Gym world!!!

Well over the past few months, since it was the last few months at college and since we spent most of the time in our rooms in front of our computers and going out on dinners/ lunches I have added a few extra pounds. I have to agree that I have become a tad...ehem…healthy 

All of my concerned friends started exercising. They started going to the gym and working out. They encouraged me, but it is very difficult to get lazy buggers like me to start putting their bodies through that rigour. Obviously they too gave up…

But once I reached home to kill the two month long vacation, it hit me. There was not much other than the usual holiday lazing around that I could do at home. Out of sheer boredom I decided to do the unthinkable.

It was around 5pm in the evening. I put on my track suit and began 2 km walk to the “gym” (yes!! the gym!!!!). As I entered the gym it was a revelation. I agree that since it was a gym in the club it was a little better than the gym back in college. The membership is restricted to the employees of the company so it is very well maintained... sorry digressing from the main issue

Yes I did enter the gym. (All my friends might not believe me but I did enter the gym and ended up sending around 45 min there). I did not know that behind those doors of the gym there existed such a fascinating world. There are many different kind of people that you encounter at this place.

I entered the gym and stood there near the door assessing the various machines that were kept there to help people workout. I stood there for a min or two to assess where I should begin my gymming career. Finally I decided on the rowing machine (I don’t know what it is called exactly but it is a prototype of the rowing boat). I began the workout and within two min was stopped by a burly huge muscular guy.

Now here begins my encounter with the various kinds of species that visit the gym. The burly guy was a regular and since the instructor was absent he was keeping and eye on the people to see if everyone was doing their exercises in the correct manner. (To prevent the rookies from injuring themselves).

Such kind are very hardworking and regulars to the gym. They come and follow their exercise regime diligently. They don’t bother other people much and stick to the corner with the weights and carry on with their heavy workouts. They are most likely to help you out if you walk up to them and ask them. Once you do they will ensure you learn the correct way of doing that exercise.

He has stopped me and showed me the correct way of doing the exercise. He said if I continued the way I was I might injure my back. Well he recognized that I was a first timer and showed me a few exercises for beginners and asked me to continue doing the same for the first week after which I could move to higher exercises (he made the huge assumption that I would last a week)

During that time the other species of the gym noticed him giving me instructors and immediately identified me as a novice. Now as I began my workout I was confronted by them. A fat (I don’t mean to be rude, but yeah there is no other word for him. he was huge) man came upto me and asked me if I was a new guy.

Now these kinds of people are hilarious. They are there with the sole purpose of reducing their paunch. They know they are not exactly agile but they consider themselves to be zone trainers. And their area of specialty is abdominal exercises. They are looking for unsuspecting victims to show off the latest knowledge that they gained by reading about gymming on the internet. They can only talk in Lbs, stones, etc. not their fault, Google lists only European sites, on the first page, if you search for body exercises.

This guy looked at me and said, “You have to loose some weight…for your age you need to be more flexible” (yeah right ...look who is talking). Then he gave me the logic of why one has to do the various exercises. He then talked about biochemistry, how the body needs to be trained to take the gymming. Now if you hear them talk you would feel they are some biology teachers with specialization in sports medicine, I learnt later he was a fellow mechanical engineer who had joined the gym about a week back.

And there always are the third kind, the ones who are intermediate. The one who are not completely Mr. Muscles nor are the paunchy kind. They are more than happy to be your gym buddies and act as your spotter. They basically would hang around with you and keep telling you to correct small mistakes you make (mistakes according to them). You would generally find them asking you to keep your back straight, keep those elbows up, yeah one more , and such small talk… they are also good at giving gyan like the paunchy kind but they have a little more authority on the subject.

Spent 45 min with these species and decided that this alien world is not bad. And yeah the music that you get to hear at these places is very nice... the only place where you would find old uncles and aunties also listening to the latest English/hindi songs and enjoying it (a welcome relief!! otherwise the new songs are generally classified as noise)
It was a very enjoyable experience, so I decided to stick with it. Today was my 7th straight day at the gym. Yes I did finish the first week , and yeah to celebrate this milestone , I am taking a break tomorrow 