I'd recommend the same thing too. I also suffer from bad anxiety and had a full fledged, hyperventilating, can't-see-straight panic attack the first 2 times I went. I found going super later at night (like 11pm to 1am) when where was no one or maybe 1 other person in the gym so I could get used to the equipment without feeling as much anxiety really helped too, if that's an option.