The gym thing
The sun was shining causing the water in the pool to sparkle. The smooth sleek bodies of the young members of the swimming club were cutting their elegant way though the water as they swam up and down perfecting their strokes. And here was I, in the gym, amongst grunting, sweating flesh looking enviously down through the glass on the scene below. Why do I do this when I could be out taking a walk in the park that borders our garden on two sides?
I just had to find some answers and the best I could come up with is this … at least it took my mind off the pain of treading the treadmill! I do the gym thing because:
1. It isn’t always sunny outside and it’s all too easy to put off a bit of exercise on the excuse of inclement weather of some sort.
2. Once I’m in the gym, I stay there for an hour. The park is too close to home. Every round of the ground I have to pass the back door where other attractions beckon.
Don’t get me wrong! I’m not a gym junkie. I don’t have withdrawal symptoms if I miss my day at the gym. I’m not trying to build a perfect body - fat (*oops*) chance of that. I just want to keep reasonably fit.
Nowadays we have to go out of our way to get any exercise at all. We sit in our cars to go to work, we sit at our desks at work, we sit in our cars on the way back from work and we sit in our chairs watching TV when we get home (I know we don’t have to but it’s addictive and it’s there). It’s not like the good-old-days when at the very least we all walked to work (or at least to the bus stop) and back, there were no magic cleaners that lifted grease without the application of a fair amount of elbow grease, the laundry rooms were steamy, sweaty places where the clothes were scrubbed clean … etc, etc, etc …. We didn't need gyms we just went about our daily toils.
Sigh!
I just had to find some answers and the best I could come up with is this … at least it took my mind off the pain of treading the treadmill! I do the gym thing because:
1. It isn’t always sunny outside and it’s all too easy to put off a bit of exercise on the excuse of inclement weather of some sort.
2. Once I’m in the gym, I stay there for an hour. The park is too close to home. Every round of the ground I have to pass the back door where other attractions beckon.
Don’t get me wrong! I’m not a gym junkie. I don’t have withdrawal symptoms if I miss my day at the gym. I’m not trying to build a perfect body - fat (*oops*) chance of that. I just want to keep reasonably fit.
Nowadays we have to go out of our way to get any exercise at all. We sit in our cars to go to work, we sit at our desks at work, we sit in our cars on the way back from work and we sit in our chairs watching TV when we get home (I know we don’t have to but it’s addictive and it’s there). It’s not like the good-old-days when at the very least we all walked to work (or at least to the bus stop) and back, there were no magic cleaners that lifted grease without the application of a fair amount of elbow grease, the laundry rooms were steamy, sweaty places where the clothes were scrubbed clean … etc, etc, etc …. We didn't need gyms we just went about our daily toils.
Sigh!
posted by Omykiss at 4:18 pm
5 Comments:
I know JUST what you mean. And I echo that sigh!
Think I prefer the gym to the elbow grease. (Over fifties - 60 in my case - should get together. WE KNOW ABOUT ELBOW GREASE. Don't mind walking to the bus though. Problem is, no buses where I live. Only tourist ones. No thanks.
I'm a recent gym convert. I was interested to read an article in Wednesday's Dominion Post (2/3/5) about a PhD student's paper calling going to the gym the new religion - complete with the ritual of going to the gym, seeing others, changing clothes, doing exercise, and cleansing afterwards. I can't find a reference for it... but I think I'll have to write a post of my own about it.
Hello zinnia .. and thanks.
Hi granny, that's another thing .... whatever happened to good public transport? I remember when we used to pack a trunk full of bed linen, towels, etc and send it by train to the seaside where we picked it up at the start of our fortnight's holiday ... another sigh!
hi jessie, I saw a similar article recently in the econimist. Here's the link
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1487649
I'll look out for your post.
Thanks for that link! Very interesting.
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