Schwarzenegger Responded Perfectly To A Reddit User's Bad Day At The Gym Story Posted on 24 March 2015 at 15:42 Unless you're driven to be all you can be at the gym, most of us don't know what a bad day at the gym can do to a person. The average person usually heads in, maybe uses the treadmill, a few weights and calls it a day but for one Reddit user who was extremely disappointed in his performance to do his best at his gym decided to take to Reddit to explain his disappointment in himself. He titled his post Bad Day at the Gym, Completely Demoralized. Don’t really know where to start, but here goes. I’ve never been strong/big or anything close to those words. I’m 19, 6’5 and 130lbs/59kg. I often go to the gym with my friend but I don’t go when he’s unavailable because I’m not confident going by myself. Few days ago I started the Stronglifts 5×5 & GOMAD because nothing else seemed to work. It was also a few days ago when I realized I’d have to start going by myself if I wanted this to work. So today I went to the gym for the first time by myself, feeling pretty nervous. Headed to the locker room and reviewed the proper forms for squatting, deadlifts, and overhead press. First exercise was squatting. I warmed up with 55 then started 65 for the 5×5. Everything went pretty well until the last rep on the fourth set. Took a nasty spill and landed on my right knee to prevent myself from falling backwards. A couple people laughed. That hurt more than falling down. I got back on the horse and finished up the last set at 60. Next exercise was deadlift. I never really got the hang of the form for a proper deadlift so I practiced it while looking in the mirror. Started my first set at 55 but couldn’t get the form down, my right knee kept buckling and gave out on the fourth rep, causing me to fall once more. Same people laughed and got many looks in my direction because of the loud noise. Feeling completely embarrassed at this point, I put the bar and the weights in their places, and left with my head hanging low. I know everyone experiences failure once in a while, but having it served to me firsthand coupled with people laughing just destroyed my confidence. Of course, a few readers tried their best to cheer up user GnashBrowns, but only one Reddit user could really give the guy the confidence boost that he really needed. Under the username GovSchwarzenegger, here's Arnold's words of wisdom that moved this random thread to the #1 spot on Reddit. Someone told me about this. I hope I’m not too late here, I’m traveling, but I wanted to chime in. I always say don’t be afraid of failure, because how far can you really fall? You found out – to the ground. It’s right there. Now you know it isn’t anything that should scare you. You should be proud that you weren’t afraid – not embarrassed that you failed. You could have made excuses not to walk into the door, but you didn’t. You knew it would be hard, and it would be uncomfortable, and it might be awkward – and you did it anyway. That’s courage. I’m proud of you. The last guy I rooted for broke a world record in the deadlift. You have more in common with him than you think. First, he started out lifting just the bar, too (when you look at him, he may have been 3 months old at that point). Second, imagine his courage. He walked up to that bar in front of a big audience and television cameras, knowing that not only had he never lifted that much before – NO ONE on earth had – and it was highly likely he would completely fail. You may not think about it this way, but you showed that courage, on a smaller level. Finally, I’m rooting for you, too. You took the first step and you fell, but at least you fell in the right direction, so get back up and take the next step. Keep moving forward. It's not every day you get Arnold Schwarzenegger telling you he's proud of you. Let alone 500 more words to go on top of that to give you the confidence to move forward in your path. I’m in total shock right now, but thank you so much Mr. Schwarzenegger. I was completely blindsided by the amount of support /r/gainit showed me, but this something else. I’m going to make sure I come back to this subreddit bigger and stronger to show everyone here that supported me that I stayed on the path and didn’t give up. I'm just surprised gym owners everywhere haven't chimed in thanking Arnold for the boost in business.
