The Health Huns
The Messy Side of Health and Fitness!
Your favourite amateur athletes keeping it real, discussing the messy side of health and fitness
The Health Huns
EP.5 GYM FEAR
We tackle the common fears and anxieties people face at the gym, from intimidating environments to uncomfortable interactions, and how to overcome them with practical advice and real-life examples.
• Gym fear often stems from feeling judged or that you don't "belong" in that space
• Most gym-goers are actually regular people, not the ultra-fit "gym bros" we imagine
• What to wear to the gym can be a significant source of anxiety, particularly for women
• Personal space issues and unwanted interactions can make people feel uncomfortable
• Finding the right personal trainer can transform your gym experience
• Different gym environments exist for different preferences - from health clubs to bodybuilding gyms
• You don't need to go every day or feel sore after every workout to make progress
• Two quality sessions per week can yield significant improvements with consistency
• Most gyms offer free trials - try before you commit to find the right fit for you
• The most important step is simply walking through the door and getting started
Rate, review, and follow us on Instagram @thehealthhunspod. Share with your friends and let us know what you want us to talk about in future episodes!
hello and welcome to the health huns we're on episode five. Yeah, we are, and I'm proud of us because we've actually been getting some really nice positive responses and not just from our friends. We got our first unknown fan yeah, we did the other day.
Speaker 2:We won't obviously say their name. But it's nice when your friends support you it really is, but they should because they're your friends. But when you get someone who, like neither of us know who's just found this podcast and has then been affected enough to reach out to us, it does mean the world and I'm a silent follower of things much like. Yeah, definitely there's podcasts I love and I've listened to for ages, but I'd never reach out.
Speaker 1:I might start doing it because it made you feel good it made me feel good, so I can only imagine I'll make them feel good yeah, they're like, oh my god, one of the health puns, to say, my podcast is good, but people have like my clients who have listened to it have been very positive yeah, or my clients that have been listening have been very positive. Um and like looking at our stats where our podcast is hosted, people are listening to it from all over. They are not just people we know. No, spain, spain oregon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's, that's kind of it. Where was it um barnsley, barnsley?
Speaker 1:I don't know anyone who lives in Barnsley. No, like all over the UK, I'm a very local Norfolk girl.
Speaker 2:Me too, but we're breaching international waters now, worldwide, mr.
Speaker 1:Worldwide. Yeah, he's been a thing this week, hasn't he?
Speaker 2:I think that would have been a really fun concert to go to. Yeah, would you have done a bald cap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, concert to go to. Yeah, would you have done a bald cap? Yeah, I think you have to. I think it's weird if you don't?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's weird if you turn up in your normal clothes. Do you think he's on stage and he's like I did this? Do you think he's really conscious about his hair or lack of what? If he's like I'm gonna, what he was like before this tour was like right, I'm gonna have a hair transplant after this next tour I mean, but he, but he can't.
Speaker 1:now he can't, but this is just proving that he doesn't need to. He's beautiful just the way he is.
Speaker 2:And guys out there, don't worry about your hair transplants, no.
Speaker 1:Shave it off, you'll look great. Shaving it off is better than pretending that there's not an issue Whatevs.
Speaker 2:Whatevs, no judgment here. We love everyone. Well, not everyone, but we move on. Yeah, anyway, we've just done a little taste test, uh review of some cookies. Well, they weren't, they were like blondie brownie, they were from cookie co. Big wedges of goodness, yep so now I'm really full look out for that, because it was inspiring actually, if you think about it.
Speaker 1:No. The girls Just told a pug off.
Speaker 2:Stop looking at your sister. The girls have been cheeky today.
Speaker 1:I've given them a dental toothbrush because I thought it would keep them quiet, but actually they're just really noisy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but we move on. It's nice to have a little bit of background noise. Pug ASMR. Today's episode is called gym fear. We actually got responses through on the questions we put up this week. Yeah, we did, and you have your own personal experiences with gym fear and what it scares, what scares you about the gym and some funny stories and some kind of creepy stories. I think, yeah, we're getting the vibe of and they do, unfortunately, involve creepy men yeah, they do shock horror, yeah, not all men, but always men.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so every episode I'm just like men, we're sorry, men we don't actually hate you. No, just some of you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just some of you so I think we're going to cover just everything to do with the gym and why people don't want to go, but then also the success stories about people who have overcome those fears and ended up Loving. It is a strong word.
Speaker 1:Well, I think you can love it. Yeah, I think you can love it. Do you love the gym, amber? I do love the gym. I think that actually having a like I think if you are a bodybuilder that has to go there every day and you, it's such a big focus I think you'd love it less than someone like me. That goes a bit yeah, like I look forward to going because I get to hang out with you, obviously, uh, and I know that like it makes me feel strong and good, but if I had to go, if I had to go all the time, I think I'd get fed up of it but that's where bodybuilders are built different.
Speaker 2:Because they love it, do they love it? Well, they say they love it and like they have, like I think that's their thing. Is they love the gym?
Speaker 1:yeah, maybe maybe I just maybe. For me, that is I don't want to be a bodybuilder, I don't want to be in the gym every day. I don't care about lifting really heavy weights like I just want to want to go and Move your body.
Speaker 2:Move my body A little bit stronger Get stronger and I definitely like, I'm, like, I've got some muscles.
Speaker 2:Now, if you can't see this, amber's now flexing, yes, and poking her eyes out, which I'm going to take some credit for actually, yeah, like I am Hench, yeah, I'm hench. So Amber loves the gym. That's what we've heard there. Love it, she's a big gym girl. Yeah, um, me, I think. Well, I have to like the gym. I work in the gym, yeah, and actually, when I first started any sort of like health journey, the gym was like whatever to me. I didn't really go in it to begin with. Um, I have a hell of a relationship with it.
Speaker 2:Funnily enough, I find it so dull yeah, I think that is because I'm working in it like seven, eight hours a day, yeah. So the last thing I want to do after like a big block of client sessions is stay in the gym and work out and actually like we said last week, you're lifting weights all day, all day I never stop never like my neck is so sore all the time just from lifting, yeah.
Speaker 2:But what I do love is helping other people feel comfortable in the gym because, as we're going to hear in a minute, it isn't always the most welcoming of spaces to be in. Can you stop making all that noise, please? Astrid has had some real bad times in the gym before the microphone doesn't pick them up oh, okay, that's good. Only the other week when they're snoring, okay, so don't worry too much so my gym fears vary.
Speaker 1:It depends on what gym I'm going to. It depends. I had different gym fears to begin with to what I do now. So if I'm going to the gym where Rhi works from, I do not care about people. I don't actually, I don't really have much of a gym fear there.
Speaker 2:You don't care about people.
Speaker 1:full stop I don't care about people full, don't. Actually, I don't really have much of a gym fear there you don't care about people full stop.
Speaker 1:I don't care about people full stop, no, but I mean everybody is just, I don't know it's really different there, like nobody looks at you. I mean maybe they do, maybe I just have not noticed. It's a big space, you're not too close to people, like you sort of see the same people all the time and it just doesn't really feel that intimidating not at all, and I think that's credit to the owner of the gym.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the pts he allows to work from the gym as well, because pts have a massive pts in a gym have a massive impact on how the gym feels yeah, from personal experience yeah, and everybody's just really nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, even like the men, like the male pts, I mean and I'm not talking to them, don't get me wrong like, but like they just no, they, everybody just gets on with what they're doing, um, and I think it's a really nice space. However, the other gym I go to a well-known health club. I do feel like people look at me. Yeah, and it's actually like I am. I'm not like one of the biggest people there, I just think people look at people yeah, and the gym.
Speaker 2:We've said this last episode, I think, or whenever we last did this because you've got tattoos. Shock, horror. Yeah, not a woman with tattoos. Yeah, visible ones on my face. Um, and the people that tend to frequent that particular chain of health club don't have tattoos no they are of an older generation yeah middle class and white, and I'm putting that out there yeah, they are and they do.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've been going to that gym for over two years. Have you got?
Speaker 2:rapport with anyone no so like, not the, the people who work there, not the no, no, the only person.
Speaker 1:So there's a freelance instructor called Liz. She works at other gyms, she's lovely, she's always says hi and her classes are great. Um, and then Sophie, who does spin on a Friday. Yeah, sophie's great, I love, I mean, she's the only reason I have that membership there anymore and her husband. They're like the only people I speak to and people I actually know. Like my friend goes there so she's in spin with me, but nobody, nobody talks to you.
Speaker 2:Which is. It is weird, the number one rule of a gym and a health club is to make your members feel welcome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, that was one of the reasons why I didn't ever have a PT there, because I just felt like so miserable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that is a shame.
Speaker 1:I did have a taster session with a girl called Jade, because you got a free taster session, but I was already seeing you. At that point I just wanted someone to hold my hand in the actual gym there so I could have a look. But that point, I just wanted someone to hold my hand in the actual gym there so I could have a look. But, um, I mean I I'm sorry to say it, but like they literally look like they hate their life and I think if you are a PT, surely your goal I would think there's one guy that's been there a really long time before I was there.
Speaker 2:It's not NF, is it no?
Speaker 1:NF, he's a different kettle of fish. He did really look at me like up and down and I was like please don't look at me. But there's another guy there who is younger and he does spin very, very occasionally and he does actually always seem pretty chipper and happy. Everyone else, it's like they hate their life and I'm like surely your goal being a pt would be to do what you do and have your own business. Yeah, just doing, because they clearly hate the group stuff. So why are you working in environment where you're doing group stuff like set up a social media build? That's the only way you can do it.
Speaker 2:I don't think they have social medias and then you could leave and the good ones do, and that's the issue with places like that yeah, that's true clock on to that are successful, and then they go hold on. What am I doing?
Speaker 1:and the ones that seem happy are the freelance ones that go between different gyms and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so your gym fears are personal trainers personal trainers big fear men yeah, um, and then actually last, not last week, the week before I went to the gym on Sunday afternoon and I was doing some beast dance with kettlebells and there was nowhere in the entire gym to do them. There was this tiny little slither of mirror and, like you sort of have, I have, if you're not there to tell me, I have to look in the mirror to see what I'm doing. So I was doing them and there was one of those like machines, I guess at the back where you have the bicep curl preacher curl rack preacher curl rack and there was no one on it and I thought right, I'm literally.
Speaker 1:I am sort of in front of it, but I'm slightly to the side. This man came behind and, bearing in mind, I was like less than half a metre in front of it. So I'm doing RDLs with my butt out and then he starts using it. I'm making eye contact with him in the mirror. It's just not okay. No and it and I was. I was on my third set, so he could see I was nearly done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's that gym etiquette thing which is another fear people have is that they don't know how to act in the gym. But how you act in real life is probably in a nice way is how you should act in the gym. Like oh so sorry, like I don't mean to barge you out the way, like do you mind if I start my, my set here? Or how many sets have you got? Like I just want to use the machine yeah just like real common sense manners and yeah being polite.
Speaker 1:That's how you should act in the gym yeah, and as a woman, a man being behind you when you're bending over in front of a mirror was quite awkward and made me feel weird.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can imagine, that's not comfortable.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I finished it and in my head I was like oh my God, just don't look at him, don't look at him. And then I went and did something else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he might have been completely innocent in that situation. Do you know? What I think he literally, but he was unaware and he might have been completely innocent in that situation. Do you know what? I think he literally, but he was unaware. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because I think that is the issue with some people in the gym they don't really think about other people. Like when I'd gone in there I wanted to do something on the squat rack thing and there was there's three in my field and they're literally touching each other. They're that close together. People weren't using them, but they were like in front of them like laying down doing stuff and I'm like, oh, I can't just be like I didn't have the confidence to be like can you move?
Speaker 2:so that's not many people do like. Even I get a bit if I've got to ask someone to move or like you just make you feel weird it's just awkward, isn't it? And it can. Sometimes you can say it the nicest way possible and people are going to take it the wrong way as well. Yeah, so you can't win in that situation. No, so any other fears for the gym.
Speaker 1:I used to fear. I mean, I guess in a way I still do fear what I wear.
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when I first used to go to the gym, I'd wear leggings and I had like a black t-shirt. I I had like a black t-shirt I think it was a men's 4XL, it was huge, and I used to wear that. And then I do. You know, I wear shorts and things now, but I do feel self-conscious because my weight is all here on my tummy and I feel really out of proportion. So if I wear leggings or cycling shorts, I feel like I'm not saying a stick like thin or cycling shorts. I feel like I'm not saying a stick like thin, but like I'm this and then I've just got like this really prominent tummy so that does make me feel.
Speaker 1:But it's really hard to find gym tops that are long as a woman or anything. They all stop at your waist rather than covering your bum.
Speaker 2:I think what you wear to the gym is a big thing. No one's actually said that but when people come in, what do I wear to the gym? I'm a bit conscious. Today, especially with the weather getting warmer, you should feel comfortable in the gym working out, and that may mean less clothes, but that means showing more skin. If some your arms are something you don't like or your leg is something you don't like and but you want to be comfortable, it's like that, weighing up, what kind of comfortable are you going to choose that day?
Speaker 1:yeah, are you going to be like a nice temperature?
Speaker 2:yeah, and feeling good, yeah. Or are you gonna be covering the insecurities but sweating? Yeah, from the inside out.
Speaker 1:I mean my only real insecurity is this area. Now, like, and I mean I, you know I do wear whatever really to the gym, I feel more comfortable wearing, like my running shorts, because they're not so tight. And then I mean I'm not saying I would go in a sports bra type thing, but like that would not even particularly bother me because you can't.
Speaker 1:Maybe this time when it's like 30 degree heat in the summer. I mean it is the summer, but you know that doesn't bother me so much. I mean it is the summer, but you know that doesn't bother me so much. But then sometimes I feel great, and then I look in the mirror and I'm at a weird angle and I'm like, oh yeah, there's my bingo wing.
Speaker 2:But you just no one else is looking at that, no one else is looking and you know, I've worked from people who are like super, super tiny to like, who live in much, much bigger bodies, who are like super, super tiny to like, who live in much, much bigger bodies, and every single person is insecure about something yeah, and a lot of the times it's the same thing.
Speaker 2:So I've had so many people say my belly is my biggest insecurity, or I hate getting my arms out, or I've never worn shorts and they can. They all look completely different and they also just think everyone hates themselves in the gym as equally as I hate myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and do you know what? So we're all in this together. Yeah, even the gym bros. Even the gym bros hate themselves, and they're probably going back to comparisons, probably comparing themselves to people that are bigger, more muscly have got more hair.
Speaker 2:Definitely got more hair. I think, gym bro, that correlates with baldness yeah sorry, that's nasty I don't want to be nasty, but like no okay but you know there are lots of men who are jim bros that do have hair. Yeah, anyway, so what?
Speaker 1:what have you been? What have people said to you about their gym fears?
Speaker 2:okay, so I put on my own personal account um rrt underscore coaching, if you're interested. What are some people's gym fears, gym failures, funny stories, that kind of stuff, and I had a few responses, now a lot. A common one was drum Jimbrows, which you've already touched on they didn't specify hair or hairless.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Just Jimbrows in general. Now, I think Jimbrows, the real ones, get a bad rap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because the real ones actually would probably help you. The real ones, the real ones actually would probably help you, the real ones, the real ones. But they would help you and they're not judging you, no, and they're actually probably like good for you.
Speaker 2:you're in the gym yeah, the ones that are like the I'm talking like the old school gym bros who, like, come in their jeans. Does that happen? Yes, one time story time when I was at the gym once and I was a casual participant this is before I was a personal trainer I was at the gym with my friend and I will not. No word of lie there was a woman on the recumbent cycle, so an upright bike. Yeah, in leather trousers, leather boots, like flared leather trousers, leather boots, a shirt, a long leather jacket and a leather fedora. Right, she didn't care. She was there, citing her little heart. She had her hands like resting on her chest, hands clasped together, peddling away in her leather outfit. Right.
Speaker 2:She looked like some like PI, Okay, I don't know. Like PI, Okay, I don't know. How did we get onto that woman?
Speaker 1:Gym bros wearing jeans, gym bros wearing jeans.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I've seen some questionable, but if they're comfortable, that's fine.
Speaker 1:I can't imagine jeans aren't the most comfortable thing to work out in.
Speaker 2:You can't really move unless they're like stretchy jeans, it's like that argument, like, can you relax in a pair of jeans If you're relaxing at home on a sofa in jeans and that's your comfortable clothes? Like you don't come in from a day at work and put jeans on, do you?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anyway, we're going off topic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I still jeans in the gym, but I mean in defence of gym bros as well like, I think, gym bros does extend to girls as well. Oh yeah, it's just those people who you know are super fit and actually a lot of the time they're not really doing that much in the gym, like they're sort of walking around, and they'll sit there on their phone for a I mean, you know that I do not like to rest between oh, oh my.
Speaker 1:God can't say this, but they're literally sitting there for ages on their phone, like between sets, and sometimes I see people like that. They look great, but they're not really doing that much.
Speaker 2:I have my theories on that.
Speaker 1:Do you, but we'll discuss that later.
Speaker 2:Okay, I don't want to be cancelled Because we are minor celebrities yeah, this is true, so jim bros is a big thing, and so I have a different experience of this because I am not like I am probably not most jim bros type in a woman like look at me, you're a lesbian I'm a lesbian. I'm a mask relatively presenting lesbian yeah.
Speaker 1:So I don't get the ogling, but did you when you were younger and you had longer hair.
Speaker 2:Oh my God. Yeah, there was a period of my time where, yeah, but very briefly in my very brief snapshot of my like, late teenage, early 20s. But I do get why women anyone would feel uncomfortable when they feel like they're being watched and it does happen I've seen it happen with my own eyes in the gym, so I can, I can get that um, and why it put you off gym bros being nasty. I just I. I've never. I've never seen that with my own eyes, I've never experienced that I my own eyes.
Speaker 1:I've never experienced that, but I'm sure it has. I'm sure it has. I mean, the only experience I have had is when I walked into the health club gym and their senior PT NF.
Speaker 2:He shall not be named.
Speaker 1:Looked at me, looked me up and down and was with another guy and they said something and I don't know what they said, but it made me feel really uncomfortable. But other than that I have never really even noticed anybody looking at me and one thing I know to be true the gym bros.
Speaker 2:The thing they care most about in that gym is themselves and other gym bros yeah and it's kind of cute when they high five, yeah, when they're all like cheering each other on and they're like spotting each other and like touching each other's muscles, do they?
Speaker 1:do that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really cute, like to tell each other where to feel it and stuff. I almost want to be friends with a gym bro now and do you? Know what they were, the if you go up to them and go. Can you just show me how to do this? Oh?
Speaker 1:they'd love it they, they would.
Speaker 2:Their ego would be so inflated yeah just be prepared to be mansplained to for like 10 minutes. But I think they get a bad rap, but I'm sure there is a reason they have that reputation in the first place. Yeah, so gym pros is a big one. Um, feeling people feeling like it would be judged because they're, they don't look like they belong in the gym. So, like you were saying, like the, what are they called? Um, gym bunnies?
Speaker 1:gym bunnies?
Speaker 2:I don't know gym bunnies, gym bros, like I know, I think gym shop people they're gym, shop girls yeah, it's a term people use to describe that kind of look nothing wrong with that or for that. I think I've seen all types of people in the gym well, that's the thing.
Speaker 1:Those people are actually probably in the minority. Yeah, because I mean the health club older people they did. Actually that Sunday I went there was quite a few young like people there, which really surprised me. And the gym that you work at I mean not old but like people like 25 plus. Yeah, just normal people yeah it's very. Maybe if you go at different times, there definitely are some people that are, like you know, more muscular but they're the one percent they really are.
Speaker 2:Most people are normal. I think I said that last time. Like 99 of people in a gym, in a very average gym, or like for average people, I'd look like you and me like today.
Speaker 1:There's that old guy that has pt the same time as me gray hair yeah, narrow it down yeah, there was like a couple of women. Like everybody was just really normal, just chilling, just chilling. Have a nice time. Someone blocked the toilet today. That is scandalous stinky.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're stinky anyway. Moving on, that's disgusting, um. So, yeah, completely get. Why you? But I think going into any space where you're not comfortable whether that's a coffee shop, a restaurant shop, um meeting a new group of friends, whatever you're gonna feel a bit out of place. But most people look like you and are there for the same reasons. You are, yeah, um, afraid of the assumption that I want to lose weight. Or someone saying keep going, you're doing great. Wow, keep it up, one day you'll get there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just patronizing I did have somebody at my other gym in a body pump class once say to me, like I just want to say, like you know, since you started you're looking really toned. Buck off commenting on my body this was like an older woman in her 50s 60s yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just I get why that might, because I've seen that happen. Yeah, I have seen that and I was probably looking more toned because I'd been going to the gym, yeah, but like you don't need to, that's not a compliment to everyone.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:I think people need to be aware of that. Yeah, another one about trainers, actually. So there's a story I won't mention any big details, but a story got written in about when someone was fat shamed by a trainer during a gym induction whilst on a treadmill. Now I've heard a lot about these inductions and how awful they can be sometimes, and a lot of clients who come to me have had a really bad first time with just someone doing an induction at a gym and they've said the wrong thing or they've been careless, and it's put them off going.
Speaker 2:So that is a shame.
Speaker 1:It is a shame because the industry needs to do better as a whole, I think well, yeah, because actually those people who are beginners and have like they're a great client for you, don't piss them off no be nice empathy for people and like surely, that's why you've got into this, not just to coach people who are already really good and you know fit like to help people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe I think it depends on your starting point, is I?
Speaker 1:think a lot of pts.
Speaker 2:They get into personal training because they're good at the gym and they enjoy it and they get, they're really in shape or fit or whatever. And then they're thinking, oh, everyone wants to do this and they actually haven't ever had the understanding of living in a bigger body or having a weight loss goal or feeling like you don't fit into society, all these other things, yeah, and they actually don't have the understanding. So to them, they just want to help people be like them. Jacks, yeah, and that's not what everyone wants at all.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to betty out of pug prison it's release day ready she's free. You be nice to her.
Speaker 2:Be nice um, so yeah, they were some of the things that were oh my god, we have that, we have that story, we have a story. Is it a new story? No, oh, we have a story I won't name any names, but if you're listening to this, you're going to know it's yours.
Speaker 1:And you'll be really pleased because you know.
Speaker 2:So I will start. I will say this whole thing. This might be too gross for the podcast. Nothing is too gross, we love it. The is too gross, we love it. The grosser the better. Yeah, but I sweat so much at the gym and when I got up from sitting on a bench at the gym there was a perfect imprint of my vagina, menorah majora.
Speaker 2:You can see it all in detail. That day I learned to bring a towel. Also one time I used a treadmill bath and the speed was set to miles instead of kilometers. So I set it to my usual speed and it just kept speeding off and I flew off the end managed to grab the emergency stop pole, thankfully. Thank you for that story. I really enjoyed reading that one I love that sweating at the gym is normal yeah leaving sweaty marks on a bench is normal.
Speaker 2:That's why you bring a little cloth, yeah, a little gym towel, it's fine. Everyone sweats and it's weird if you don't sweat at the gym.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's weirder have you seen that meme where it's like, uh, oh, you're really sweaty. I think he's like a racing car driver and he's like, yeah, I'm an elite athlete. Elite athletes sweat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like yeah and you, if you're listening to this, you are obviously an elite athlete, absolutely as we are, Because this is our target audience. Yes, Perfect. So there's some like stories and some gym fears from the public that I'm sure everyone can relate to in some way, shape or form. What have we got up next?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, picking the right PT, you go. Well, I guess this is different for me from you, because you are a PT yes, so you don't need one. I pick myself every day. So I last year. Oh my God, what are they doing? They're all right. My god, what are they doing? They're all right. I last year decided that I wanted to get a pt because I wanted to get hench, basically, and she has show me muscles and I have um that weird one, oh my god pause.
Speaker 2:Amber has these freakishly large forearm muscles, but I have on that arm yeah we think it's from the nails, but I don't know how that would affect this arm. I don't know what you get up to in spare time.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I wanted to get a personal trainer because I just, you know, I wanted to feel like, well, I wanted to be confident in the gym, and I probably have looked at every single PT in the whole of Norwich. I looked at all of the ones at the gym that I was at and, um, I just did not connect with any of them, as we've discovered. As we've discovered, I looked at them at another gym that is near where you work.
Speaker 1:The rival gym, the rival gym, magics and just all men, like they look quite scary.
Speaker 2:They're big boys, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I feel like that is a man's gym. I know women do go there, yeah, no, I feel like that is a man's gym, I know women do go there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I feel like a, but for me as a woman, like a metal chalk. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a lot of noise in that gym. I reckon you walk past and they're like you actually can hear that when you walk past. I can imagine, and I would personally, that is quite scary. That is a gym fear, yeah, um, and then I mean I think I said on an episode before, like you know, I actually won my first few sessions with you. Yes, and I'd obviously heard a lot about you from G and Rachel. You were in my periphery vision and uh, yeah, and then that I then came to you and I I did feel quite awkward on my first session because I am actually quite awkward Like people think I'm really confident, but I am awkward when I meet people. But then I was just like you are my people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and actually through working with Amber PT, I think you really helped me find my people. Yeah, like I also just feel like referring find my people. Yeah, like I also just feel like referring me and sharing me, which is always much appreciated. But I don't know, I just you really got. We kind of met at the perfect time for like.
Speaker 1:We did.
Speaker 2:The way I wanted to take my PTing and then you came along and you were like the poster girl. I was like, yeah, like yeah, I was like this, and now literally everyone who comes to me looks like Amber and gets their nails done by you pretty much. It's um tight-knit community, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, this is the thing with Norwich, though, isn't it? I think people, people like recommendations rather, because if someone that you trust says, I trust this, this person, this person is good you believe them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's a big thing of picking a PT. Do your research, get referrals. That's the biggest, like the yeah referrals.
Speaker 1:And don't go to somebody that makes you sign up for six months with a not get out clause.
Speaker 2:No, you want, unless that's what you really want to commit. Some people love that kind of stuff do you mind, I like them no, there shouldn't be any pressure.
Speaker 2:There shouldn't be any slimy sales tactics. I'd be concerned if your pt is coming across desperate for the sale. I'd be concerned as to why. Yeah, uh, you've got to make your money, but like there's nicer ways to do it. Yeah, for sure, and I just think, trial most pts should offer a free taster session.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and yeah, do your research, because it's really, if you kind of jump into someone without having done your research and this goes for dating too, yeah, and therapy, very true, because these people have got to fit you. They've got to align with your values and your morals. They've got to match your personality, they've got to be able to adapt and work with how you want to adapt and work, because if they don't, not that they're bad people or a bad personal trainer, but it just won't work and you'll then have a bad experience and then be put off going again, which could derail not derail you, sorry, but like put you off for like 10 years. Yeah, people have been like I had a pt 10 years ago and it was so bad that I never went back until now. That's 10 years of your life where you could have been with somebody and having joyful times yeah yeah, joyful times, joyful times.
Speaker 2:She knows the cameras are on.
Speaker 1:That's why, um so, yeah, finding your pt, I think do your research is the biggest thing there yeah, I think, finding a good um, finding a good pt, I guess, like for a lot of people, like if you can't afford a PT, sell some things selling kidneys yeah just one. Yeah, I mean, even if you see a PT for a month, they're gonna give you enough confidence to get going yeah, it is an expense and it is a luxury for some people.
Speaker 2:Well, for most people it is like don't like. I'm fully aware it is, but they should. I always like to say to my clients, like you don't have to be here forever. If you're, if you get what you need out of me for three months, yeah, and then you're happy to go fly the nest, that's good, I've done my job properly, yeah but people don't want to leave you, do they?
Speaker 2:no, no, we have too much of a good time. But. But people have come to me not going to the gym ever, training me once a week for a few months, then building up to then going outside of our sessions on their own, still having me to guide them, do their programming, see them once a week to check over things, keep them on track or accountable or whatever yeah but then they're still.
Speaker 2:They're now going three times a week, two of them on their own. They feel confident to go to a gym. How do you feel about?
Speaker 1:people filming themselves in the gym.
Speaker 2:I don't judge them. I do it.
Speaker 1:I have to do it for work, yeah, so don't care yeah, and like someone did say to me when I saw and I had that session at the other place she was like if you film yourself, you can look back and watch your form.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually think it should be more normalised and accepted, because if you have got a personal trainer or an online coach or you want, like a friend, you want to check your form, how are they supposed to do that if they're not with you? And you don't film it.
Speaker 2:And if you want to get better, then you're going to need to have to do that sometimes, because maybe you're trying to do an exercise, it just doesn't feel right or hurt and all you need to do is move your shoulders a certain way. Yeah, that could be such an easy fix that you're struggling with for ages because you're too scared to film in the gym. But people are nervous about filming themselves in general, in public, all the time. I never judge or think it's an annoyance or anything, unless they've got a ridiculously big set up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, If you've got a full film crew and a drone.
Speaker 2:Naming no names, then it's a bit of an issue. But if you've got like you're propping your phone up on your water bottle and you've got one of those tiny little tripods, so do it. It it's free world, yeah, um, just obviously be respectful of others.
Speaker 1:Don't be filming, and if you can get other people out of it, great yeah, I. I mean, I pull some weird faces in the gym, so I don't really want that to be on other people's social media I just film it and put it on mine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you do you do? I mean I I was trying to think about some other things that I've had gym fear of and I think for a lot of people it is literally just walking in the door and choosing a gym because there are so many gyms yeah, there are so many gyms actually, and so many different kinds of gyms more than people think yeah, I mean now, there's lots of like, is it like small group coaching, coaching?
Speaker 1:yeah, um, there's a lot of that. There's crossfit what are they called? Crossfit boxes, boxes um, there's high rocks high rocks. Well, they, high rocks tends to be like those small fitness yeah crossfit. They do a lot of high rocks, don't they?
Speaker 2:it's because it's really. You don't need a lot of, you don't need loads of equipment. You can do it with bigger people yeah, it's a circuit, yeah that's what high rocks is. It's a big circuit, yeah, and actually doing that in the gym?
Speaker 1:it isn't. There's not enough room, is there? No, um, there's like bodybuilding gyms, there's like the cheaper gyms, there's health clubs. So I guess it is depending what's convenient for you home gyms, home gyms I've got a kettlebell over there we are in a home gym.
Speaker 2:How much is that weight?
Speaker 1:uh, I've got six kilogram kettlebell and I've got two eight kilogram dumbbells.
Speaker 2:So what this is and yeah, it depends what you're looking for. If you want to go lift really heavy weights and you want some loud rocky music and you want people slamming weights out and granting a proper bodybuilding gym, probably for you. Yeah, you want a really laid back approach, maybe you want to go in the pool, you want to do a class here and there, you want to rep a few dumbbell curls out, then maybe a health club is more suitable for you. If you're on a bit of a budget and you want options of ease and location, the gym group, pure gym those more commercially gyms are probably going to be for you but most of these gyms will give you a free day, yeah, or week, and they will show you a.
Speaker 1:They will show you around, yeah, like if someone contacted the gym that you worked out and was, like, can I come and have a look? Will someone show me around?
Speaker 2:I'm sure they would.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, definitely I don't know about pure gym and stuff, because I don't know if anyone works there really, but oh, no.
Speaker 2:When I worked at one of those gyms, when I first became a PT, part of your job working there was to show people around oh, okay, and that's when you could have got your clients yeah, yeah cashed in.
Speaker 1:but yeah, I mean, and I do think when you, if you go on a tour, find out where the toilets are, have a look in the changing rooms. You know, at the gym I go to there's three sections of changing rooms and I always go in the first one and I always try and have exactly the same locker, because that is like my locker now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you don't like change too much I don't like change.
Speaker 1:no, I did use a different one last week actually, and I was all right, great, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Gyms, try them out, get some free trials. They all do free trials, or at least discounted trials, and if you don't like one you can leave. If you can maybe avoid locking into a 12-month contract, if that's possible, if you're someone who's not too sure if that's possible, if you're someone who's not too sure, but try them all out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because even you know the expensive health clubs they do do a month it's more expensive, but if you do it for a month it's about 20 quid more. Yeah, at least you're not locked into a year because you might decide you hate it exactly exactly how often do you have to go?
Speaker 2:I think gym fear is also like just lack of knowledge and understanding, maybe about oh, what's the point if I don't go five times a week? Do I have to ache if I do a workout? What's the point if I'm not eating all this protein? Again, it depends on your goals. But if you're going zero times a week and your goal is to start going to the gym, well then, going one time every week, you've hit that goal. Yeah, and if you go consistently once a week and manage to stick at that, rather than trying to go five times a week straight away and then hate in your life, you will make more progress I have got a friend, um, they, you've got loads of friends, abba, don't be modest.
Speaker 1:I've got a friend and it's actually my friend's boyfriend, so hopefully I haven't crossed the line speaking about this. But I mean, when he goes to the gym it's mental. He will go to the gym in the morning on the exercise bike, then he'll go to work and then he'll go back to the gym in the or after work and do like a workout Right. Five or six days a week, that's too much. You can't sustain that and then you'll burn out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's whatever's sustainable to you. Yeah, but you don't have to go. The sweet spot for me would be twice a week. If I'm going to be really honest and recommend anything, you can get into the gym twice a week, do a full body workout consistently and progress your weights and your reps. You'll see progress. It really is as simple as that. Yeah, but you don't have to be doing that straight away. No, you can just be getting to know it first.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You don't have to ache after a workout either.
Speaker 1:I do kind of love it when you do sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's call this section debunking gym myths. Okay, you throw some beliefs out there and I'll debunk them for you.
Speaker 1:I have to have a protein shake after every gym session.
Speaker 2:False Whilst. Protein does and is the main pusher for muscle growth, and you need it. The timing of protein intake has such a minimal effect on the growth of muscle that you'd be better off just focusing on getting it every meal throughout the day, regularly, every day, rather than worrying about the specific timings of it, so you don't have to do that do you, do you have to ache after a gym session for it to be worthwhile?
Speaker 2:Absolutely not, because you could go for a gym session you haven't been for three years and you could do the absolute minimal. But you're going to ache afterwards and that doesn't mean like you've made loads of progress. Your body's just freaking out because you've just it's like ah, my muscles hurt, I need to recover. And the fitter you get, the less DOMS you have, because your body gets better recovering. So no, you don't have to ache for things to be working or sweat.
Speaker 1:You have to sweat for things to be working but it is preferable, because then you are an elite athlete well, this is it.
Speaker 2:But not everyone can be elite athlete. Let's do one more. Do I have to go to the gym every day? No, no, you don't go like two, three times a week, perfect.
Speaker 1:But my friend told me I should go every day if I want to make progress is your friend a personal trainer no ignore him.
Speaker 2:Okay right, I think that kind of sums up gym fear. I think that wasn't.
Speaker 1:That was a lot there's a lot of editing. There's a lot of editing amazon deliveries.
Speaker 2:We've had mechanics, we've had pug fights. Well, there's no, fight no no sorry, that's unfair they we had to cordon them off only because they were eating their treats. Yeah, that is episode five on gym fear. Thanks for listening, as always.
Speaker 1:Head over to the instagram, the health huns pod, don't forget to follow, subscribe, rate us on spotify or wherever you get your podcast and share.
Speaker 2:Let us know if you've enjoyed this episode. Let us know what you want us to talk about. Share with your friends, put on your stories, tag us in it. Yeah, let's grow this community of health funds yeah, because we're all health funds here we're all health funds. Thanks for listening. Bye.