At one point or another we have all failed at something. Each of us has our own weakness. When I was younger I played soccer until I was in 8th grade. Had I ever been to an actual gym? No. Was I in shape? No. In 9th grade, I started to workout and go to the gym, and if it wasn't for my cross country coaches introducing me to actually using a gym I would have had no idea what I was even doing. At 180 pounds in the 9th grade I felt very insecure and always felt like people were watching me when I was trying to workout and better myself. I have had more than my fair share of setbacks that have made me start from square one. Losing 50 pounds and just learning how to use any machine, having a partial tear in my achilles and doing nothing more than arms while in a boot, and having a double mastectomy with reconstruction under the chest muscle where I couldn't even accomplish the simplest of tasks like lifting myself out of bed for weeks.
I recently noticed after returning to the gym after a major surgery that people proceeded to start at me when I began doing arm exercises a few days ago with nothing more than 5 lb. weights for most things. I could just tell people were thinking "Really girl, only 5 lbs?" While in my head, I was overcoming the biggest obstacle I had ever faced in my life. The simplest of exercises put me in the worst amounts of pain and it takes a whole lot of motivation and will power just to make it through a workout now that I would have called "easy" before surgery. The fact of the matter is you never really know what someone is going through. You never know what challenges those people at the gym may be facing: maybe that person has an eating disorder, maybe they just finished their last round of chemotherapy, maybe they just lost 40 pounds. You have no idea just by looking at someone the obstacles they have overcome.
Everyone gets judged at some point at the gym. People don't care to understand why you do what you do or where you started. The "obese guy" just lost 50 pounds. That "anorexic girl" has a high metabolism and no matter what she does can't gain a pound. That guy that is "always staring at you" admires your strength. That girl that "doesn't know what she is doing" has never worked out before today and can't afford to hire a personal trainer. That "diesel guy that thinks his shit doesn't stink" started at nothing more than skin and bones. That "old lady taking her time on the damn machine" is 92 years old and has arthritis. That "old man that talks to every one he sees" lost his wife a month ago and doesn't get any other form of socialization.
Never judge someone at the gym. Take a second and think about what that person may be going through and how much work they are putting in. You never know someone's story or journey.
