: a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it.
I have a phobia of classes at the gym. It’s not that I don’t like taking classes, because I do. My college bestie, Hannah, and I took step aerobics our freshman year and I loved it. I have always had good intentions of taking a class or two whenever I have joined a gym, but then years would go by, and I would get more and more afraid of taking the initial plunge.
I don’t know what I am so afraid of. That people will laugh at me? That I will be the fattest one in the class? That I will be a complete failure? A combination of all of the above? I feel so ridiculous even typing this out!
This quote posted on Facebook this morning by Tony a.k.a. The Anti-Jared gave me the extra boost I needed,
“Do not be intimidated by the gym. It is just your friends striving for the same goal as you.”
As soon as I received the Traveling Shirt from BornFit, I concluded that this would be the time to get over this irrational fear. My good friend, Megan, attends muscle work (or as she lovingly calls it, “Death by Barb”) on Wednesday mornings and promised that she would hold my hand and show me the way, so I agreed to meet her there.
Guess what? There were people of all shapes and sizes attending the class. I did not fall off the ball while doing the weight reps requiring the use of it. Okay, I kind of did slip off a little and it felt really awkward. But it was not the big CLUNK like I was dreading. While my form was not the greatest, I was able to do all of the exercises. I may have not done EVERY REP of every exercise because the instructor is crazy, insane, demanding. I would say that I successfully completed about 85% of them.
It was an awesome workout, very difficult at times, and I was shaking by the end. I will be so sore tomorrow, but that’s a good thing, right? I plan to send an email to Coach Joe this afternoon to see how I can incorporate this class into my weekly training.
Thank you, Megan, for walking me through this, and thank you BornFit for giving me the motivation to do so.
I will leave you with this horrible, blurry photo (obviously Megan was shaky, too) and a funny story. The first photo Megan took, she told me flex. I showed-off my guns and got a charlie-horse in my FOREARM that went into my pointer finger. I couldn’t move it at all. So, the second shot, we went with the faux-flex.
Do you have fears that you would like to overcome? Share them in the comments, or write a blog post and link up down below!
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