A gym is not only a place where one goes to work out. It is a place to showcase one’s social status. I spent 45 minutes at the gym this past Thursday evening. I feel like that is the date and time the gym is the fullest. Literally all treadmills, ellipticals, stair-masters and weights are being used. It seems like everyone is doing their best to get fit in one day so they can be “hot” for the weekend.
The Patti and Allen Herbert Wellness center is a trendy spot to meet. The music is very current, the people are very attractive and the air smells like sweat. Even though the gym is a place where people go to get fit, the majority of people are already super fit and if one person is remotely out of shape they already feel like they are completely out of place. One particular individual bulging biceps and rock hard abs that were very visible through his tight white sleeveless shirt (known as a “wife-beater.”) He is obviously very proud of his physique, because after every set of weights he completes, he looks to one of the many mirrors spread around the gym and flexes. He seriously checked himself out multiple times. The mirrors throughout the gym are supposed to help people, let them see if they have good posture and are moving correctly. But does it really help? Imake the fit narcissists feel better and they discourage all those who do not fit beauty’s standards. They also make the gym look ten time larger than it actually is, intimidating people to the point they are scared of walking into a massive room where they can be lost and feel that they never can do all of themachines.
The gym seems to be separated in two sides, the cardio side and the weights side. It is interesting to note that these two sides are almost completely separated by gender. It is very rare to see a girl lifting weights and very few guys on the cardio machines. There was this one girl in the weights side. She spoke way too loud, and had the most annoying laugh ever. It reminded me of a mixture of a hyena and a parakeet. She was obviously there checking out guys and boosting their egos by caressing their muscles and asking them for help in order to lift her one-pound weights. There are a couple of girls that behave just like her. I refer to them as the gym groupies.
There was this really pretty girl, who looked as if she was wearing very expensive matching gym clothes, she had a lot of make-up on, and her hair was perfect. She would wipe her face with her towel every five seconds. To her, sweating was probably unacceptable, even though everyone expects you to sweat at the gym. After she was done on the elliptical she went to stretch and do sit ups in the large work-out mat. I have to admit that sometimes her positions looked like they were from the “Kama sutra.” She would open her legs and lift them up, and all of these movements were accompanied with moans. There were these two skinny guys who were pretending to do sit-ups right next to her but they were obviously checking her out. They would move accordingly to her movements in order to face her crotch, her breasts or her ass whenever she lifted it up high. I refer to them as the gym “pervs”.
It is very easy to spot the outliers. They are usually the only fat people, the only people wearing appropriate clothes, and they are trying so hard to look natural that they look even less natural. There was this one girl on the stair-master who was a bit short and stout. She wore long black pants and a lose black shirt in order to hide as much skin as possible. Right next to her there was a gorgeous tall girl, who looked like she was a volleyball player. That girl barely wore clothes and had a perfect high ponytail that made her look elegant even though she was sweating profusely. This girl was fit and was going up the stair master at an accelerated speed. The short and stout girl kept looking at the tall girl’s dashboard in order to see how fast she was going. In order for the short and stout girl to feel like she belonged she had to go up the stairs at the same speed as her gym neighbor. She was going over the limit her body could handle so she completely lied over the dashboard and only moved her legs. It looked as if she was paralyzed from the waist up. She was huffing and sweating compulsively, while the tall girl went up the stairs with such grace and majesty. The unfit girl was just fooling herself because she wasn’t getting the correct workout and looked like a complete fool. I refer to such people as the gym “misfits.”
I also saw a guy who was very overweight and acted similar to that girl. He would follow around these four guys who were very much in shape. He would attempt to lift the same weights as the other guys. Whenever he tried to, his face expressed extreme pain, discomfort and agony. Instead of doing fifteen reps like the other guys would, this guy would do two or three, rest for five seconds then do another two or three. He chose to lift the same weights in order to not embarrass himself in front of the guys he looked up to, but those guys seemed to take pleasure in watching him attempt to lift.
The people who are unfit are a bare minority. The greater part of the gym consists of fit people and very fit people. I saw this one guy who had more muscles than Hercules. His muscles were so big he could barely move. His biceps were bigger than his head and the length of his shoulders seemed longer than his entire body length. There were these three girls who were scary skinny and wore very tight short spandex shorts to expose their bony legs and tops that showed their ribcages. They were all sprinting in the treadmill. They were going so fast I swear they looked faster than Usain Bolt[1] himself. For the entire 45 minutes I was there they ran at the same speed. They completely disregarded the 30 minute limit on the cardio machines.
Just like those girls there were many people who broke the gym rules. I counted eight very obvious signs that read no chewing gum (I counted five people chewing gum), no food (I counted six people eating), mandatory to have towels (I counted 12 people without towels) and no cell-phones (I counted 19 people using their cell-phones). In the weights area there is a very large sign that reads “Olympic Weight Lifting Prohibited” which means that people are required to use the “reps” system and not just lift as much weight as they can at once, but there were a couple of guys that were doing just that. They were talking about how much they could bench and when they had to prove what they claimed they could only lift it once and with a lot of effort.
When carefully looking around and analyzing people I felt like I recognized so many faces. Being an avid gym user myself I have come to the conclusion that every time I go to the gym I see the same exact people. Some people are always at the gym, from sunrise to sunset. I wondered if they had classes, jobs or other responsibilities, because it seemed that they lived there. This one red headed girl is always at the gym, regardless of the time I go there, I know she will be there. The same applies to this pack of “guidos” who I swear do not have homes because they are always at the gym. The only people who seem to be completely new are the unfit people. They will go once, work their but’s off and the next day be so sore they won’t be able to go to the gym for a month. I know this because not so long ago I was one of them.
It is interesting to note that even though there are several different groups sharing the same gym there is very little interaction amongst them. Everyone gets along perfectly well with the people within their groups. Some of the fit guys and the pretty girls bond by talking out loud and laughing at each other. It is if they want to show the world they are best friends. They want to be the people that know everyone, however they won’t speak a word to someone who is clearly out of shape. There are also a lot of duos walking around, mostly same-sex duos. They are the girls who come together and seem to be judging and gossiping about everybody who surrounds them and the guys who spot each other while lifting weights but secretly desire to prove they are stronger than their partner. But the great majority of the people who attend the gym are loners. Most people create an invisible barrier by isolating themselves in monstrous headphones and a look of unfriendliness in their face. It is part of the gym culture to be cold and not be friendly. There is a great amount of competitiveness in the air that instigates a fear on people that the most remote form of interaction with someone else might ruin their workout. It is if people are afraid that by talking to someone, that someone is going to steal their good looks and strength. It is normal to walk into a gym packed with people and only hear the sound of the machines and the music that comes from the obnoxious headphone users that play their iPods at an alarming volume.
When I thought of a gym I thought of getting a good workout and losing weight, but after carefully analyzing people’s behavior the gym can also be a social convention. A place where people can prove they are strong fast and beautiful. It’s a place to find attractive people and to be and an attractive person. It’s a place to be cool, break the rules and spend a very large portion of one’s life in. It’s a place where one will be noticed, regardless of being hot or not. Everyone notices everyone and everyone wants to be noticed. A gym is vital for someone to be in shape, it is also vital for someone to show off they are in shape. In a gym, it is common to judge people. I realized that the gym culture had gotten to me and just like everyone else was aware of all the people who surrounded them and in their minds they criticize abundantly, I was being very critical and was very judgmental of everyone. Thus I was able to make such observations that can only be made when you feel you are the center of attention and everyone else is pathetic. The gym brings that out on people. It exercises one’s ego and judging capabilities and it did so to me. Hence, this essay.
[1] Usain Bolt is a Jamaican sprinter who holds the world record and Olympic record in several races. Considered to be the fastest man in history.