This blog post is a rant about my gym. I won't mention it by name, but it's a big chain that I suspect has a bad reputation already. My gym is billed as having a special "Women Only" separate gym, with a private entrance; there's also a huge main gym. Well the women's gym is a joke! More like a storage area than an actual gym, where they store all the shitty equipment that doesn't look as nice in the main gym area. Ancient treadmills that don't always work, a mish-mash of dumbells, weight machines with the keys jammed in the weight stacks, dim lighting, cramped, just a generally unpleasant space.
I like using free weights in my workout, but the dumbell selection is laughable. One set of 10 pounds, one set of 8 pounds, and the rest are really heavy - like 40 pounds plus! I don't know a lot of women who curl 40 pounds! I noticed a sign above the water fountain stating that bags and purses are not allowed in the gym area - no exceptions. I thought that was a bit weird - maybe they were a tripping hazard? My sister-in-law told me it's because people steal dumbell sets. How ridiculous is that!? So I guess the gym doesn't bother re-stocking the dumbells once they're stolen.
I went in the women's gym the other day and one of the TVs was just BLARING. Thankfully I had my iPod, but even that couldn't drown out the loud TV. ANd there was no way to turn it down/off, since they're up so high. I ignored it and went about my business, finished my workout and went to use the hand sanitizer dispenser. Empty. Weird as I hadn't been to the gym in three weeks and it was empty last time too. Then I went to wipe down one of the weight machines I was using. No paper towels. Lovely. How nice to see that the gym staff care enough about their female clientele to actually - I don't know - maybe LOOK INTO the women's area once in awhile.
I went to the front desk and voiced my complaints. I felt a bit bad for letting my complaints accumulate and laying them all on the poor girl working at the time, but she was apologetic and said she'd look into it. But since then, I've pretty much abandoned the women's area and started working out in the main gym. Snazzy treadmills, new cardio machines, lots of TVs, and plenty of breathing room. I'd been using the women's area to spare the public the agony of seeing my post-partum ass-jiggle, but now I'm saying, "Screw it!" and letting my badoink-a-doink bounce freely as I jog on the treadmill. I'm thankful for shows like The Biggest Loser that have made it okay for fat people to work out.
