So you see a post entitled “the gym” and you think it’s going to be about how butch the author is and their stats on the bench press.
Am I right?
Normally yes but not in this case. I’m going to talk about the gym and fitness in more esoteric terms so please bare with me.
So it’s a bit hard to find where to start; for those who’ve read a few of my previous posts you can see I have a somewhat “unusual” relationship with the gym, for lack of a better way of describing it.
So I guess I’ll start from where I think is the logical starting point and see where it goes from there.
Before the big lock down necessitated the closure of my gym, I found myself in a good place. A typical day would involve walking to the station as a enjoyable warm up, then hitting the gym for a two hour warm up followed by a PT session (I’ll discuss this later). And it was working well- I had my life organised to an extent that my entire life was work and gym and nothing more; I would work then head to the gym or vice versa. On the days where I wasn’t working I would do a workout and then also a walk between Port Melbourne and St Kilda. It was fun and enjoyable and it got to the point I finally felt able to push myself further- I had signed up to do the Stadium Stomp and was also contemplating doing either a few other fitness events.
So as one can gather I was happy- mostly. I had mostly good days and some bad days but hey that’s life is it not; a mix of good days and bad days where you hope the good days outweigh the bad?
But the gym routine was more than just the physical. Studies say that if you workout it is beneficial for mental health as well and I would agree with it; in principal. But I also noticed something interesting. There were days- despite the fact I was working out in my “happy place”- where I would be totally pissed off for absolutely no real reason. And when I was pissed off it was for things that I logically had no control over.
For me it was strange; the things which really annoyed me were selfish people and just people in general. It’s ironic I have to admit because when you visit the same place so often you tend to get to know people. And in this case it was mostly the staff that worked there (excluding my personal trainer). I can truly say without a doubt that some of these people are some of the best people I know; you can’t buy or fake niceness and when you get to know them you see their “real” niceness and not just their customer facing niceness. (It’s a bit like your customer service voice- anyone who deals with the public knows what I’m talking about). But yet conversely I was getting annoyed at some of these people for no real reason.
The logical question would be to try to identify the ”reasons” yes? I mean why the reasoning may be faulty, it doesn’t preclude the fact that you can be logical in your attempts to analyse things and identify how you can improve. So I decided to take this approach and see where it would get me.
And where exactly did it get me?
I don’t know to be honest. After all this time I still don’t know. I suppose the easiest way is to say it’s most likely the ideals that people represent which annoyed me; but more realistically I would say jealousy because they represented what I would like to achieve in life. I mean they are good people- the individuals I know there anyway- and you can tell that they enjoy what they do and working with each other. And it shows blatantly and makes the gym a wonderful place to go; a friendly welcoming place is always a good thing and in a place where it/the individuals are there to help to to achieve a better version of yourself is the perfect place for it.
You know the saying that “money is the root of all evil?” I would have to disagree to an extent. Jealousy is probably more “evil”- while jealousy isn’t evil as such in my mind, it usually conjures such strong negative emotions. And when you’re trying to be a better person it isn’t what you want.
It’s also why- since lock down has started- I’m asking myself do I want to return to the gym?
On the one hand I LOVE the gym 20000%- it’s fun and I’m working on being a better person and to be honest a lot of the enjoyment is because I have a personal trainer who is nothing short of amazing.
Without giving the individual a big head; they’re just an all around awesome person. If I ask for a lazy day they adjust, but they also know when I’m just being a whiny little mofo. It’s a fine balancing act but they understand me and it makes a difference. There’s not too much to more to say other then the fact that they deserve as many accolades as possible and it wouldn’t be enough to even come close to highlighting their awesomeness as both a fitness professional and an all round good guy. Hell the guy even convinced me to change footy teams I follow- Hahahah!!
So yeah; an awesome PT and awesome encounters make it a great place to workout along with awesome gym classes.
But on the other hand if psychologically speaking you tend to be a bit more “down” then up, is it worth it?
If I didn’t return to the gym what’s my options you ask?
Change gym locations to the other location.
Change gyms completely to a different franchised gym.
Join MSAC (I used to be a member there) and concentrate on my swimming
Do more walking and outside activities like canoeing etc combined with swimming and also yoga.
Do nothing
Just writing this all down makes the answers seem a bit more clearer so that’s always a good thing.
I guess I have the answer in my face don’t I?