WHY YOU SHOULDN’T BE AFRAID OF BEING JUDGED

 

If you are afraid of being judged in the gym and want to overcome that fear, then keep reading...

First published: November 30, 2018
By: Andy Xiong


Are you conscious of other people’s opinions of you in the gym?

Are you perhaps afraid of being judged for performing exercises incorrectly? Not only do you risk injury when you train improperly, but you risk others making fun of you too.

Or maybe you really want to try this new exercise, but it looks silly or you are currently incompetent of performing it properly.

If this is you, let me tell you a story about my friend. Let’s call him James.

James is a very strong dude. He is capable of easily out-lifting over 90% of the people in my gym with regards to the squat, bench and deadlift.

However, James tends to lift differently.

James does not break parallel on his squats. All the other powerlifters judge him for that: To them, James is an ego lifter that half squats 500 lbs.

Additionally, James uses a suicide grip on the bench press, meaning if the barbell slips out of his hands it will fall directly on his neck. And he’s not benching light weights either – he regularly benches over 300 lbs.

James also rounds his lower back when performing deadlifts, and sometimes with over 500 lbs loaded on the bar. It isn’t uncommon for people to approach him and tell him how dangerous it is to deadlift the way he does.

Needless to say, James gets judged a lot.

But what James does works.

Not only is James one of the strongest people at my gym, he is also one of the biggest – and in an aesthetic kind of way, too.

It would be foolish to say that James isn’t accomplished, yet people still judge him for the way he does things.

This then begs the question: If it works, why are people judging?

You see, everyone has different values and goals in life and in training. These goals and values push them in different directions in life, creating unique experiences and thus perspectives.

It is these perspectives that help us decide what is morally and ethically right and what’s wrong.

But what’s right for one discipline or perspective may be wrong for another.

To powerlifters, James is doing everything wrong. Not only are some of the things James do illegal in competition, but it is also inefficient. But James doesn’t care about technical proficiency in the deadlifts and squats, or the sport of powerlifting; he cares about brute strength and muscle growth. And to James, strength is more than just a big deadlift: Strength is about grinding things out when things are hard.

To the average gym-goer or fitness enthusiast, James is crazy for lifting so heavy and training so hard. They think that James must be on steroids. However, James is not about being average, and his training philosophy reflects this. The mindset he goes into the gym with and lives with is also different from the masses.

As such, whether something is right or wrong is subjective to your own goals and your own values.

And sometimes, even when the goals are the same there are different approaches to reaching said goal.

Take Olympic weightlifting for example, where the American approach is about explosive power and the Chinese approach is about control and efficiency. Both approaches work, but to an American weightlifting coach the Chinese approach is slow and lacks power. To a Chinese weightlifting coach, the American approach is aggressive and inefficient.

But because both approaches work, it wouldn’t be right for either the American coach or the Chinese coach to say the other is wrong. The methods differ, but the end result is similar: Both approaches are capable of producing great Olympic weightlifters.

So what does this all mean?

You are almost never in a position to judge others, and others are almost never in a position to judge you.

They don’t know your goals.

They don’t know your values.

They don’t know YOU.

And if whatever you do helps you achieve your goals, people have no right to judge.

Whether it’s a silly looking exercise that is great for your glutes, your first attempt at a barbell squat, or your first step in the gym...

There’s nowhere better to do it than the gym – a controlled environment where everyone is trying to better themselves.

At the end of the day, what matters is not how you achieve your goals but the results themselves. And stellar results don’t come from staying in your comfort zone.

Stellar results come from pushing boundaries – regardless of whether the boundaries are set by you or by others.