The first I heard of this was in an article I recently read and as it turns out they are pretty wide spread. I can see both sides of this but I strongly lean to the neah. The qualification to be a member of a plus size gym is that you must have 50 pounds or more to lose. I have been on both sides of this fence. I may be an oddball but my feelings of self-conscious lead me to group classes. Being from Lenox the option of belonging to a gym meant 5th hour gym vs. study hall. Exposure to the gym atmosphere was not high. Of course we could always use the weight room at school but talk about self-conscious! High school – when you think that how you compare your peers is the most important thing in life. My experience started when I graduated college and moved to Des Moines, a co-worker and I joined the YMCA, for something to do. Yes I do laugh at the irony now, imagine someone from a town of 1400 moving to the city and didn’t have anything to do. Anyway I did not shop around, at that point in my life I am not so sure I would have known what I was looking for and the YMCA was pretty close to where I worked. I would say that this was my first experience of the “gym” atmosphere of weight machines and treadmills. I think a lot of my discomfort came from inexperience and not knowing what to do more than what people thought of my body even though I was not comfortable in my own skin. I was more worried about looking like an idiot because I didn’t know how to work a machine. What did I do? I hid in group classes. I know to most that doesn’t make sense but all I had to do was follow what everyone else was doing. Although I am sure many of my moves were quite different I felt I “fit in” more because I didn’t have to try to figure out what to do. This is the part of the plus size gym that I understand, the part of fitting in with people. But there are so many things, important things that you would miss from being in a gym with diversity. I am going to touch briefly on three points, motivation, acceptance and encouragement.
Motivation – There are people at every level in a gym. When you are at starting level you can look to someone who has been there for a couple months for motivation to stick with it and look where you can be. When you get to the next level you become the motivator but you still have the drive to keep pace with your newfound support group.
Acceptance – I think a huge step in your journey is to accept that you are you and you don’t have to be just like everyone else. Think about it if you remember your turning point or even watching shows like The Biggest Loser so many of the turning points start with acceptance. Putting words to my point of acceptance… you have to be able to say “to hell with you and what you might think of me I am doing this for ME” After all so many times we get to this point by covering up what it really is that bothers us. Our “setbacks” could be a lot less drastic if we would just accept what it really is and deal with it. What you think others see in you is often what you see in yourself turn that around and accept this is where you are but then make the changes you see fit.
Encouragement – Once you get started in a gym and you see the great changes you are making it is motivating to me to encourage others. And I also get encouragement from others to keep going. It really does become a support system and this is going to sound funny but even if you see the same people but never actually talk to them it is still encouraging. When I moved to Des Moines I didn’t know anyone or know how to get around. The gym to me became my friendly place and I didn’t even take away friendships from there but just the thought of familiar at that point is exactly what I needed and the people became familiar. I suppose any of these arguments could go the other way also but isn’t the stereotyping what makes us uncomfortable in the first place?
So I guess plus size, skinny, muscle bound or string bean I think the atmosphere at the gym is the most important thing and you will find where you feel comfortable. You have to do what is best for you because after all, this journey is about you.
