One of my new years resolutions last year was to try and do something new every day. It lasted for about 2 weeks until I discovered that if I kept on doing new things I'd eventually be forced to do unpleasant things because I'd run out of pleasant things to do... plus baking something new every day meant that I got rather tubby... It died but nevertheless I did something new today which I've never done before.
I've observed this particular activity from a distance and I've never quite understood the appeal. As far as I was concerned you paid for strangers to see you at your worst, all sweaty and red. Not very attractive I have to admit. I'm talking about going to the gym of course. My brother has a gym membership so I decided to accompany him and surprisingly enough I got free entry so I could quite simply just stroll right in and start exercising. It was all rather easy.
There I was standing inside Les Mils surrounding by imposing machines. What was even more terrifying were the intense 'gym bunnies' all around me. They all wore determined expressions on their faces and checked their watches every five seconds. While I stood their emersed in gymness I realised that a gym is a very interesting place to examine.
The people who go to a gym are a mixture of intense body building types and the need-to-be-intense body building types. Basically the ubber marathon fit and the flubber. The body building types need to go to the gym in order to maintain their image and because of course their lives are so ridiculously well organised so naturally they include a 30 minute break after work to exercise. Those types are essentially the 'Captain Aweomes' of the world. Awesome is in Chuck. If you haven't watched Chuck then well, I'm sorry but you're dead to me. If you're looking for an Awesome then look out for tight fitting t shirts which usually expose significant muscles, a very intense expression and only naturally the most intense looking running shoes you've ever seen in your life. Although the Awesome's make life... intimidating they do tend to make the gym more enjoyable because they are ridiculously ripped.
But of course they are the exception and the average gym goer is just that average. It all balances out you see when you include the fattys. The ones who have just been told to lose some kg's by their significant other or have realised that they need to lose some kg's in order to get a significant other. They usually wear baggy clothing and sweat a lot. Unfortunately tonight at the gym there were more of these individuals than the Awesome kind. That meant that I found myself averting my eyes for fear of seeing the unpleasantness of a heaving mess.
You see that's the issue with the gym. These tubby people are forced to show the fittest people out in the world their lack of fitness and expose their flab to the world. It really must make them feel uncomfortable. Now I finally realise why they unfortunately usually don't stick with it. How terrible must it feel to be sweating and heaving on the treadmill next to a man half your age who is casually running 20 kph without even breaking a sweat! That's why I think that they should really create fitness specific gyms. They can have entry requirements. It would mean that all of the fatties wouldn't feel bad about themselves and would have an incentive to move up the levels and conversely it would mean that the Awesomes could have intense competitions within their clique as they would always be around people who are hard out competitive like them. I suppose having separate gyms would be iniquitous though wouldn't it....
Back to the most annoying part of being at the gym... Exercising in public. I chose to run on the treadmill for half an hour. I had my usual play list going and my feet were pounding the treadmill but I was forever conscious of the woman running in yoga pants to the right of me and the man who looked like he was about to die to the left of me. This meant that it was necessary to change my running behaviour as I really didn't want to freak them out. When the chorus of Ke$ha's 'Your love is my drug' came onto my iPod I had to restrain myself from miming smoking a drug and doing other actions as I thought it would give people the wrong impression I also unfortunately had to refrain from doing my horse lip movements. That's a little known fact about me. When it really starts to burn during a run I vibrate my lips together to distract myself. At the gym everyone is in their own little bubble, listening to their own music, reading their own magazine and if I made a noise then I would invade everyone elses gym bubbles and I quite simply deemed that that wasn't appropriate. Overall running in a gym meant that I had to make concessions.
Gyms are the epitome of a modern lifestyle. Everyone is in their own little bubble. The people at the gym exercise because it is deemed socially acceptable. It's orderly, accessible and fits nicely into their 9 to 5 routine. It's almost too organised. Exercise is meant to be sporadic and unpredictable (or at least that's what it is in my life). One day it might be running, the next swimming, the next raving... It means that life is interesting. In fact I think you can tell a lot about someone from the exercise that they do.
I think that I prefer running in the open to be honest. I can run free and when I got off the treadmill I suffered from some motion sickness and I was terrified the entire time that I was going to fall off the back of the treadmill! It was scary. But having said that I felt very happy once I'd finished... So there's my new thing and I feel proud of myself for trying it!
3 GOOD THINGS
*This song (title of blog) I <3 it
*Chuck versus the Suitcase! There was so much beautiful Charah action I almost cried!
*Spending my $30 DSE voucher. Finally I don't have to use nerdy bulky headphones... instead I use pink ones!
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