Member Success Story

As a 21 year old girl who didn’t feel super confident with weights, I was a little nervous to start training seriously at Exodus.

The first few times walking up those stairs I felt I was intruding on a male dominated zone of advanced guys who knew exactly how to utilize their space to their best advantage. I admit, it was intimidating and I felt a bit silly walking around trying to figure out what each machine does and how on earth to use it (still happens!).

Coming from a running background as a committed participant of the weekly Exodus running group, I had cardio down pat. But I never really felt it was something I was passionate about, or passionate about improving. In August, I decided to start ‘shredding for summer’ which consisted of lowering my calories and focusing on weight training. It’s been 8 weeks and I have already achieved some goals and have learnt so much about fitness, dieting, my own body and most importantly, making gains!

Sticking to this shred has become a huge priority in my life, and I spend a lot of time researching ways to maximise my knowledge for gym sessions by not just googling fitness models, but simply asking the Exodus staff! They are all so useful and genuinely want to help and chat. I soon realised it wasn’t the buff dudes who put me off, it was my lack in confidence and ability to actually go up there and train hard.  

Just a couple of my favourite exercises now include dead lifts and squats! These are great exercises for tracking how much weight I’m lifting and give me the option to mix up the variations. These compound lifts aren’t easy-peasy and along with physical strength, definitely take a bit of mental preparation to psyche me into it- but that’s all part of the fun! A common misconception women have is that lifting weights makes them ‘bulky’ or ‘manly’- but this is not true. In fact it makes you leaner, stronger and empowered!

My advice to anyone who is a little nervous about training, especially alone, is to either ask the staff from the Membership team to the Fitness team, OR do what I do and put on an upbeat/empowering song and own those stairs! And remember, everyone has had to walk up those steps for the first time at some point.  I can now say I’m familiar with about half of the space and still learn more every session. It is truly motivating to know that there is still so much more to learn about the gym life, and even more rewarding when I start to see my abs come out of hiding! – Hannah