�You make me feel � like a natural � ummm ��
April 07, 2004 ~ 2:59 p.m.
I recently joined a gym. When I was home in Boston last December, I went to my mother�s gym and fell in love with the place. So when a very similar gym opened up near Victoria Station, I knew that was where I wanted to be.
I�ll give you a hint as to how nice the place is�you don�t even have to provide your own soap. Dispensers of shower gel and shampoo are in each shower stall.
I decided I wanted to workout every day again, someplace to do a bit of weight training, then hit the treadmills and rowing machines. Besides, I�d recently put on a bit of weight. I�d relaxed my exercise routine and I don�t run as much as I used to. And after taking my high metabolism for granted most of my life, it occurred to me that I was no longer in my 20s. I was also no longer my normal 150 pounds.
So joining the gym for me made sense in terms of dropping a few pounds and as a way to regularly keep in shape. And believe you me, the incentive is the price of membership. At that kind of money, I�m determined to see that I get every penny�s worth.
Motivation is clearly not a problem. I�m enjoying getting fit again and the results are already, only after two weeks, starting to show. My muscles have got some tone back and my belly is inevitably approaching its former flat self.
Now, the only thing that makes me nervous about the gym is the type of people who work out there. Not just my gym, but most gyms in general.
What I�m trying to say, I guess, is that by working out in front of many others, you get an idea of how attractive you are. And I�m not talking about positive reaction from girls.
The predominant type of woman�excepting for my mom and sister, of course�who work out in gyms are the �look but don�t touch� types. High-flying, hard-hustling, self-absorbed City broads who wouldn�t even give a pigeon the time of day if one asked them for it. It�s a good place to put one over on men if you�re a woman, I have to admit.
Basically, I never have to worry about trying to fend off women. They don�t care about me or any other man there, and they know that we know it. I�m worried about other guys.
I swear, the way some of them strut around wearing stringy tank tops and shorts that look more like underpants, standing with their butts practically in your face as you�re doing squats, lends a certain element of anxiety to the whole experience. It�s shameless.
One day earlier this week, a young lad kept eyeing me up. Everytime I looked up, just to get a view of the television screens or the clock, he seemed to be right in my line of vision. And he gave me the same look every time. The hungry look.
My wife�s sudden appearance and kiss on my cheek as I worked my abdominals got me out of that sticky (er, please excuse the horrible pun) situation.
But my wife will not always be there. And even when she is, she can�t follow me into the men�s showers. Do you know what it�s like to drop your clothes and stride into the showers buck naked in front of other men? I�ll give you a hint: They don�t look away. They take it all in. They�re absolutely shameless. And it gives me the creeps (my bisexuality notwithstanding).
And that�s the one drawback to the gym: You can�t get a woman there, but you can be made to feel like one.
� M.E.M.
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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
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