Working Out

For the first time ever I signed up at a gym, and I went. At work this last month our boss has helped get all us at my office get a super deal for the local gym close to where we work. So a few of us signed up, and yes, I was one of them. I have always had a maximum gym membership price in my head that I would never go over, and my boss, not knowing my max-price managed to even low-ball that number, which actually was surprising. I casually mention this fact to Cheryl and she was a bit to excited for me to join. Either she had been wanting to 'suggest' I go to a gym, or she just wants me out of the house more. So I caved in and went. I went on a quick tour of the place. It is small. Only 1 location. And their main focus is on trainers and classes. So of course there's a huge push to sign up for that stuff. But they have all the necessary stuff that a person would need in a gym: Mirror walls to check yourself out in, dumbbells that clank when you toss them around so people know you at least sound like you're lifting real weights, and of course treadmills.

So I go and man I feel out of place. I could tell that everyone else there was totally serious about working out. I of course wasn't. I also was probably the 'worst-dressed' and 'ugliest' person there. I know it sounds harsh, but let me go on... I was wearing sneakers that were about two years old; the oldest in the entire place I'm sure, yet still functional. I was wearing a random t-shirt that I pulled from the top of the stack in my closet, which of course wasn't the same brand as my shorts, and probably didn't match. I was fine with it, but I'm just saying that I noticed. Now my looks: I had just come from work, not the beauty salon. My nails weren't done, my hair wasn't styled, and my clothes weren't ultra tight. For a fancy gym, I'll put that into the 'ugly' category. Ugly for a 'beautiful' person that is. I'm sure some of the people actually go there to burn calories and work out, but most of the people I saw were there just to be looked at through the large glass windows, or to look at themselves in the mirror. It was quite funny.

So that was last week. Just yesterday I went back and experienced more of the same. More people just hanging around looking at themselves, and positioning themselves to be looked at. It was quite fascinating. One kid was there throwing around the metal free weights, and he was making a big production of it. He was lifting really light weights and grunting really loud whenever he did anything. Then when he was done with whatever phase he was on, he'd drop the dumbbells to the floor, from 1 foot off the ground, making sure they clank and thud! then he would peacock around his little area pushing his chest out acting like he was the coolest thing since Swiss cheese. He probably spend just as much time strutting around as he did actually working out. I could tell that this kid was vain from the iron marks on his T-shirt. Not the burns from over use of a clothes Iron, but that he dry-cleans his T-Shirts. That is a bit over the top for me.

So after the weights I decide I want to try and use a treadmill. You know, the run in place machine. I've never exactly been on one, so I had to ask for some help for turning it on n stuff. The guy looked at me weird, but then told me : 'this button is to turn it on, and these buttons are to make go fast or slow.' And that was it. I thought there was a lot more to it than that cause there looked like a lot more buttons. Oh well. Its weird running in place for an extended period of time. I'm not good at treadmills. My running is not constant, and its never in a straight line. Both things a treadmill doesn't like. So I had to steady myself on the built in handles quite a bit. I don't feel bad about holding on at all cause I would look even worse if/when I fell off the side of back of the run-in-place running machine in front of everyone there, AND if front of the large picture windows for everyone on the street to witness as well.

I know before my running was interesting because of where I went running. Now I think its going to be interesting because of who is around me and how they act. So I'll have to keep you updated with that.