When I got to college, I took advantage of the on-campus gym facilities and dipped my toes into the pool that would become my fitness journey. I honestly had no idea what I was doing — I would just pick a machine that didn’t look too intimidating and go for it. I learned which machines I liked a lot (like the row machine that works your biceps), and which ones I absolutely despised (the hip adductor and abductor, to name a few). From that point, I started going to the gym fairly regularly, in any free time I had after classes. It was so nice having the gym within walking distance from my dorm.
Fast forward to sophomore year, my roommates and I lived off campus but still used the campus gym often. This was the year that I actually started tracking the machines I was using, as well as how much I could handle weight-wise per machine. This was also the year that I began taking the occasional progress picture of my muscles, just so I could see how far I’d come from a year before.
Then, as any good story in 2020 goes, COVID-19 happened. Campus closed, along with everything else in the country, and we were all left to figure out how to maintain our fitness indoors. This was very hard. Personally, I hate cardio and I only go to the gym for weights (sue me). Of course I didn’t own any free weights or machines, so I did a lot of pushups, sit ups and planks. I definitely didn’t spend as much time working out in those quarantined months, but that’s okay and 100% reasonable.
Once things started opening back up, my roommate and I got a membership at Planet Fitness and we’ve been going consistently for a few months now.
My confidence has never been higher.
When I look in the mirror and see the outlines of defined-ish muscles, I feel stronger than I ever have before. Nothing feels better to me than building my strength to feel good for myself and nobody else. I know I was beautiful before I started working out, and I don’t hold myself to unrealistic standards or procedures. If I don’t feel like going to the gym one day, trust me, I don’t. But now that I have a sense of a workout routine and see how it can affect me not only physically, but mentally, I always want to feel this good.
There have been days where I felt mentally low, was in my head too much and was just not feeling myself, but still decided to go to the gym. While I may not have had the most intense or exciting workouts those days, I can tell you that I walked out of there feeling less dreadful and more myself. Working out has done, possibly, more for my mental health than my physical health, and for that reason alone I am so grateful.
I never would have imagined that I’d write an entire article about working out, but here we are. If you needed a sign to begin your fitness journey, whether it be by going on daily walks, doing yoga or lifting weights, this is it. You can do it.