Work it Baby!!

Fitness to me is like glue, if you work it between your fingers long enough it becomes a small malleable elastic ball, that you can squeeze into any hole. Maybe not the most apt metaphor, but I am relatively new to the world of gyms, treadmills and weight machines. I have to admit, up until a year ago, you couldn't make me move out of a comfortable position if my life depended on it. So what changed? It was a challenge of sorts...and I'm a sucker for a dare. A good friend of mine had the audacity to tell me that I would end up like my mother, when she was my age. Now that's an insult anyway you look at it. Sorry ma, but you know what I mean. Since then I'm made it a point to work out, whether it's a swim during the summers or running on the dreaded treadmill, I try to get in at least 3 one hour sessions a week. Not bad for one of the laziest persons you'll ever know (this can be certified by my parents and my husband).

I'm lucky to have a fully equipped gym in the apartment complex I live in. I've taken it upon myself to work out during the week, to make up for the weekends of binge drinking and crashed diet. Yeah I'm usually in pain for most of the week. That's why the binge drinking, numbs everything! So, for the last 6 months I've diligently followed my exercise routine and seen some great results, except for one. The people around me don't seem to change. I'm always surrounded by the usual suspects.

The old obese lady, probably in her late 60s, who's just realised that exercise may help her. She's the one who always occupies the stationery bike, and is on it for the longest time at the slowest speed. To avoid her, I'd started going to the gym half hour early. The problem is that she started coming earlier too...so we are at an impasse with the bike situation.
The Grunter. He's my personal favorite. This guy is a well built, muscular chap, who sole aim in the gym world is to attain climax with his weights. Every time he enters there's a collective groan from the women, which can't be a good sign. He starts off with a 2 minute warm up, that's relatively quiet. He then proceeds to grab the heaviest weights, his beautifully sculpted arms can carry, without toppling over. What ensues is an immediate cacophony of continuous, testosterone filled grunts, which quite frankly leave me breathless. His 25 minute work out has me, by the end of it, red in the face with embarrassment, yet a high, which doesn't belong in the gym. Now you know why he's my favorite.
The social butterfly (male and female). I have the misfortune of having a pair of completely unrelated gym buddies, who have taken it upon themselves to socialize with nearly everyone as they work out. There is no bigger put off than having to answer stupid and sometimes disarmingly personal questions while in the middle of a 30 minute run at high speed. These two seem to also be the stretchers of the group, as their entire routine consists of stretching their leg and mouth muscles.
The singer is the most irritating of the lot. Every gym has, to my limited knowledge, music of some sort blaring, while mere mortals like me endure the hour long slog in hopes of health and vitality. The singer, insists that the loud music isn't loud enough, and turns up the volume to supply it to other gyms in the area (closest one 4 miles away). To further humiliate himself, he proceeds to sing each of the songs in the most spine-chillingly shrill voice that could drive away the dead. I need to have a word with him!

There are plenty of disturbing elements at work in the gym, and lately I've noticed that their number is growing. I'd like to have them thrown out, but have come to realize that it's not what your doing during the workout that matters, most of the time, but the fact that these people are making a sincere effort to improve their health. So, no matter how much I want to punch the creepy guy staring at me through the mirrors from the opposite end of the room, I know I'm there to be as fit as I possibly can, not just for myself, but mostly for those who depend on me; my kids, family and community.