With spring break rapidly approaching, many are looking to get more fit. Everyone wants those beach bodies — but in all honesty, it’s much more important to be healthy than to just have a good body. This means students have been flocking to gyms and the IM centers to work out.
Starting is the hardest part. It’s over stated, but it’s true. Even just thinking about the crowded gyms with people lifting what seems like impossible amounts of weight and running miles and miles on the treadmill can be intimidating.
Your first time there, you will almost always feel like a fish out of water, even if you have been a gym-goer in the past. Getting used to the environment can be a challenge. Changing your perspective on the gym can help.
Each person is there for their own purpose. They may want to lose weight, get toned, bulk up, or they may be an athlete. Everyone is at a different stage, doing different exercises and using different weights.
It also helps to go in with a plan of what you are going to do. This helps to prevent you from wandering around and going from machine to machine, with no idea of what you are really doing. You will eventually develop a pattern — maybe arm workouts one day and leg workouts another day.
Developing this may be hard. You may want to just work on one part of your body because it’s already stronger and, therefore, easier. What can help is to find your own fit-spiration. Follow exercise pages on Instagram and Twitter. Search for different workouts on Pinterest. Ask a friend to be your workout buddy to alleviate the feeling of loneliness at the gym. Look for cute workout clothes online that will make you feel more excited to go to workout. And if you look good, you will feel good!
What’s most important, however, is to be yourself in whatever you do. Whichever fitness or health plan you choose needs to be right for you. Don’t let people lifting fifty pounds or more discourage you from lifting five or ten. Everyone has their own way of being fit. You do your own.
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