Driving back from B&Q the other day, I passed a newly opened gym advertising for new members. One of the walls was glass fronted but I couldn't decide whether this was so that passers-by could ogle, or to allow those inside to look out on the beautiful vista of a busy roundabout, second hand furniture shop and garage.
It was a lovely sunny day (just before the school holidays started and everything went grey), perfect for a nice walk or maybe getting out on your bike along any of the nearby canal towpaths or heading to the countryside, yet inside were a couple of dozen brightly clad people busily walking on treadmills (wearing earphones), using a stair climbing machine similar to those installed in 19th century workhouses, or cycling on stationary bikes whilst watching the television (seriously!)
What attracts people to these overheated places? Ok you can lift weights, but then you can buy a couple of dumbbells for about 50p nowadays and if you want to get fit, why not just go out for a run? Is it the social aspect? If you know the answer then please enlighten me, otherwise it will just get added to the list of things I don't understand.
8 comments:
I couldn't agree more that the big, wide world is a far better source of exercise than any gym - what I find truly bizarre is the fact that people drive to them - why not run there, and then turn round and run home, costing nothing??
My guess is that people think that by joining a gym (and paying a vast sum of money each month) they will then actually go and do exercise (as they're paying for it anyway), rather than thinking, 'meh, I'll go for a run tomorrow'. That, and they get to say things like, 'I really must go to the gym tonight', which makes it sound like they're serious about getting fit, and makes them look 'cool' at the same time.
Following a minor injury, I had to exercise my knee by sitting in a chair and raising my foot off the ground with a weight around my ankle. The physio suggested that I could join a gym, but her solution was to borrow my wife's oven gloves, and put a tin of baked beans in each pocket and hang it over my ankle whilst I exercised. Increase the weigh until I could manage a couple of bags of sugar (4Kgs).
Far cheaper, even after buying her a new pair of oven gloves!
I've never understood the attraction of B&Q either...
As a gym goer of a couple of years there are some great benefits. Granted my days as a member of "Fitness First" are long gone as it was full of posers more interested in checking out each others new Nikes. I joined a boxing gym near "the City". It's expensive, not amazingly "kitted out" but the trainers are fantastic (cheap too), the classes are savage and everyone there is bright, driven and working bloody hard to learn a new skill / get fitter. "Fitness Centres" aren't for people who really want to get there... some gyms are though
Young women in lycra running on the spot 10ft away from you.
For me it's the fact that I'm paying for it therefore I make sure I use it. If I buy weights, they get used for a week then find themselves being stored under the bed.
My old gym (I left the country 4 1/2 years ago to go travelling and am only just settling in again) was great socially, too. And it was 2 mins walk from work so it meant I got my backside out from behind my desk at lunchtime.
I have a 2 year old son so I can only exercise during my lunch hour at work. Therefore the gym (running where I work is not a good idea) is the only form of exercise.
For me, the advantage to the gym is the variety of exercises. Yes, free weights are cheap, but my gym has 4 different machines I like for cardio, each taking up about as much square footage as a treadmill. I'm not gonna have those in my house.
Similar thing applies to weights. There's a lot of exercises I can't do with free weights that I need nautilus type machines.
Oh, and to the people who like to get critical of those of us who drive to the gym? Yes. I drive to the gym. It's 15 min or so. It'd be 45 min or better by bike. Even longer jogging.
Just how much time, pray tell, should I be required to dedicate to the process of "going to the gym"? I could bike instead of driving, but instead of 90 min round trip including changing/showering, it could be 2.5 hours. Awesome.
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