Feeling Panicked About the Gym? Here’s Why — and What to Do
- Melanie Briony
- Oct 24
- 4 min read
Is Exercise-Induced Anxiety Stopping You?
Just know you are not alone. There are tools you can implement that can take you from fear-ridden to fearless in the gym. Keep reading to learn all about anticipatory anxiety and how changing your breathing and understanding why you feel this way can truly change your life.
Some of you may know I've been taking a deep dive into a Breath Science Certification with Martin McPhilimey this year. It is challenging me and enlightening me in the best possible ways. It’s also giving me tools and understanding that make so much more sense now — and one of those is the very real fear that so many people experience when it comes to exercise.
Feeling Panicked About the Gym? Let me start by saying this clearly: anxiety around exercise isn’t something only elite athletes experience in competition. It’s something many everyday individuals feel — people who know they need to exercise but find the thought of it so overwhelming that they simply cannot get started. If this is you, here’s some good news: your brain can unlearn these feelings when you understand how it works and what you can do to shift how you respond.
Why Your Brain Responds This Way
If you are feeling panicked about the gym, here’s what’s happening inside your brain: the emotional centres, like the amygdala, play a key role in predicting threat based on previous experiences. You go to a class, push yourself, anxiety rises, and you feel like you might flip into full-blown panic. On top of that, you might feel ashamed of how your body is responding. As this happens, these emotional centres are recording the experience for future reference. This process is designed to keep you safe in what feels like an unsafe situation.
The result? The next time you hit the gym, anxiety may start rising even before you leave home. You aren’t broken — you’re in a negative feedback loop that keeps repeating, preventing you from doing what you know you want and need to do.
Understanding Your Body’s Response
Let’s talk about what’s happening physically. If you’re already anxious, your breathing is elevated even before you start moving, which also makes your heart rate rise faster. As you move, your muscles release chemicals that signal your brain to increase your breathing even more.
Gentle exercise only slightly changes your breathing, but as intensity rises, so does your breath. At the same time, your blood chemistry shifts with more carbon dioxide and lactic acid. Combined with feelings of breathlessness, your brain predicts more threat, and your muscles feel sore and fatigued.
The takeaway: this creates an internal environment that feels unsafe and in pain — no wonder anxiety rises at the thought of going to the gym or joining a class.
What You Can Do About It
Firstly, the fact that you’re still reading tells me you really want this negative feedback loop to end. Understanding how your brain predicts safety can take away the shame you may feel about anxiety around exercise.
Here are practical steps to help:
Start with knowledge: knowing this information is the first step.
Train your brain: understand that your brain is predictive and can learn to experience calm and enjoyment as well as fear and anxiety.
Acknowledge and share: recognise how you feel and talk to someone you trust to reduce the negative emotions connected to your experience.
Breathe efficiently: learn to breathe in a functional way to avoid over-breathing before and during exercise.
Practice down-regulation: use breathwork regularly, including before exercise, to reduce anticipatory anxiety.
Start slow: move at a pace that keeps your breathing calm and controlled.
Increase gradually: build intensity with small, measurable increments over time.
Recover with breath: practice down-regulation after exercise to bring your nervous system back to safety.
How Feelings Influences Breathing
Remember: how we feel directly influences how we breathe. Anxiety, fear, or anticipation elevates your breathing above its optimal baseline — which makes exercise feel harder and spikes your heart rate sooner. This is exactly what we are working on: helping your body and brain feel safe enough to move again.
Bringing It All Together
When you understand what’s really happening, you can approach exercise with more compassion for yourself. Use your breath to calm your system, remind your body it’s safe, and start building new experiences that feel good. Over time, this changes everything — how you breathe, how you move, and how you feel about exercise.
Need Some Support?
If getting back to regular exercise feels overwhelming, I’m here to help. Together, we can calm your nervous system, reduce anticipatory anxiety, and help you feel confident moving freely again. Imagine walking into the gym or starting a workout without fear — feeling safe, strong, and in control of your body and breath. That’s what can happen when you take the first step.
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