I’ve fallen off treadmills twice in my life, at two different gyms, and the only times I’ve ever used an exercise ball have been to amuse children I’ve babysat.
And yet I’m a health writer. How did this happen?
The truth is, most college students are probably closer to how I am than how the typical college athlete is. We’re not constantly training for some big event, unless we’re driven to look good or show off. The weight room-yoga studio-cardio machine lineup can feel very intimidating (even scary) if you aren’t sure what to do.
The fear of messing up or looking stupid runs deep within a great amount of gym-goers. In fact, it’s safe to say that a great amount of people are so intimidated by the exercising culture that they’re discouraged to go to the gym at all.
“I have a friend who will only work at around 6 a.m., ‘cuz he’s afraid he’ll end up embarrassing himself if he goes at the times everybody usually goes,” University student John Tousseau said.
But how logical is the idea that athletes never use gym equipment incorrectly? After all, these are people who use the gym more often than the average person, so wouldn’t they theoretically have more embarrassing moments at the gym?
The truth is this: Athletes are the exercisers who have done it all. They’ve had every mess-up, every mistake, every sin of exercise a person can commit at the gym. The folks who represent our school in athletic activities are very quick to tell stories of how they’ve embarrassed themselves in a gym. And after talking to some of them, suddenly I didn’t feel like such a dork for tripping on the Rec Center’s indoor track.
Here are just a few of the stories:

• “It was my first time doing weights in college, and I was so nervous being around all these older guys,” Tri-City Dust Devils player Chandler Laurent said. “I was just talking, doing power cleans. Then I accidentally knocked over my row of weights, which knocked over another row, which eventually landed on my ankle and another guy’s. Everyone was like, ‘Look at this idiot, fresh out of high school.’”

• “I was doing a jerk in the weight room, and the weight came way too forward,” University cheerleader Austin Parr said. “I lost my balance and fell behind — right on my butt. The coach laughed and said, ‘Wow, I can’t believe you did that.’”
   
• “The team was doing box jumps, where you jump up and down onto tall boxes over and over again,” Tri-City Dust Devils player Dominic Altobelli said. “My legs were so tired. On the third or fourth jump of that set, I didn’t jump high enough. Face plant! And I scraped up my whole shin, too. I was out of commission for a whole day.”
   
• “I’ve had weights fall off the bar, one side and then the other,” University soccer player Bree Rowe said. “It was a huge noise one time because I was benching 95 pounds. The whole gym started clapping.”

It’s reassuring to know that exercise can be tricky or even downright hard for everyone. As tempting as it is to buy into the illusion that all marathon runners love getting up at five in the morning to run before work every single day, it’s a lot easier to accept that they probably don’t.
It’s a lot more realistic to assume that they’ve tripped and fallen on the trail. It’s logical to assume they occasionally groan when the alarm goes off in the morning.
Being healthy and having proper physical fitness don’t come easy or naturally to anyone at first. Once we let the idea into our brains that even athletes have occasional off days, and even sometimes completely humiliate themselves, going on to achieve personal goals seems a lot more possible.
Suddenly the gym feels more like one’s own space to exercise, no matter what their skill level. And isn’t that the whole idea?
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