22. Look Like You Belong At The Gym: New Year Gym Etiquette for Beginners

The January rush doesn’t have to feel like a spotlight on everything you don’t know. We break down the small behaviours that instantly lower anxiety, raise confidence and make you look like the typical gym goer.

If this episode helped you feel calmer about training, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s starting out and leave a quick review so others can find it. What’s the one gym rule you think everyone should learn first?

I am happy we can share this journey of leveling up, together. Send me a text by clicking the link at the top of the description. I would love to hear from you :) See you next week!

- Alita <3

https://vitawithalita.buzzsprout.com

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This podcast is intended for general educational purposes only. The content discussed does not replace professional medical, nutritional, or fitness advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Individual needs and responses vary, especially with exercise and nutrition. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making significant lifestyle changes.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Gym Anxiety Spikes In January
• 1:45 Barbell Basics And Newbie Confidence
• 3:35 Mirror Etiquette And Shared Space
• 4:48 Don’t Block The Dumbbell Rack
• 6:00 Smart Plate Racking And Storage
• 8:20 Cable Machine Fixes And Bench Adjustments
• 11:05 Plan Your Workout And Navigate
• 13:20 Clean Up And Return Gear Properly
• 15:05 Load Evenly And Respect Machines
• 17:10 Ask Politely, Don’t Interrupt Sets
• 22:45 Final Encouragement And Sign‑Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:27

Hello, welcome back. Welcome, welcome. This is Vita with Alita. I'm your host, Alita. And today we're we're gonna get right into it. Today, I wanted to sprinkle some gym wisdom for all our New Year resolution people. I was one of them. Nothing against you, but I thought it would be spicy if I shared some tips that as like a regular gym goer, I guess I can call myself, I noticed that like I just kind of know to do these things. And especially now as the gym has become a little more busy in January, there were some things that kind of indicate a newbie, and absolutely nothing wrong with being a newbie. We were all a newbie at one point or another, but I know that being a newbie and fearing that you look like a newbie can contribute to gym anxiety. Which is why I decided to make this episode today. I want to share tips to help. Things that maybe like seem insignificant, but will just make it look like you know what you're doing, will make you look like a regular gym goer, and maybe if you look like one in your mind, you'll feel like one and you're more likely to actually become one, right? Because we're gonna have a little little shift in identity here. So that's the goal of today's episode. And as our New Year's resolutions together are incipient, haha, a little word there. So this means incipient incipient, my my apologies means just starting out to happen, or let me rephrase that, just like starting to happen or develop. So as our new year's resolutions are currently still incipient, and as we are still developing them and going to continue them because I believe in all of us, I wanted to share these things, make it look like you know what you're doing. This is basically a list of gym goers tips. I'll have a better name for it, but let's just get right into it. So, number one, for your information, a bear barbell. So a barbell is like the giant metal pole. I don't have a better word for it, but the giant metal pole that you usually see at the squat racks or like the bench presses, when it has no plates on it, usually weighs 45 pounds. And I say this because it might actually be heavier than you think it is. So don't be discouraged when you find it difficult to lift. It's 45 pounds. They also sometimes some gyms may have like the skinnier ones where when you hold it, you can tell it's like a smaller, it feels smaller in your hand. And I've heard them refer to as the woman's barbell, which I'm a fan, but those like skinnier barbells are actually 35 pounds, just to be aware. Now you know basic gym, basic gym knowledge. Alright, number two. Let's say you're standing in front of the mirror to do an exercise, okay? And you're standing there, you're watching yourself do the move, great, but then you kind of see someone behind you, not like lurking, but they're just like dude standing there doing their exercise. Like I personally always have, I always just move, I shift a little bit over so that the person can see themselves in the mirror. And by doing this, it it shows that you have an awareness of others in the gym. And it just like, I don't know, for me, it became a natural reaction. And I noticed the other day that it wasn't a natural reaction for a lot of people, especially when the gym is in new space. So you see someone who is kind of blocked by you in the mirror, especially if you're done a set and like you're just standing there and waiting. Shift, let them see themselves, and trust me, I'll be appreciated even if they don't say anything. It just makes it look like you know what you're doing, and it's a good time. So that's for our little mirror standing. All right, number three. Please do not stand at the dumbbell rack and do your exercise. And you will see experienced lifters even do this, and I feel like it just kind of comes with ego. But honestly, I don't know if this is just a pet peeve of mine, but it just don't do it. What if I I need a weight and I can't get to it because you're standing there grunting over the freaking dumbbell. Just move over, take your dumbbell, go to your bench, go to your area, shows respect for others. It just don't do it. I know it's easier to just be at the dumbbell rack, but imagine how chaotic it would be if we were all just standing at the dumbbell rack. Take your weights and move. And also, like sub tip from this tip if it's extremely difficult for you to take the weight that you are choosing from the rack to your area, maybe the weight's too heavy. Okay, it shouldn't be a whole workout in and of itself. We're not trying to eagle lift here. So by the way, all right. Next, number four. This is one that I thought of when I was at the gym the other day. But when you are like unloading plates, uh either off a machine or off a barbell, or you're putting plates away, usually we put the heavier plates, like the 45 pounds or the 35 pounds, like first in the back. And if you have to load like lighter plates, like of a different weight with those plates, they usually go in the front. So let's think about why. If I'm a person who is unable to lift 45 pounds, but I need 25 pound plate, but the only one I'm able to find is stuck behind a 45-pound plate. Now we have a problem. So by loading your heavier plate first and then the lighter plate, it just shows again you're being considerate. It just shows that you kind of just have like this basic understanding. And trust me, it just I feel like it's a little tip that maybe no one's gonna notice. But if someone does, you just look like you know what you're doing and it's a good time. And along the lines of this kind of tip is that usually heavier plates, like again, the 45 pound or the 35 pound, kind of go on lower storage racks. Like when you're putting them away, it's easier when they're lower because they're closer to the ground and somebody can, it's so much easier to take off than if they were higher, like towards your chest or above your head. Never, never put a very heavy plate like to be stored above someone's head because that's just a mess. If another person comes and tries to take it off and they're not strong enough or whatever, whatever. So by loading your plates when you're putting them away correctly, it just looks like you kind of know what's happening and you've been around for a while, and you know, you you know a thing or two about the gym. So I hope that made sense. But yeah, the way you kind of when you put your plates back and always put your plates back, when you put your plates back, put the heavier ones first, or put the same weight together. And if you have to put a two of a different weight, put the lighter plate at the front. Alright. Next little tidbit I have here. Okay, so for this one, hear me out. You know what the cable okay? You're at the cable machine. The cable machine is usually the one that has like a hook, and you can attach different like attachments to it, and you can also like move the cable up or down. You usually see people the cable machine is the one where it's very versatile, like it can be high, it could be low, and you'll know. Maybe I'll insert a picture of a cable machine. We'll see, whatever. But if you don't know what I'm talking about, just Google cable machine. That machine there. When you're going to that machine, sometimes you want to change the weight and it gets a little bit stuck, and you sit there trying to fumble it and try to pull it out and all these things. But sometimes, or most of the time, the reason it's stuck is because the attachment attached to the cable is very heavy, and it's like hanging in the air, it's very heavy, and it's slightly pulling on the cable, and because of that, you kind of are creating like this counterweight, so the raw the metal stick thing to change the weight gets a little bit stuck. So, in order to unstuck it, I guess for lack of a better word, you have to either remove the attachment or like slightly lift it to remove the pressure. I hope that made sense, but I I'm bringing this up because again, these are things I saw at the gym and I just thought, you know what, like people maybe people don't know. So, next time you're at the cable machine, maybe to avoid this, if there is an attachment hanging in the air on the cable machine that seems very heavy, like one of those long metal bars, just remove it and then change your weight. You're less likely to get it stuck. Sometimes it's just broken and it's your luck, but I'm just most of the time, if nothing's wrong with the machine, you might just have a heavy attachment there and yeah. But now you know these are things to look out for. Alright, I think we're at number six. This goes kind of along the same lines, but let's say you want to adjust a bench. The benches that usually they put in front of the mirrors at the dumbbell rack. Okay, if you want to adjust the bench, sometimes you need to slightly lift the top of the bench before you can pull the lever to adjust it. And I learned this the hard way, and I'm I learned this like like three months ago. There was a bench that just wouldn't budge. No matter how much I pulled the lever, it just wasn't coming out for me to adjust the bench. And then a worker came up to me and was like, hey, just like lift the bench slightly to unlock the lever, and then it will loosen and you can open the lever and then you can bring the bench up or down as much as you'd like. And I was like, true. And then ever since I made that mistake, you know when people I saw make that mistake too. So now you're not gonna make that mistake and you're gonna look like a gym pro because you're gonna slightly lift the bench, unlock the lever, pull the lever, adjust it the way where you need it to be, and then make sure you lock it again. And when it comes to making sure you lock it again, this one I cannot emphasize. I didn't originally have this in my tips, but I will add it here. When you're adjusting anything from bench to chair to cable machine, make sure it locks so that you're not midset and suddenly your chair like falls and like or your cable falls or your bench like re like locks. That also, you know, part of being an experienced gym goer is you kind of know that it has to lock, or some machines may even have like a red or green color system. So if you see the red in the lever, it means it's not locked. So make sure everything's locked and well adjusted and try it out, test it out before you go full speed into your set, and then midset, you're like whatever, it readjusts and you just you might hurt yourself. So, yeah, if you want to adjust the bench, you might have to slightly lift it and then you can pull the lever. Alright, number seven. I know you're probably worried of looking like you don't know what you're doing. So before you walk into the gym, do yourself a favor and write out everything you want to do. Don't put 30 exercises on there that you have no idea what they mean. Write out what you want to do, and then Google or YouTube each exercise if you don't know what they are. I did this the first few times I went to the gym. I literally wrote down what I wanted to do. I wrote down, like I Googled every single one and I practiced, and that's because I had gym anxiety. If that's what you have to do, that's what you have to do. But write it down so when you go to the gym, you know exactly where you want to go and you look confident walking around. And don't be super strict on yourself about like the timing or the order of each exercise. I know some programs might say the order is super important. Yeah, it is, it can be, but right now we're just trying to get you started. So if if let's say exercise one on your list is a specific machine and that machine's taken, don't just stand there, look confused, and you don't know what you're doing, and then your gym anxiety increases. Just go to exercise two and then you come back to exercise one when the machine's done. Easy peasy, don't overthink it. Another caveat to this is literally take a little tour around your gym. Just walk around. Wear your headphones, walk around, look like you're walking around with a purpose. Literally look around, see where everything is so that when you are working out, you know exactly where every machine is. There's no shame in that. I literally walk around all the time just to get my steps in if I didn't get enough steps that day. So so don't even stress about looking weird. Because trust me, there's there's weirder. Alright. Next little tip. I think we're eight. Wipe down every or your piece of equipment after you're using it. Most gyms have like wipes or spray and paper towel or some sort of towel or something for members to wipe down their equipment. Please wipe down your equipment after each use, even if you didn't sweat, even if you get up and it looks like nothing happened, wipe it down. It shows good gym etiquette, it shows consideration for others, it just shows a lot of good things. It shows that you know what's going on because you noticed that there are wipes to even wipe down the bench in the first place. Some people just don't even know that they're there. So now you know, wipe it down, look out for it, do your thing. And it also kind of indicates to people like, okay, I'm done with this, it's open now. Trust me, it's a good thing. It's like a little nonverbal communication going on with other gym members. It's a good time. You'll feel good, everyone feels good, and that's what we want when we are going to the gym. Okay, number nine. Let's say you are somehow strong enough that you're loading plates on a barbell or on a machine or on anything, especially when it comes to a barbell. Please, please, please make sure that you are loading and unloading plates evenly on each side. So what does this mean? If I have an empty barbell and I put a 45 plate on the left side, I'm gonna go to the right side and put a 45 plate. And then if I want to add on top, I'm gonna go start on one side. Either side, I start on the first side, put whatever my 10 pound, 25 pound, and then I go to the other side and add the exact same amount of weight. And I don't know if you've ever seen those videos where somebody unloads all the plates on one side and the barbell literally like flips vertically and hits the person, and it's a whole disaster. Just load and unload your barbell evenly, and you will avoid hurting yourself. You will look like you know what you're doing, and it's a good time for everybody. So please, please make sure you're doing that. It might be a little more extra work, but hey, it's worth it. Okay, number 10. You'll see that a lot of these tips relate to gym etiquette because having good gym etiquette just makes it looks like you kind of just know what you're doing. Think of anywhere that you go where there's like an appropriate behavior that people right off the bat may not know about, but then as they like go, they like learn about it. This is what the gym basically is. Like there are things, I want to say unspoken rules that just make it look like you know what you're doing because you've just been there. And I'm trying to get you to that level because you know what you're doing, you've been there, you deserve to be there, and why not look like an expert right off the bat? Am I right? Okay, so number 10, return your dumbbells, your attachments, anything that you borrow from the gym space exactly where it belongs. And I say it where it belongs and not where you found it, because you might find it on the floor, honestly. You might find it randomly in the middle of the gym floor. But then when you're done with it, do yourself a favor and the next person a favor and put it back where it belongs. Whether it's a band, an attachment. And if you don't know where it goes, literally walk around, take a look around. For attachments that attached on the cable machine, there's usually some sort of thing in the middle that has like a tray or like hooks or something. You'll see other attachments on it. Return it there. Dumbbells, return them in the proper weight section. Don't just randomly put it on the rack, return it properly. For your plates, return it on a proper rack. This goes back to rule, I don't know, what two or three or whatever that we talked about racking plates. Just do your due diligence, put things back properly where they belong, and trust me, it'll look like you know what you're doing. It'll be very appreciated by the next person who's looking for the item and exactly where it needs to be. And I just think it's a good time. So return things where they belong, not just where you found it. Number 11. Don't sit on a machine if you are not using it. And this is especially true if the gym is super busy. Sometimes I go to the gym and there's like me and some other person there. I'm gonna sit on the machine if I want to. No one else is using it. But but please make sure that you're not just sitting there waiting and may somebody may want to use the machine, especially if you're sweaty and stinky and you're sitting and sticking up the machine. Like it's just not nice. Don't sit there. I don't know why you should be sitting in the first place. You should be focusing on your workout and be taking maybe two minutes to rest, if that, so no need to sit. Get your butt to work, and don't sit on a machine if you're not planning to use it. And this kind of brings us into our next tip, number 12. I know when anxiety kicks in, we may be tempted to pick up our phones and start scrolling, start texting, start making it look like we're busy. But please don't. I'm sorry. This might just be a pet peeve than a tip, but I hate when I'm like kind of waiting for someone to finish with a machine, and I'm doing another set. I'm not like standing there waiting. Don't do that, don't just stand there and wait for a machine. But I'll be doing something else, and I'm eyeing my next machine, and the person is just sitting there on their phone, and I'm like basically done. Like I've been at my machine for 20 minutes now, and they're still just sitting there on their phone, and then they finally decide or they remember they're in the gym, and then they start doing a set. It's like, buddy, whoever, please, please do your set and then get your bumper. I'm off the machine so the next person can use it. Don't sit there and scroll. If you're gonna do that, please offer your machine to other people. So yeah, don't sit there endlessly scroll. And if you want to use a machine, don't just stand there and watch the person work out. First of all, ask. Say, hey, how many sets? Oh, one? Cool. I'll give you a bunch of space and look away so you can finish. Oh, you just started, no worries. I'll do something else. Don't just stand there and hover because that's also just kind of weird. And this goes kind of to the list of things. If a machine that you want to use is being used and is busy, just go to the next. All right. I think this is my last little tip. I think we're at 13, so a nice 13 tips for us today. If you want to take a plate or attachment or a dumbbell or anything from an area where somebody's kind of set up. So let me tell you where this tip came from. Okay, so I saw somebody standing. They were at the they were at a squat rack. And the squat racks of my gym at my gym also have a platform to deadlift. So somebody was using this area to either deadlift or squat. I don't remember now. And on these squat racks, there are places to store plates. Okay. There's like those racks to put plates. And I needed a plate from that rack. Not one that was being used by the person on their barbell, but one that was on the storage rack. So I saw them, they were there. They are technically in the area. And I know that they were not using the 10-pound plate that I was going for. But out of respect to that person's like, you know, space and the area that they are using, once they were not working out and they were standing and resting for their next set, I just quickly pointed at the play and I said, Hey, are you using this? And they said no, go ahead. I took the play, it was a good time. And that just again shows respect. So you wait for the person to not be midset. Do not talk to somebody midset. That should honestly be 14. I didn't add 14, but 14 is don't speak to somebody midset. But part of that is this person was not midset. They were resting, they were chilling, they were waiting, they were probably on their phone, I guess. I looked at the plate, I said, you need this, no, and I only asked because it was in their area that they were using, and then I took the plate, went and did my own thing. And then guess what? I put the plate back. Okay. I think that's it. That's all I have for today. Very chill episode. I just wanted to give little tips to help everybody as they are starting their New Year's resolutions. If you have gym anxiety, please use some of these tips to make yourself feel like a gym goer because these are maybe some unspoken rules that you may not find written down, but I have a feeling people as they become familiar with the gym tend to know and they tend to follow. And now you know them, and you know them because you are a typical gym goer. All right, my lovely friends. Take care. Have a great rest of your week, and we'll see you next time. Bye bye.