As a freshman, there were lots of things that were terrifying to adapt to on campus, such as sharing a bathroom with strangers, finding all my classes in the maze that is Dwinelle and simply gaining total independence. But for me, nothing hit quite as hard as walking into the Recreational Sports Facility (RSF) for the first time.
There I was: a 5’6’’ female with no gym experience all alone in a sea of tall, buff gym rats. I felt tiny. When I walked in, I didn’t swipe my Cal Card correctly, causing the alarm to go off. My face turned bright red. Slowly, I turned towards the hallway of strangers to look for a machine I could maybe understand. Intimidating didn’t even begin to cover it. I wanted out.
But I had promised myself that college was a fresh start and this was a new habit I wanted in my new life. So I cranked up Rihanna and headed to the one machine I could understand: the treadmill.
I had seen a “Rihanna Treadmill Strut” on TikTok and in a moment of absolute confidence for my future self, downloaded the playlist on Spotify. In the video, the creator would start strutting (think runway model) at about 3.6 miles per hour (mph) and increase the rate by one for each song, eventually running for two songs and then cooling down for one. I wasn’t sure about the running, but I could strut!
Once my face was sufficiently flushed and sweaty, I got off and was lost once again. After standing around awkwardly for some time I finally wiped down my equipment and found a bathroom — sometimes playing copycat is a girl’s best friend.
There, I could breathe properly for the first time. But what to do now? I knew that after a run one should stretch or do a core workout but I didn’t know where to find a yoga mat and using the weight rooms was simply too daunting. So I stood around awkwardly by the sink until I saw someone who looked like they could be nice. She was. When I asked her if she knew where to go to just stretch, explaining it was my first time, she not only told me where to go but took me there herself, pointing out a couple of other rooms along the way.
The next time I went to the gym, I still didn’t go to the weight room but I now knew my way around. I even found the locker rooms!
A couple of days later, I went with a friend and, after my Rihanna strut, ended up trying two machines in the weight room. Did we know what we were doing? No! Did we probably look silly? Sure! But by this point, I had realized that no one really cared.
Everyone in the gym is just focused on themselves and their gains. So a few days after that, I tried another two machines. A few days after that, I used the pool for the first time despite my lack of competitive swimming experience. Who knows, in a couple of weeks I might know the whole building!
I guess what I’m trying to say is fake it till you make it. Take baby steps. And when in doubt, blast Rihanna.