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Autism and the gym

Billy87

I am currently training to be a personal trainer and it has really occured to me that when I start up I want to work with other autistic people like me, some of whom might by reluctant or overwhelmed about going to the gym and other similar places. 
Personally, I have always struggled with the gym, I can find it an intimidating place, loud music (usually painfully bad RnB, not like it's anything decent like a bit of punk rock), posers, guys with way better bodies than mine etc. It's often put me off getting fit. 
Fortunatley, now I have found a gym I am comfortable in and really enjoy going to but its taken me many years. 

I just wanted to know other people's experiences of gyms and fitness in general so I can have an idea how I can help other autistic people like me when I'm qualified 

Parents

  • Love that this is a thread. I have never actually been to a gym to workout because my anxiety about it is too high. My biggest worries about it are the changing rooms and people watching me exercise. I'm aware these are things you wouldn't necessarily have control over unless you were creating your own gym but I feel it's still worth mentioning. Changing rooms would 100% need to have cubicles. I would never in a million years feels comfortable changing in front of other people. It would also be amazing if there could be a section of the gym that could have equipment partitioned or in booths or something that would make it feel less like people were looking at me. 

    Aside from that, from a personal training perspective, it would be the way you instructed me that would make a difference. I can find verbal instructions difficult to follow. I would need to see exactly how something is done and then I'd need you to talk me through it step by step as I was doing it. Some visual prompts might be helpful as well. I find too many instructions over whelming so fast paced workouts with lots of instructions would be very challenging to me. I would not do well with an instructor that really pushes and is very loud. I need gentle encouragement and understanding or it would make me give up and not go back.

    From a sensory perspective as much as I agree that loud music is overwhelming, I would want some kind of music or something in the background as I find silence off putting.

    Hope this helps in some way and good luck.

Reply

  • Love that this is a thread. I have never actually been to a gym to workout because my anxiety about it is too high. My biggest worries about it are the changing rooms and people watching me exercise. I'm aware these are things you wouldn't necessarily have control over unless you were creating your own gym but I feel it's still worth mentioning. Changing rooms would 100% need to have cubicles. I would never in a million years feels comfortable changing in front of other people. It would also be amazing if there could be a section of the gym that could have equipment partitioned or in booths or something that would make it feel less like people were looking at me. 

    Aside from that, from a personal training perspective, it would be the way you instructed me that would make a difference. I can find verbal instructions difficult to follow. I would need to see exactly how something is done and then I'd need you to talk me through it step by step as I was doing it. Some visual prompts might be helpful as well. I find too many instructions over whelming so fast paced workouts with lots of instructions would be very challenging to me. I would not do well with an instructor that really pushes and is very loud. I need gentle encouragement and understanding or it would make me give up and not go back.

    From a sensory perspective as much as I agree that loud music is overwhelming, I would want some kind of music or something in the background as I find silence off putting.

    Hope this helps in some way and good luck.

Children
  • in reply to Expecto_Patronum

    I agree about how you would teach, I find a lot of sporty/gym types really competitive and that really puts me off and is something I find quite scary. Having so many skeletal problems I would like to be able to try somethng and be respected when I say no, because I can feel it not doing any good.