Wish People Would Stop Joining My Gym!

Qua Sae

Full Member
Ahh! It's really bugging me.. I joined this wonderful, beautiful gym last March, but had to put my membership on hold thanks to being wrongfully fired from my job. :mad:

It comes back into effect at the end of Jan, so I have (or will have) saved money all through the month so I can start going again.. Only, people keep joining it! I feel awkward enough when I'm working out, I don't want to bump into people I know from the village. :( I specifically chose one that was 2 villages over from me (& is a half hour cycle ride there) JUST so I could be away from everyone. I like that I used to be able to work out & no one knew me.

I can only go on the weekends atm because of my job & that's when most of the other people I know go too. :( I don't think I could bring myself to go to the classes now either, because it'd be awkward if someone I know is in there.

Why did they have to join MY gym?! There's one just up the road! Join that one!

(Ok, rant over. Lol)
 
Well the answer is right on front of you. Go to the local gym! If everyones gone to the other one you should be perfectly safe in the closer one!! :D
 
Lol, the other one isn't very nice at all.. Plus I like the extra hour on my bike. :) I'll just have to live with it.. Hopefully most of them are doing it as New Year's Resolutions & will have quit by the time I start! (a couple of them do this every year)
 
Well theres the answer as to why they are all moving to the better one then :)

Think about it this way though. As much as you dont like the idea of people from your village going to the same gym, you arent going there for their benefit, you are going for your own. Is it possible to go at off-peak times when there are less likely to be people there, like teatime? If not, then just go, take some music on headphones, and greet anyone you know nicely, stuff in your headphones, ignore them and get on with it. They arent going there to judge your performance, they are going because they want to do something to improve themselves, just like you do.

I know it is very easy to be self-concious in that situation but if you dont go there to get sweaty, messed up and exhausted, there is no point in you going. Let them see you like that, there is no shame in it!

When I joined SW, I went to a group that was further away than my nearest for the same reasons, I guess, that you dont want people you know to see you at the gym. I didnt want to run into all the school mums and have them see me going to SW.

The second week I went, my cousin who I rarely see appeared. She, like me, had joined the week before but had weighed and left so I didn't see her there. So much for my cunning plan. But rather than not go, I just got on with it, and even used it as fuel for my fire, it made me more determined to do well at it - she knew I was there and she would see if I failed. Turn the negative into a positive and dont let what other people think hold you back from doing what you want to do!
 
I used to like off peak so there weren't many people there.But that's cos I don't do queueing. But to be honest when you go to the gym everyone is so into their own programme they don't take much interest in who is there.
 
They'll all be gone by February anyway!

Personally when I used to go to the gym I never cared who saw me. If people thought I was overweight, then I was obviously in the right place and doing something about it. I don't think people really pay much notice of who else is in the gym though, they're too focused on what they're doing. When you're in the gym, how much attention do you actually give to the people around you?
 
Mine is chocca too but there are some amazing people there - I was on the treadmill next to a man who looked around mid fifties/early sixties; he was running inclines. When he finished he reached into the drink holder and pulled out a folded up white cane - he is blind and I just looked at him and thought what an inspiration he was to everyone. Made me think twice about my 'I can't be bothered with the gym' excuse.
 
Ahh! It's really bugging me.. I joined this wonderful, beautiful gym last March, but had to put my membership on hold thanks to being wrongfully fired from my job. :mad:

It comes back into effect at the end of Jan, so I have (or will have) saved money all through the month so I can start going again.. Only, people keep joining it! I feel awkward enough when I'm working out, I don't want to bump into people I know from the village. :( I specifically chose one that was 2 villages over from me (& is a half hour cycle ride there) JUST so I could be away from everyone. I like that I used to be able to work out & no one knew me.

I can only go on the weekends atm because of my job & that's when most of the other people I know go too. :( I don't think I could bring myself to go to the classes now either, because it'd be awkward if someone I know is in there.

Why did they have to join MY gym?! There's one just up the road! Join that one!

(Ok, rant over. Lol)

I honestly can't work out whether you are serious or not.

What is so wrong with these other people that you can't bear to share a gym with them?
 
I don't think the OP is deadly serious but I understand where she is coming from with the point, sometimes no matter how hard you go out of your way to avoid people you don't want to see when you are at your worst, sometimes it just doesn't happen. I used to avoid swimming in my pool which was 10 minutes away because I knew I would see someone, and more to the point they would see me in my bathing suit!

xx

No, I'm not being deadly serious.. I'm just being grumpy at them. I get really self conscious at the gym, which is why I picked one so far away. It was my secretly awesome gym, which was so hidden from the people I knew, that it was just wonderful. :)

I guess my biggest worry is failing in front of these people. Most of them I know casually through OH's job or from highschool & don't keep touch (for various reasons).

You've all given great replies & it makes me feel better to know I'm not alone in this.

The biggest reason for not joining a WW group was because my mum goes to the one in the village (we don't speak).. I know she would love for me to fail at weightloss.
 
i completely understand were you are coming from, i joined the gym before christmas, one thats a 15min drive away because i didn't want to go local, a girl i used to go to school with works there..and i didn't want to be embarressing myself.
of course then the gym i joined started a special offer and now more (superskinny) girls i used to go to school with go to MY gym.
im just too self conscious and paranoid about what other people will think..
 
I/We have the opposite problem. I have full (free) use of the works fitness centre and tomorrow it opens at 9am - it will be empty most of the day and a colleague and I will have it to ourselfs for the morning!
 
I/We have the opposite problem. I have full (free) use of the works fitness centre and tomorrow it opens at 9am - it will be empty most of the day and a colleague and I will have it to ourselfs for the morning!

I am incredibly jealous of you! I would love that!
 
. . .

im just too self conscious and paranoid about what other people will think..

Just what is so darned important about these "other people"? Why are you giving them the power to affect your actions?

My best friend has a saying "those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter".

She does say it rather too often, and one of these days I might thump her (no, not really!) but she has a point.
 
Mine's very busy at the moment too. It's more of a problem in the pool than anywhere else, as there seems to be a big group of young men who just hang around in the spa and pool being very loud, and acting like they're at the lido's kids hour, splashing and shouting and play fighting (the pool is one of those lovely atmospheric, low lighting, relaxation pools, so it really isn't the 'done' behaviour in there generally). They even heckled the aqua aerobics instructor for the entire lesson. I'm waiting for a quiet moment at the desk to explain to someone that I don't feel comfortable using the pool area, and explain why.

On the up side, it's given me confidence to try some of the classes where I'd always felt that everyone else already knows what they're doing. Not that it helped me much in the Step class this morning - I was still the worst one there.
 
Mine's very busy at the moment too. It's more of a problem in the pool than anywhere else, as there seems to be a big group of young men who just hang around in the spa and pool being very loud, and acting like they're at the lido's kids hour, splashing and shouting and play fighting (the pool is one of those lovely atmospheric, low lighting, relaxation pools, so it really isn't the 'done' behaviour in there generally). They even heckled the aqua aerobics instructor for the entire lesson. I'm waiting for a quiet moment at the desk to explain to someone that I don't feel comfortable using the pool area, and explain why.

On the up side, it's given me confidence to try some of the classes where I'd always felt that everyone else already knows what they're doing. Not that it helped me much in the Step class this morning - I was still the worst one there.

That's awful, you shouldn't have to put up with that kind of behaviour :( I don't know why people behave that way.

I'm glad you had the confidence to try some of the classes.. Are you enjoying them? I used to love going to dance & aerobic classes when I was younger, now I'm just too anxious.
I love the treadmill & xtrainer though.. I could live on them! Lol x
 
Yes - especially like Zumba and the Body Tone and Legs, Bums & Tums classes. There are lots of skinny minnies there, but there are also some more (ahem) 'shapely' ladies, like myself in atendance. Hopefully this is how the Minnies got skinny, and me and said shapely ladies will be just and toned and lithe as they are one day.

I actually feel more self concious in the gym area than in classes, as I'm never 100% sure I'm doing it right. I kind of float from machine to machine feeling a bit lost. In the classes you don't have time for the same kind of anxiety if you have a good instructor.
I did struggle with step this morning (it's changed a lot since I tried it 12 years ago! so many moves) but the other ladies did talk to me in the changing room and reassure me that it's the same for everyone, and it takes about 4 sessions before anyone really starts to 'get it', which was very sweet of them.

You should just give a couple a go. I bet you'd enjoy it more than you think xx
 
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