 Good day, you wonderful creature. Welcome back to my channel. My name is Thomas Henley, if you do not know him. Yes, it's my YouTube channel. Weird that, innit? My name is Thomas Henley, and today we're going to be talking about going to the gym, autistic. It's not a specific way of going to the gym, it's just my personal experience. We're going to the gym, some of the negatives, some of the positives, and how to go to the gym if you are autistic or just anyone in general who perhaps suffers with a small amount of sensory discomfort, bit of heightened senses, as well as not really liking those douchey testosterone through filled males in the corner who feel very much that they need to try and dominate the gym atmosphere and show that they're the big boys. I'm not saying that every single gym goer who's male and has muscles is a douchebag, but there is like probably about 1% of people who are like that, and sometimes there's some people that's just enough to stop them from coming back. But I am diverging from the topic as per usual. So let's get into it, the autistic experience of going to the gym. Let's make sure I can get my, there you go. Welcome to the muscle show, yeah. Oh my God, I've got such bad body this small if you're at the moment. That's why I go to the gym. So going to the gym for anybody is undoubtedly a very big hurdle. No, you know, just considering the fact that you're taking, if you're taking it seriously, like a lot of people do, you're going five, four, six times a week to the gym. Don't know why I did that in the order. And so that's a large amount of your time. And if you're working out for like an hour to an hour and a half every night, it's like, you finish work, you go to the gym, you come back and the night's gone and it's dark and especially in the UK, it could be very depressing sometimes. There's also the fact that there's a lot of other people around. And some people have a very, very bad thing in their brain that tells them that they are better than others, you know. I can see going to the gym, like I realized that, you know, I've been lifting for like two years, bit inconsistently, but I've got a pretty good physique and I'm very proud of this physique. But I don't feel the need to pick on people who are just starting their journey. The ones who look a bit skinny, the ones who are trying to lose weight. The gym is there for people who need it, who want it, who wants to change themselves. And everyone's going to start somewhere. Sometimes it can be very, very difficult getting yourself in the headspace to go to the gym, especially after that long day at work. And especially if you're autistic. Number one, the noisy atmospheres, the music. It's just a little bit too loud, a little bit too annoying and always, God damn, mainstream music. Ah, it irks me. But it's also things like the lights. You know, if you're very hypersensitive in your visual systems, I think there was a study that was published recently that my friend Autistic Callum made. He was talking about the fact that our pupils dilate too much. It's really weird. They're actually considering it to be a new way of testing to see if someone's autistic. Very, very strange. I've always wondered why my eyes are so big. Number three, as I said before, the douchey gym goers. The ones who make a lot of ruckus and noise and feel the need to stare you down for no other reason. But the fact that you're at the gym, you're the same gender as them, and you're around the same height or same muscle mass. And they're like, no, can't have another one of me and here I am the big boy. I'm the best boy. Now, we don't want those people, but they exist. They do. Let's not kid ourselves. Number four, the crowded spaces. You finish work on a Monday. You know, you've been eating badly on the weekend. You haven't been doing any exercise. You're like, right, it's the start of the week. Gonna get myself in action. Get to the gym. Realize that every single person out there has had the exact same realization. I find this to be exceptionally difficult. It's not only do you, you know, it's usually quite easy to avoid eye contact and interaction with people, but if there's people everywhere, everyone wants the bench and wants that bench press. Well, like cardio machine, and there's not any. They're gonna ask you, how many sets you got left or when are you gonna be finished? And then they're gonna hang around and sort of give you weird eyes or, I don't know. Not very fun. Sweaty surfaces, especially if you're OCD inclined. That can be a big one, because if you really don't like the sensation of being wet from solid objects, that could be an area of difficulty. Also the complex movements, which is one of the ignitions for this video. Someone commented in one of my last videos that they were wondering, you know, how do I cope with these movements? You know, I keep finding that I hyperextend on all the machines and the things of that nature, which is quite common for autistic people. Look up EDS if you are not aware of it and you have hypermobility. But it's also about the coordination. If you're like me and you have very insensitive, proprioception, ability to know where your body is in space without looking, and vestibulo, which is your balance, then you're probably gonna have a hard time picking up new skills, especially when it involves moving heavy weight from point A to point B to point B, point A. And also lack of access. If you have any kind of physical disability, a lot of gyms, they won't have the accessibility for you. You could also say that being autistic and them having the music glaring out and the bright lights, pretty low accessibility for autistic people. You know, I have to say that the gym that I go to at the moment, they've got a wheelchair lift, nobody uses it, it's full of toilet rolls. But it is there, and I think more gyms could do with it. So we've gone through some of the areas of difficulty that kind of spring up in my mind whenever I was thinking about this issue. So let's go through some of the standout issues that I think that I could help with, some things that perhaps could help you and sort of encourage you to go to the gym. Number one is motor coordination. It's that thing about the whole hypermobility and things of that nature. Due to our sensory issues, balance, movement, compound movements in general can feel very scary. I mean, they are sort of inherently dangerous if you're doing a bench press, you know, you've got this. For me, I've gotten about 100 kilos of weight concentrated in a thin line of metal, not thin, but you know, a line of metal is thinner than the overall width of the bar. But it's beside the point, it's a dangerous thing. It is, and if you do it right, it's fine. If you do it wrong, it could be messy, especially if you go too high on the weights too soon due to many reps and you don't have a spotter and all of those things. I think that, you know, even for probably the first couple of years, if you really want to, just stick the machines, you know, they're there, they work, you know, they wouldn't be in gyms if they didn't work. You know, some people go, oh, you've got to use the free weights, you get all the stabilisation. It's like, what for? Why do you need the stabilisation unless you were to do those exact exercises? It's like, I get it. It's supposed to be safer. It's supposed to kind of balance out your muscles and make sure that you're not uncoordinated and all over the place. But like, I get the argument for it, but I think for most people, the idea of going in and doing a bench press followed by an OHP, doing some lateral raises and then switching up for some, I don't know, like upright rows, you know, there's all of those exercises that require a considerable amount of skill, strength, motor coordination, things of that nature to actually do. And with machines, you literally just sit down, you have a look at the bar, you know where the handles are, and if you're doing a bench press, you just push it. It's a lot more easy. And because there's those variables that you don't really need to keep in mind, you know, there might be a few things that you can focus on to kind of make the movement more efficient, but in general, it's quite safe and it's isolated and it's, and they work. And so if you're struggling with the idea of going in and hyper-extending or going in and, you know, not knowing exactly how to do the movements and dropping the weights all over the place, go for the machines, build up that primary strength first with the machines and then if you want to, now again, substitute in some free weight stuff, do it that way. Another good thing about the machines, specifically for hyper-mobility, is that often you can control the weight a lot more. You don't have to put the weights back down on the floor or rack the weights, you know, go for a lot of that annoying process of setting yourself up and, you know, just so that you can try and look at your body and see if you're hyper-extended or not. If you're doing it on a machine, it's a lot easier to see, I can see when my knee is hyper-extending, you can take note of it. And even more to that, you can wear protective stuff, you can wear wraps, you can wear, you know, wrist wraps, elbow wraps, knee wraps, you know. Don't let people put you off by saying, oh, it's for pussies, you know, you can't do that. Like, I mean, she can. Like, conserving the health of your joints is all right, but if you're concerned about that and it's gonna give you that extra security, then do it. Obviously, I'm not a qualified physio person, personal trainer person, but I do have a lot of experience and I used to be quite a high-level athlete. Used to go to the gym pretty much every day when I was younger, I watched videos all the time. If you're concerned with some other stuff that I'm talking about and you want an actual sort of professional, more in-depth opinion, go to someone like Greg Jusat on YouTube or go to more plates, more dates or, I know that name, but, you know, go to people like that and they can really sort of give you a better sort of idea of what to do. Number two, people, people, people. People, yes, that is most people's issue with going to the gym. I mean, you know, the first time that you go to the gym in a while or whatever, you are hyper aware of everything that's going on. You're not very focused on your workout. You sort of always looking around, making sure no one, isn't anyone looking at me and like, oh my God. And especially if you're not wearing headphones and you're just kind of idly standing by and someone's asked you how many sets you got left and you say, I don't know. And then they just stare blankly at you and you know, question whether you have any sanity to you. People can be one of the major sources of stress and when you're autistic, we tend to have a lot higher of a difficulty with that with socializing, with social anxiety. The answer, headphones. Specifically, noise canceling headphones. Get yourself some of those. Stick on your music. You know, the first time you go to the gym you probably will still be very hyper aware of people but after a while, it will get better and you will just go to the gym sort of lock in and do your own thing. You take a phone with you. I know people talk a lot about, oh, you shouldn't have your phone at the gym, you should be focusing on the movements. Like, if you want to have your phone there, then do it. Like in this situation, it could even be a positive because you don't need to sort of look around or stare blankly into the floor or the distance in order to not appear like you're doing anything weird but also not locking eyes with that angsty dude in the corner who's got a grudge on you for some reason. It's a very, very good thing to do, a very underrated thing. Just don't get too carried away with it and start skipping sets and taking too long at the gym and stuff. I find it to be really helpful. No one is time, you give yourself time or get used to it. We adapt to things, things that are consistent for a long period of time that we do on a consistent basis. That's gonna be, our brain's gonna kind of filter out and you're gonna get more into your workout, you're gonna feel more confident, you just go in, do your thing, you come out. Time does help a lot. And also plan, plan what to do. If you're just starting out, literally do 20, 30 minutes but just set yourself a schedule and go to the times that you want to go during the week. And now after a while you can kind of, even if you don't do anything, you've still got yourself to the gym. It's still in your planner. You can continue it and the more time that goes on, you can start adding to it. You can incorporate proper workouts to cover all the muscle groups, things of that nature but for that situation, if you're really having trouble going to the gym, just give yourself some time and plan what you're going to do. Make it small. So truth be told, like I go to the gym for my anxiety. I don't want to receive more anxiety to go to the gym but it always does happen a little bit. It's always slightly high at the start but once I get into it, once I adjust to the environment, once I get into my workouts and all the good endorphins are flowing around my body, my anxiety tends to be a lot better and I usually come out of the gym. So it's the same when I used to train in Taekwondo. Come out of the gym, I feel great. Not always, but most of the time I feel great and have more energy and feel better. So it's always worth having in mind that it's always going to be a little bit anxiety provoking to get yourself there but that's what anxiety is for. It makes you concentrate on things that are going to happen and it could be dangerous. And if you're worried about the gym, you're gonna be focusing on going to that gym and it's gonna cause you anxiety. Lastly, make sure that you plan to go when there isn't so many people. With gyms like Pure Gym, you can see like how many people are in the gym when the periods of time, when there's less people, usually tends to be later on in the week or in the weekends. Those are really great places, great times to go. And it doesn't really eat into much of your day because if you go on the weekend, like it's like an hour, an hour and a half and then you got the rest of the day, whereas on the end and you still got the rest of your evening because you don't have work and things of that nature. Those are kind of the two points that I wanted to cover. I realized that there are a lot of other points that you know, issues that you could have sort of questions. You can ask me in the comments. I will try and answer that to the best of my knowledge. Or you can go over to some quite prominent sort of YouTubers. Just don't go to VsRED, like go to like Greg Ducet or more dates or Mountain Dog or like anyone like that. They give you the, give you the lowdown. You know, really great information over there. I hope you have enjoyed this video and I hope you found it helpful and I hope you enjoyed looking at my thick delts. I've been trying to work on them for a while. Just need to put down the body fat and yeah. Should be looking like an alien in no time. Make sure to follow my socials, Thomas Henley UK. I post a lot of stuff on Instagram. A lot of stuff. And usually like the ignition for these videos comes from one of my social media posts. So if you want to actually read what I'm saying and sort of get everything in a concise form, Instagram is the place to go. And if you want to check out my podcast, the 40-odd podcast is in season two. I've had guests like Temple Grandin, Steve Silverman, Professor Baron Cohen, a lot of prominent autism advocates talking about a topic of their choice in a co-produced way. A bit like chat over a coffee, a little bit more towards the end of the Joe Rogan experience kind of side of podcasting. But I definitely learned a lot and I'm happy to promote it to you guys. Of course I would be. Like why wouldn't I? Anyway, I hope you have a good day. Make sure to like and subbie all that jazz and I'll see you in another Thomas Henley episode for a really weird saying that. You say I spread this growth video, but no, it's just my video. Very weird. Kind of a mind screwing over my mind a little bit. See you later.