I go to the gym a long time now but it seems like no one ever teached me how to do proper form on exercises.

Yeah I can watch youtube videos, but it still doesn’t feel right.

My gym only has staff with 0 clue besides on machines, so I can’t ask them. And I don’t want to bother strangers.

My current way to deal with this is go to the gym at 4 am in the morning and hope no one is at the gym so I can just play around without people staring at me.

But then I am afraid to try a dead lift cause if something happens what then?

Was thinking about asking a member at the gym who looks decent to show me everything and I just pay him 50 $ but that seems kind of weird.

I can do a few basic exercises like Benchpress, Lat pulldowns etc. but I’d never squat with barbells or dead lift or anything like that cause it just looks like I’d break my back on accident. But those exercises seem to be the best and shouldn’t be skipped (atleast what I read)

I really think my social anxiety is holding me back on this part of the gym. I know everyone says: “No one cares what you do they are focused on themselves” but lets be honest, people stare and wonder what you are doing… it’s just what it is.

  • howrar
    2·
    1 day ago

    Regarding your worry about looking silly, I get you. I like to think the gym is one of the less judgemental places (and in my experience, it is), but you find assholes everywhere in life, so it would be a lie to say you’ll never encounter them. What helps for me, and maybe it’ll help you too, is confidence in knowing you’re doing the right thing. What is the right thing? No, it’s not doing the exercise with the correct form, or doing the correct rep scheme or pushing with the correct intensity. None of that. The right thing is showing up and actively working on improving yourself. That means taking the time to experiment and eventually figure out how to do things right. It means not letting perfect be the enemy of good.

    If you’re looking for resources to learn the big 3 lifts, I highly recommend the articles on strongerbyscience. Here’s their deadlift article.

    And as others have said, don’t be shy to ask others for guidance. I’ve had my share of asking for form checks and of being asked for form checks. The gym is the kind of place where everyone generally likes to help each other out.