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Q: Have you seen this?
So, I have been going to the gym for the past 3 months and have witnessed some peculiar behaviour. After living in China for 6 years I thought I had seen it all. I should have known better. I can't help but notice these strange behaviours even though I wear my earphones and try to ignore them. Keep in mind that this gym is comparable to western standards. Very up to date and loaded with enough equipment and amenities to make even the most prolilic bodybuilder drool.
Let me list my observations for clarity:
1. Guys smoke in the shower. I mean, as they are scrubbing down they have a cigarette in their mouth.
2. Saw a guy yesterday showering with his glasses on. I don't wear glasses so, of course I wondered what the advantage of wearing them in the shower was. I could go with the obvious answer but I'll skip it, lol.
3. People regularly work out in jeans, shoes and casual shirts. The majority wear proper gym clothes but many show up, work-out and leave without so much as a trip to the locker room.
4. Speaking of the locker room. Guys make pit stops there mid-workout for a smoke.
5. They spit there too.
6. Employees sleep on the benches and locker rooms during business hours. (not surprising, just thought I would add that one)
7. The treadmills have usb and mp3 capability. You can bring your own tunes and plug them in and play the music through the speakers on each unit. It's strange and annoying to see two people, with completely different music blasting out of the speakers of adjacent treadmills. It's so loud I can hear it even though I am wearing earphones.
8. When it's not busy, the employees don the boxing gloves and beat the bejesus out of eachother. I do enjoy that entertainment.
Got any gym stories?
Well, I can explain why some don't bother to change their clothes. Whenever the students at this school have some kind of sports related activity, they just wear their normal cothing. There was a relay race recently, and it just struck me as funny that they didn't bother wearing clothing that was even exercise-ish. A lot of them wear shoes that are no good for running. I guess they don't see the point of changing. As for working out, I do that at home because usually I just do a few pushups, some crunches, and go on long walks.
GuilinRaf:
I know, it was the same in guilin. When I was in college, if we were not wearing the proper clothing for exercise, we were not allowed to take the class. Here I have seen high heeled boots, low heeled pumps. loafers, skirts, etc for differnt sports like football (soccer), basket ball, etc.
I'm sorry you said "When it's not busy..." I've never experienced that..LOL
How did I miss this question from before?
I started going to a local gym last September. Tried out a couple, but then settled on the cheaper one (365rmb annual membership cost versus 1800rmb for the "western" style...yikes). It's probably pretty shabby compared to most I would say....anyways my observations are pretty similar:
1. Smoking...everywhere. Usually I need to dust the ashes off the equipment before I use it.
2. I don't shower at my gym....something I can go home and do easily enough. But I noticed no one bothers bring their own towel (and towels' aren't provided). Instead, they share a hair dryer...for drying their bodies...and their hair too, I guess.
3. Same thing about the street clothes. Also find some going shoeless and/or shirtless, especially in the summer. Admiteddly, I will also go shirtless sometimes in the summer....it's just too dang hot, and no A/C....so....everyone can have a look at the glistening white dude.
4 & 5. No need to go to the locker room for smoking and spitting....just wherever and whenever you please
6. Haven't noticed any sleepers. But I know one employee who regularly parks his scooter in the gym. The gym is located on the 3rd and 4th floors of a high rise building in town.
7. Music....lol. There are usually 3 different tracks going at once. One song for the general shared area, another song blasting out of the spin room, and then a third song coming from the aerobics room. I gave up using headphones...too damn loud.
8. Wish our employees did that. Especially the 2 hot chicas working the front desk, LOL.
9. What I love the most is how all the rail-thin dudes love to go and flex in front of the mirror doing their best Arnold Schwarzenegger pose, right after bench pressing about 30kg.....
My gyms not to bad, same as above answer benching next to nothing then looking in the mirror. The other thing i noticed they love stretching and swinging on the chin up bar but not actually doing any pull ups, i have had a hours workout and was watching this guy just stretch and that for the whole time.
