Recycled blather.. posted in response to George's comment about joining a gym:

Heh. So G - youre gonna become a born-again exercise *cough*havent even seen a situp or crunch in 10 years*cough* freak like me and start riding the hills.. maybe taking to the bike/commuter lifestyle?
(Thats effing dedication to the granola, Im tellin' ya..)

I wanna become like the Brendan Frasier character in Bedazzled, who when he found out the Meaning of Life, started whizzing up the SanFran hills on his Beach Cruiser like they were speed bumps.
Thas my current daydream, ayuh. :-)

By the way, back when I was a weight room wonk - I despised those modern weight rooms in the sports clubs/gyms.
I was uncomfortable cuz theyre essentially social clubs.
The only machines I used were the bikes (to warm up), and the lat machine - as that is still the best way to hit that lat spread..

Other than that - gimme a well-equipped free weight room wit da chalk and mirrors to check form.. and to preen and pose.
And grunt in sweaty happiness.

The other advantage was that the free-weight room was blissfully machine and estrogen-free and therefore an inviting place to come to daily.
(The women who came to use the free-weights were always welcome, as they usually knew what they were doing - ie: not whine about being afraid of bulking up using free weights.)

Personally, i think those designer gym places actually DISCOURAGE people from exercising long term, cuz going in become these big productions and drama (machine, rotation, dress, preen etc etc) - thereby making most clubs profitable.
Most folk would just like it to be a simple routine.

I truly think the 'sport club/gym' operators want you to join, but not really use the facilities.
Stay with me here: They market to get people to join, and the more who join but hardly use the facilities, the more people they can sign up!

< end conspiracy theory of the day >

Wow. That was a good rant.. I think I'll recycle this for the blog.

Posted by Joe at February 13, 2002 02:27 AM