One of my clients – I’ll call her Maria - recently told me a story that she was happy for me to share anonymously. She lives in a city, and has recently recovered from an injury. She gradually built up her strength at home, and then started venturing to group classes at her local gym.

One day, she was taking part in a “strength” class, involving lifting light weights in a controlled environment. The class was such that the group were all lifting a bar of weights in time to the music, for a set period of time. Maria noticed she was falling behind the rest of the class, not quite managing to keep her movements in time with the beat of the music. This continued across several exercises, and she felt embarrassed to be lagging behind, but did her best to keep going at her own pace, focussing only on what she was doing rather than looking at the others in the class.

It was only at the end of the series of exercises that Maria looked around properly, and realised that every single person in the room was lifting a weight lighter than hers. She had chosen what best suited her ability and how she was feeling on the day, and continued at her own pace. She had briefly felt embarrassed that she wasn’t moving as quickly as everyone else, and yet it turned out she had been lifting a much heavier weight!

Maria told me the anecdote while laughing at her own initial reaction, and we agreed it had been absolutely the best response to just focus on her own activity, without comparing to what everyone else is doing. Something we often agree is best practice, but is much easier said than done!