feel like.

Choosing an appropriate weight.

Knowing how hard you should be training.

Knowing when you’re ready to progress.

Being able to adapt an exercise if something doesn’t feel right.

Knowing what to do when the gym is busy and your planned equipment isn’t available.

Understanding the difference between normal training discomfort and something you should pay attention to.

None of those things are personality traits.

They’re skills.

And skills can be learned.

That’s when the gym starts to feel different

Imagine walking into the gym with a clear plan and just getting on with it.

Your usual machine is busy?

No big deal. You know what to do instead.

You’re trying a new exercise?

You know how to choose a sensible starting weight.

Something doesn’t feel quite right?

You don’t immediately panic that you’ve injured yourself or abandon the whole workout. You know how to adjust.

The weight on the bar is getting heavier?

You trust your technique enough to progress rather than staying with the same comfortable weight forever.

That’s the kind of gym confidence I’m interested in.

Not pretending you know everything.

Not becoming the most confident person in the weights area.

Just feeling capable enough that you don’t have to second-guess every decision you make.

That’s why I created Lift With Confidence

I describe Lift With Confidence as:

Driving Lessons For The Gym.

You wouldn’t expect someone to get into a car for the first time and somehow know how to drive.

Someone teaches you.

You practise.

You get feedback.

You make mistakes.

You get better.

Eventually, you stop having to consciously think about every little thing.

I think learning to use the gym should be much the same.

Lift With Confidence gives you 6 weeks of 1:1 coaching where we work on the areas that would make the biggest difference to your confidence.

That could mean technique.

It could mean learning how to use equipment.

It could mean understanding weights, sets, reps and effort.

It could mean working around aches and niggles.

Or you might already train regularly but want to stop feeling like you’re constantly guessing whether you’re doing things properly.

It’s personalised to where you are starting from.

And you’ve got somewhere to practise

One of the things I particularly like about delivering Lift With Confidence is the environment we’ve got at Hub Fitness in Bannockburn, Stirling.

Rather than learning in a packed commercial gym, your 1:1 sessions take place in our own private training space.

And your coaching also gives you access to the gym outside your PT sessions, alongside our weekly coached classes.

That means you can:

Learn something with me.

Practise it yourself.

Ask questions and get feedback.

Gradually need less reassurance.

Because ultimately, I don’t want your confidence to depend on me standing beside you.

I want you to become more capable yourself.

Six weeks is the starting point

I’m also not going to pretend six weeks magically teaches you everything there is to know about training.

Lift With Confidence is the starting phase of my longer-term Body For Life coaching for people whose immediate priority is becoming more capable and confident in the gym.

We start by removing that initial barrier.

Then we can keep building.

More strength.

Better movement.

More fitness.

Progressive training.

Nutrition and lifestyle where you need it.

And ultimately a body that allows you to do more of the things you actually care about outside the gym too.

Thinking about getting back into the gym this September?

September tends to be one of those natural “right, time to get back into a routine” moments.

But if you’re thinking about getting back into the gym and part of you is also thinking…

“I just wish I knew what I was doing.”

…you don’t need to get more confident before asking for help.

Learning the skills is how you become confident.

I’ll be opening a small number of Lift With Confidence spaces this September at my gym, Hub Fitness in Bannockburn.

If you’d like to know how it works and whether it would suit you, send me “DRIVE” and I’ll talk you through it.