Today I went to the gym. Nothing special in this you may think (and to be fair there really was nothing special in my doing this). I walked down to the gym (about 5 minutes away) in the rain and felt pretty glad to be there. After all who wants to out in the rain? And not just any rain, but that sorry excuse for rain....y'know where it's not completely raining but it's definitely making my clothes wet.
I swiped in and wired myself up for sound after surveying the dismal choice of TV. Jeremy Kyle or Loose Women....(hmmm?!). iPods do come into their own when in the gym for sure!
Time passed fairly quickly, and after I had completed my usual 2km row (beating my p.b. by about 7 seconds - yay?), I had moved on to the cross-trainer. My God that thing works your thighs! I stayed put for about 10 minutes or so and then thought about running on the treadmill.
I always start off by walking, then walking faster, then running. Whilst on the treadmill, my mind starts to think. Bit of context here.....I think A LOT when I'm running. I have been running nearly for as long as I can remember (not constantly running obviously, I do take breaks). I have run a marathon and half marathons and such and I like it to be honest. The thing I love about it is that I have time to think. Whether this be about work, or a piece of writing or just about random stuff, I get to think.
Everyone should have a time to think.
In the gym today though, I thought a lot about why the hell I am here at said gym. I watched as one woman move seamlessly from one machine to the next without even looking like she was pretending to enjoy it. Another woman spent two minutes on each machine and for the life of me I could not figure out what exercise schedule she was on. I saw one guy who was doing his weights on the resistance machines and looking ever so carefully at the screen that told him how fast and how high to lift (why couldn't he just do what felt right to him??). I saw another man (newbie??) who obviously wanted to get adventurous and try out a new machine (what a devil!!) only to get himself stuck in the contraption, a situation which required prompt assistance from a member of the 'fitness team'.
I saw all of this in the space of about 8 minutes.
It triggered a thought in me to the tune of: "why oh why do we put ourselves in such awkward, finicky, pointless (and sometimes painful) situations just with the generalised aim of 'getting fit'?? If it's boring, don't do it. If it's too complicated, do something easier. If it's too awkward, just do it your way anyway.
I looked back to the cross-trainer where one woman had just spent a whole two minutes cross-training away, only to see her sweat marks all over the handles.
It was at this point that I decided the gym is actually quite a boring and crap place. One that I pay about £30 a month for. When did I abandon the outside? Why don't I run or walk outside more? Why haven't I bought a set of weights for my home? When did doing the same exercises in a gym make them 'better'?
exercise is good, and if the gym works for you, good on you. But I don't think it works for me, and if you actually just take a moment and look at what's going on in your gym and watch what people are doing in their monotonous routines, maybe you'll see things differently.
I've decided save a bit of money and to see if I can get my exercise needs fulfilled by the outside, by my natural inclination and by what i have available at a cost considerably less than £30 a month. I'm going to cancel my membership and to review my opinion after 3 months.
So today's lesson is this: when it comes to exercise, get back to basics.
