I signed up for this gym in...January i think? After my previous gym ABRUPTLY closed leaving me hanging

I kind of struggled for the first two months....its a VERY different gym. I’m used to classic weight lifter/bodybuilding focus gyms, and MOST of my training over the past several years was essentially your classic bro-split, bodybuilder style with some DABBLING in Olympic weightlifting

New gym is a strongman gym with some powerlifting/CrossFit crossover, so the equipment is VERY different

And i had a really hard time navigating that change. I felt really lost and I confident with the the space, I didn’t know how to do a lot of my go tos (no lat pull downs???) and my routine got fucked. A combination of being off my routine, being uncomfortable with the space, being self concious of not knowing what i was doing made me really not go

SO i signed up for their classes, since it was only a little more than the open gym membership and entitles you to attend any of their daily “work out of the day” classes. This is the bread and butter of any SM/CF gym, but fundamentally different than any gym I have even done

SO ANYWAY, I started going to classes, twice a week at first, now usually 3-4 and I’m hoping to do 5 soon. It took me a while to figure out what TIME of day too (i liked 12pm because it’s so empty but my body has so much more energy at 5:30

I used to go to the gym at 8-9pm. I’m just stronger and more energetic at night!

The workouts are HARD, they kick my ass, a lot of new movements I’ve never done and a lot of movements i have done, but with some actual coaching to help me improve my form!

Having people to work out WITH is nice, it provides some SERIOUS external pressure. I’m SO much easier on myself when I’m alone and there’s no one else doing the moves. When there are people there I’m like, ‘well shit, gotta keep up with everyone’ and so on

A big, interesting thing about strongman style lifting is it’s very focused on ‘functional movement’, which is something that i am in general interested in and prefer in my workouts. So it’s lots of PICKING STUFF UP, using your whole body, training the PSOAS and posterior chain etc. I know all this stuff very well, but I’ve never

Personally trained it in this way. Bodybuilding is a lot of small muscle focus, one at a time (and then a few BIG COMPOUND lifts that hit the whole body)

I FIND ALL THIS VERY INTERESTING, I’M A HUGE ANATOMY AND FITNESS NERD

My two months reflections are, I really love it, it works REALLY well for me. My ADHD (which i use going to the gym a lot to MANAGE) loves that every single workout it different. I also love that i don’t have to plan or organize, i can just show up and someone else has done that. i just have to do the workout.

I like the community! Everyone is nice, people are supportive and genuinely interested in being a community, which is a cool vibe. it’s also the only gym/workout environment I’ve ever been in that does NOT talk about weight loss/calories/burning fat/ANYTHING of the sort.

As someone who is always teetering on the edge of a relapsed ED and just general body image problems, it’s very good for me to not have that be a part of the conversation.

Also, perhaps most notably? I’m really feeling it

I’m feeling STRONG, I can feel the difference in day to day activities and I can easily do things in class that were impossible/daunting a month ago

I’m getting into that sweet spot where i really WANT to go to the gym every day (i dont’ go every day, I CAN’T go weekends so those are restful, but weekdays are fair game)

That’s the thing that was a big loss when my last gym closed

it takes MONTHS of forced habit building to drag my ass to the gym

And eventually, it clicks. The routine becomes ROUTINE, and my brain excepts it. But that doesn’t happen overnight, and suddenly losing my gym access meant that whole routine collapsed

And it’s taken another several months to REBUILD that routine, and it feels very good for my brain to finally be hitting that ‘okay this is what we do at 5:30’ point

Because that’s the point where it no longer becomes hard to go, I just go, and it’s good and then i come home.

ITS JUST NICE. I like it, I’m feeling good about maybe hitting some of my personal goals for this year (stuff like deadlift over 200, finally do a fucking pull up)

but in the meantime, I’m really enjoying myself!

This is literally why a crossfit style gym is the only reason i have ever been able to keep up with it. it just clicked with my adhd and became routine

YEAH

I clicked with my self.progrmamming too but it took A LOT more time and effort and it was easier to fall.of the wagon HARD if my routine was disrupted

this definitely solves the little problems I was having in a big way