Friday, August 25, 2006

Gym Hogs

I'm sneaking into the gym at the moment to avoid the personal trainer. He wants a note from my doctor to say I can work out with my sore heel/ankle. I haven't provided a note to anyone since I started secondary school and forged a get-out-of-gym note:
"Dear Sister Marie-Therese
Please excuse Jane from netball practice today. If she has to play Goal Defense one more time she is going to bounce the ball off someone's head so hard She is not feeling very well.
Sincerely
Jane's Mama"
As I'm not twelve anymore I am doing the mature thing and going to the gym after he has finished his shift.
One thing I've discovered is that different types of people work out at different time. Early morning (when I used to go) is busy with people who work up a sweat. They run on the treadmills and ellipticals and grunt when they lift weights. Now I'm going later I'm running into a whole new (to me) group of people. Those who go to the gym to socialise and even relax.
These are perfectly tanned and toned women (always) who wear cute pink and white shorts and tank tops and who never, ever sweat. I suppose it's quite difficult to work up a sweat when you're predominately using the equipment to rest your butt while you make calls on your cell to arrange the rest of your under-productive life. It's not that they are doing nothing, they are listening to their iPod Shuffle through one ear, while the other is glued to a pink or magenta Razr cellphone. They are usually skimming a magazine at the same time. Multitasking. What they are not doing, is actually using the machine. And I'm noticing because either they are next to me and I can hear their one-sided phone conversation over my iPod or they are occupying the machine I want to use.
My gym isn't cheap but it does include a bunch of services such as a creche for the kids. I wonder if I could suggest they provide a lounge where people could go hang out, read magazines and make calls and thus free up the machines for the people who actually use them?
I don't know if it's the sore foot or the sore muscles but I an aware that I'm getting very intolerant. And cellphones in cinemas, restaurants and gyms are top of my rage list right now. Maybe I should try yoga to help me relax. They wouldn't use cellphones in a yoga class, would they?

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