Yes, I’m ‘skinny’ and I still go the gym
There’s more to the gym than losing weight
There are two types of people in the world: People who love the gym, and people who hate the gym. It’s something that we claim every New Year to start going to, but end up just blindly playing $20 every month until we finally cave and cancel.
Most people signify the gym with losing weight. You need to lose weight? Start going to the gym. Want a flat stomach? Go to the gym. Need to lose some fat on your thighs? Start going to the gym. But if you start asking people why they actually go the gym, most don’t say that it’s because they need to lose weight.
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been scoffed at when I say I’m going to the gym. By society’s standards, I’m “skinny.” When you look at me, you probably see a slight thigh gap, skinny arms, and a pretty slim midsection. Whenever I even mention the word gym, I am guaranteed to get this at least once: “You’re going to the gym? What do you need to go to the gym for?” or, “You are so skinny! You don’t need to go the gym!”
Newsflash: I need to go because I’m a lazy motherfucker who is five Netflix episodes away from being permanently stuck to her couch.
Does this look like the body of someone who doesn’t need the gym?
What you don’t see though, is how I get winded walking up the stairs at my job. How my lanky arms can barely handle me holding my school bag and my laptop most days, and how the mere thought of running a mile makes me start to shake.
I love going to the gym, but it has nothing to with losing weight. There is so much more to going to the gym than working out to lose weight.
I’ve found myself speechless when people question why I go the gym. How am I supposed to explain why I go to the gym? Why should I even have to? I’ve struggled with body issues my entire life, and I’ve constantly been criticized for how thin I am. I just feel as if I’m being pushed back into the time of my life where I could barely look at my body in the mirror.
I workout because I don’t want to not be able to lift things at work. I workout because I want to be fit and healthy and not have all the cheese I eat kill me 10 years before I’m supposed to go. I also workout because it helps my anxiety and depression. The gym helps me get rid of all the bad thoughts and feelings that riddle my mind each and every day.
Trying to get rid of those pesky “noodle arms”
It’s hard enough to go the gym and be paranoid that people are judging me every time I pick up those tiny five pound weights to do curl ups. Now I have to worry that people are judging me at the gym because I’m “skinny”?
Now the last thing I am trying to do is brag here. I don’t need to claim that my body is better than anyone else’s (Who would ever want noodle arms and the chest of a 12 year old boy?) But at the end of the day, we all go to the gym for different reasons.
Shouldn’t we just be happy that people we know are working out?