Fear of awkward beginner phase keeps you from starting...

In My Humble Opinion
1

What activity would you like to do, but you are afraid to start because of the unknown: that awkward beginner phase?

What about activities that you do that took months or years to get around to doing because of fear of making a fool around yourself in front of others?

I’m really interested in hearing about what intimidated you and (hopefully) hearing your success story – did any of the imagined pitfalls materialize? What’s it really like?

I’ll give my tale of the gym for starters…
(Skip it if you wish, but please do post your own)

It was there when we moved to this house five years ago. It’s neon sign beckoned me from afar every time I passed by on the highway: Powerhouse Gym. Now, I had never gone to a fitness facility in my life, but I’m in my thirties and I was feeling a distinct layer of flab beginning to gather in the places where flab likes to accumulate.

From time to time I toyed with the idea: It’s so close to home, five minutes! I could stop by after work and … and what? I had no idea what actually went on in such places.

From a distance, one could look through the great expanse of glass and watch a different type of people – gym people – moving about with vigor, with the absolute and complete knowledge of what they were doing.

It took five years of this before I even walked close to the place. In the past two years, I kept nagging myself to go, but the fear of the unknown held me back: How do you start? Do you bring a towel, or do they have them? Do you have to shower there – in public???

One day last winter, I went to donate blood as I have on every opportunity for the past eighteen years, and the nurse made me sit in the corner because my blood pressure was too high. Uh oh. Better get to the gym pronto!

Two weeks later I standing in front of the Powerhouse, looking through the windows watching these unbelievable people in action. The guys were all ripped, wearing skimpy tank tops to show off their glistening rippling muscles. The girls were all wearing skin-tight spandex over hard packed bodies.

Oh, and there’s the machines. If you haven’t glanced inside one of those places, do so – to the uninitiated, all of the equipment looks like medeivel torture machines. A room full of stainless steel tubing, iron weights, cables, and benches, every single machine more intimidating than the one before it.

Then there’s the guy, with arms the size of your legs, doing dips with a two-foot-diameter plate swinging between his legs on a chain tied to his belt.

Off to the side, there’s the real men, training with free weights. Another guy has loaded up a bar with sixteen plates and he grunts loudly as he jerks the bar into position.

I mustered every ounce of courage I had, took a deep breath, and walked in. I went up to the counter where there were two guys doing whatever gym staff do behind the counter.

One of them was very nice to me – he explained to me the various plans that they offer and he gave me a walk around the gym, allowing me to see the horrific devices up close. He showed me the “Cardio” room, where I had my first glimmer of hope: I saw folks on exercise bikes and treadmills. I know how to do that, I thought. Anyway, that’s what I really need to do, isn’t it?

Anyway, the fellow gave me a coupon for a free week and I went home. The coupon stayed tacked to the bulletin board for a month and a half – my wife nagged me about it from time to time, and I retorted “When I’m ready!” The tour had done little to assuage my fear of public embarrassment – I saw those built folks and their steel up close and I felt hopelessly inadequite.

Then it happened: On a fluke, on my way home from work I bought a pair of sweat pants and a Master combination padlock, just like we used in high school. I put on my sweat pants and drove to the Gym. After I presented my coupon, the fellow said “Ok, have a good time!” and I looked at him dumbly… Doing what?
He guided me to the Cardio Room and patiently showed me how the control panels on the machines worked. I spent the next week, appearing every day, happily burning 400 calories on the bike or treadmill.

During that week, my fear melted away. I began to notice some details: There were an awful lot of perfectly normal people there. In fact, I saw quite a few folks fighting the Battle of the Bulge. I noticed that some people would run several miles in the time I pedalled along for a half hour, while other people would do a half-assed cardio workout, reading fashion magazines for a ten minute liesurely stroll on the treadmill.

The weight room scared me still, but I could see that even those folks came in all shapes, sizes, and abilities. It was simply a matter of learning the secrets of each device and I could be one of them.

After my free week, I signed on for a year contract, having decided that this was a lifestyle change for me. With my contract, they offered me three free sessions with a personal trainer. Great! That’s exactly what I was wanting.

When I went for my sessions, a pimply-faced girl named Jenny who probably was nineteen, spent a considerable amount of time with me, designing an exercise plan for me, and then teaching me how to use each of those mysterious machines.

Today, six months later, I go there five days a week. Some days I run three miles or so, others I do the cardio on the elliptical trainer (better on the joints, my doc says). Each day I do six or so different exercises focusing on different muscle groups. My spare tire has vanished, much to my wife’s amazement, and I have more energy. I still feel pretty scrawny, but my weight settings keep increasing, so it’s only a matter of time before I have the body I want.

It took five years, but I finally overcame that horrible fear of public embarrassment. How about you? Do you have a good story to tell?

2

Just getting on my first message board took me 10 years. (This is my second board…)

3

I would love to start writing fiction but I just can’t seem to start. I sit down at the computer and I’ll start freecell or SDMB instead of opening up word and trying to write down the story idea that is in my head.
Some day I’ll work that out.

4

Huh … so that’s what happens in all of those gyms. I still have no first-hand experience, but will probably end up doing the same as you, minor7flat5. I’m far too scrawny.

5

My husband is Korean, so I thought it would be a good idea to learn the language. I’ve been “studying” it for three years now, and while I can read everything and understand plenty, I have a horrible aversion to actually speaking it in public. My husband thinks it’s really cute sometimes to show me off by having me say something in Korean in front of his friends, but it embarrasses the hell out of me. I hate having a weird accent, and I hate even more when everyone giggles after they wrestle a word or two out of me. I know they’re not laughing at me, but I’d rather not be made a spectacle of.

6

I want to learn karate or some other self-defense discipline; one day, I will sign up and do it!

7

Almost everything, including joining a gym or even walking in public, writing, painting my kitchen cupboards…you name it.

Lord knows how I get anything done.

8

It took me ages to get up the courage to join this message board, which is my first. I don’t normally have a clue when it comes to computers, and i thought all the computer geeks would scoff at my bad programming, but hey, whaddya know, this is actually quite easy!, and the people here are really friendly.

9

Gotta admit that joining this board was difficult for me (as it was for others I’m sure).

I had been lurking for two or three years and I finally signed up under the pretext that I just wanted to perform searches. I began posting only when I saw a string of threads from a person who I felt was asking for help and I felt compelled to contribute a word – as it turned out I likely wasted my efforts on that individual, but at least it got me over the hump :).

10

Hit the bookstore and look for some good materials on the subject.

It was only after I had been going for a month or so that I bought some good books that helped to expose some of the most jealously-guarded secrets of the brotherhood of the Gym. One of them said something like “Don’t grunt – it only lets everybody in earshot know that you are trying to lift more than you can handle” – good news since I thought that some day I would have to do so when I reached some more advanced level.

Another book gave me a laugh: they recommended the 45lb plate swinging between the legs on a chain when doing dips, emphasizing that few things look so cool in the gym as that heavy plate dangling between your legs. They did give a short warning against catching your naughty bits in the chain.

It’s kind of cool to know how to properly do the exercises and be able to see that it’s really no big deal.

11

Have any good materials on the subject to recommend, minor7flat5? I’ll be working out this school year.

12

Every new project.

13

Not much. Turns out I kick ass at everything I try. Problem is that it doesn’t occur to me to try stuff. I probably would do more if I had ideas for stuff to do.

Which reminds me, I should renew my gym membership.

14

After perusing the sports section at Borders for a good while and casting aside all of those annoying weightlifting books with Arnold Schwarzenegger types all slathered in oil, I found the following two:

The Home Workout Bible is a really neat book that tells you how to do a complete workout with absolutely no fancy equipment – they even offer challenging exercises that use soup cans or loaded backpacks for weight and such. For the more ambitious, they explain how to build the most cost-effective gym in your home – they provide a full workout based on a bench and a few barbells. I highly recommend this one.

The other book is The Body Sculpting Bible for Men. This one caught my eye because they have many of those intimidating gym machines as well as free weight exercises categorized and explained in matter-of-fact language – for example, if you look up the wide-grip lat pulldown, they explain exactly the posture to assume and several key details about properly executing the movement.

15

I was very reluctant to try working out with weights. I was concerned that a woman would look at me and laugh.

A friend who was a competitive body builder assured me that such a thing would not happen, so with his coaching, I took up the sport.

After I had worked out several days a week for several months, a woman wandered into the gym, looked at me, and laughed.

16

I enjoyed cross country skiing about a conservation area, but there was one very small cliff that routinely defeated me. No matter what I tried, I would tumble down it, which was rather painful.

I figured that if I could learn how to turn on cross country skiis the way the alpine skiers turn on steep slopes in the movies, then I might have a chance at making it around my conservation area without knocking myself silly.

I went out and purchased a book on alpine skiing (Leto Tejada-Flores’ “Breakthrough on Skiis: How to Break Out of the Intermediate Rut”)b, read it thoroughly, and then went out and purchased a lift ticket at a ski hill, strapped on my cross country skiis, and let fly.

Needless to say, it took quite some time to learn how to go down ski hills on cross country gear. I received a lot of odd looks and rude comments.

Eventually, I came across some beefy, metal edged cross country skiis called telemark skiis (this was back when tele skiis were still only 52 mm at the waist), and I made some outer boot suppports (Steincomps) to siffen up my boots, so eventually I was able to learn how to handle the small cliff on my conservation area loop (open jump step turns did the trick).

Over time, I became pretty good at telemarking at ski hills. I eventually made the Telemark Division of the Canadian National Ski Team, and once placed 17th in Super-G at the World Championships. Instead of jeers, now I get a lot of cheers.

17

Yeah…I think there’s some people who maybe shouldn’t go to the gym. This one guy I knew in college actually chipped his front teeth by hitting himself in the face with a bicep-curls bar. :rolleyes:

Of course, just about everyone has at some point tried benching too much without a spotter. Then you have the embarassing decision of either clearing the barbells will a loud CLANG!! CLANGCLANG!!! Or sit there with the weights resting neatly on your chest until someone comes by to help you.

18

Not sure if this counts, but…

I’m TERRIFIED of moving to “the real world”.

I’ve lived in Alaska all of my adult life (so far, :D). I’ve vacationed outside, but, I don’t know what it’s like to live and work there.

I’m scared that I’m going to be some sheltered backwoods hick compared to the sophisticated “lower 48” (okay except for some parts of Virginia, Montana, and the like…).

Anyway, I AM going to be moving there in December, and part of me is really excited about it and looking forward to it.

But part of me feels like “the world ain’t round, yer sailin’ to the edge, and here be monsters”.

19

Ahhh, CanvasShoes, I’ve known enough Alaskans who came down to the lower 48 and lived to tell the tale. :smiley: Just start acclimating by sitting really close to the woodstove. :slight_smile:

I’m afraid to start roller blading. I suck at any sport involving slippery or rolly things on my feet (rollerskating, snowboarding), and I know this will involve road rash and embarrassment (not necessarily in that order).

20

I didn’t do track (distance, not sprinting) last spring cause I didn’t want to come in last place. I was an alright runner, maybe 3rd best on my school’s team, but I still couldn’t do it cause I knew everyone could do it better.

I’ve also been working on a comic book for about 2 months. It actually took me a while to even start it. I do all the drawing, writing, and everything else. I’ve only got 2 pages done. I think thats more out of laziness and lack of motivation though.

I don’t like starting posts cause whenever I read a post I always check how many posts the person has previously made. The more posts the person has, the more likely I am to take the opion into consideration. I’m afraid other people might also do that. ( I know I shouldn’t, it more like a habit now, sometimes I just go down the pages till somone with 1000+ posts says something. I’ll stop though, promise.)

I’ don’t want to become a grown up and live in the real world yet. I do everything in my power to limit my responsibilities. I try to get rides from other people instead of driving my own car, etc. I am perfectly able to, but I just can’t.