Why I Won’t Go To The Gym

So I am committed to exercising and eating right. I consider myself, because of my hard work and dedication, to be in very good shape. And because of such dedication, I have transformed my body and have lost about 60 lbs in less than a year.

The exercise routine I follow is running, abs, and light weights. The abs and weights I do in my home. And the running I do exclusively outside.

Lately it has been VERY cold outside when I go to run which tends to tighten up my muscles and joints, making it very difficult to run. So I have been considering joining a gym that is very close to my house in order to run on a treadmill when it is too cold to run outside.

This weekend I got a trial pass for the gym to see if I would like it. Yesterday I tried it out.

Normally I run in the morning throughout my neighborhood. I wake up, get out of bed, put on my running clothes and go. The whole routine only takes about 30 minutes. The gym, I learned, takes a lot more work; and a whole lot more time.

I had to get up and get dressed. I had to drive to the gym (because it was very cold and I didn’t have a lot of time to walk there). I had to check in with my pass at the front desk. I had to go into the locker room and put my stuff in a locker. I had to find a vacant place to stretch out. I had to find a machine that worked. I had to set up the machine. I used the machine. Then when done with exercising I had to go back to the locker room to get my stuff, then go out to my car to go home. This routine took forever compared to the normal one.

Not only did going to the gym take a lot more work and a lot more time; there was also a ton of distraction for my ADD (not diagnosed)  mind to handle:

One of the first things I noticed as I walked in were lots of guys strutting around like roosters trying to impress each other and the hens around them by the way they carried themselves, the clothes they wore, and how they looked at others- especially the belittling looks they gave to the other men. One guy even laughed at me for some reason while I was lifting weights??

Another thing that was distracting were the old guys walking around naked in the locker room- it’s been a while since being around naked guys (HS PE) and I’d like to keep it that way.

Once I finally got to the treadmills I as going to work on, I stepped on one to begin running only to find out that I could not get it to work. I had to go to another and attempt to figure out how to program it for the run I wanted to do. I began to run at a high pace to reach a goal of three miles when all of the sudden, about 1.75 miles into the run, the treadmill halted to a dead stop- almost throwing me off. I hadn’t pressed any buttons, it just quit working and I could not get it to start up again.

So with my heart rate soaring I stepped to the treadmill next to me in order to continue my run, only to learn that it would not turn on either. I tried another and got to running again but the speed kept lowering to a level I did not want it to be at without me adjusting it.

What a waste of time; I can’t spend the majority of my valuable workout time simply trying to get a machine to work.

I didn’t really like the treadmill either. There was no sense of going anywhere or accomplishing anything like there is outside. I got very bored.

The hand rails on each side of me on the treadmill were also very constricting. I felt like I was running inside of a box, unable to move my arms freely.

In front of me were 6 TVs playing various different shows. My ADD and OCD mind felt like I had to watch and know what was going on one each show. My eyes tried to scan the closed captioning to read what my ears could not hear all while trying to listen to a podcast. Many of the shows had sexual undertones and attractive women in the leading roles which did not help my mind stay focused on honoring God with my body while I worked out.

Then to top it all off; there were fit, young, attractive women in tights and tight fitting sport’s tops everywhere! How can I give the treadmill all that I have when a spandex enveloped perfectly shaped female butt bounces up and down in front of me the whole time?! I’m a man for Pete’s sake. This gym thing is tough!

So after over an hour of frustration and distractions I determined that the gym was not for me and for now I will stick to a shorter more focused and effective workout- even if it is 15 degrees outside.