# A day at the gym **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 17, 2004, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267 "2004-11-17T15:02:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/61 "2004-11-17T22:26:47Z")
Did I say that? (It sure sounds like something I would say.) Howdy yourself! ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/62 "2004-11-17T22:52:07Z")
OK, now I’m curious. > [@](#): > > If you’re reading a magazine as you ride the stationary bike, you’re cheating yourself. Not my problem, just a heads up. Why? ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/63 "2004-11-17T23:22:01Z")
You need to get a new gym. 20 minutes on a tread mill? Hell, you can’t even enjoy a second wind. You get to slog through the worst part of running. I do ellipticalls on occasion, just to change up the muscles getting worked. Don’t be so quick to dismiss those infernal machines. You’ll feel it the next day if you give it a good go. But I agree. Running is preferred. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/64 "2004-11-17T23:33:53Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > I’m at the gym yesterday. I get on the stationary bike for about 15 minutes. Now, I want to get on one of the treadmills to do a little running. > > (aside: I WOULD like to run on a track but I’ve had knee surgery and the treadmill is 8 billion times easier on my knee than a track is). > > So, like a good gym boy, I sign up for the treadmill list and get back on the bike. > > The cardio room is pretty packed. All the treadmills have been taken for 30 minutes. It’s OBVIOUS there’s a list. > > So, here’s a few things: > > 1. If there’s a list, people are limited to 20 minutes on cardio equipment. Well, about 20 minutes goes by without anyone getting off a treadmill. Does the dummy working in the cardio room have ANY notion whatsoever about this? No. Why? Because I’m sure this was her job description by the rest of her buddies who work there, “oh, you don’t have to do anything, Just pick up new towels whenever you feel like it. Other than that, you can just sit there and study.” > > 2. A treadmill opens up. Great. I grab the “spray” to wipe down my bike, turn around and some woman is getting on the open treadmill. Well, I have my cycling shoes on, haven’t cleaned the bike, the “help” is in la la land. By the time I get to the treadmill, she’s going to be at least 2 minutes into it. So, I say, fuck it. I’ll get the next one. > > 3. Another opens up. I get off the bike, and just wipe it down with my towel. I’m right near the desk and I hear this guy say to the “help”, “that treadmill just opened, can I take it?” The “help” is like, “uh, yeah, I guess so.” So I had to pipe in, “I think there’s a list, and I think I’m next.” So, I grab my running shoes, which I had put behind the bike, start to head to the treadmill and a woman gets on it. > > I told her, “I think I’m next.” > > Her reaction: “oh, is there a list?” > > Yes, there’s a fucking list. Every treadmill has been taken for a half hour. There are people standing around staring at the treadmills. The gym is packed. Of fucking course there’s a fucking list. There’s 5 people on the list. So, you’re either a moron or you’re just selfish. Take your pick. > > So, > > Fuck you you selfish treadmill sniping mother fuckers. > > Fuck you you worthless help desk mousey motherfuckers who don’t want to pay a bit of attention to your job and don’t want to actually tell people “no, you can’t get on the treadmill” and don’t want to go around to people who have been taking up the equipment for more than 20 minutes and tell them to vacate. > > And, fuck you to people who STAY on the treadmills for longer than they’re supposed when they know god damn well there’s a list. If we all followed the rules in the gym, it would be a lot nicer. > > And, fuck you to people who WALK on treadmills. Some of us need them, and actually are trying to get our heart rates above 65. There’s an indoor track. Go walk there. > > And, fuck you to “men” on ellipticals. That shit is gay – 80’s style. Have you noticed yet that every other person on those things has chicken legs? > > And, fuck you to that guy playing hoops who had a charge called against him. Hey dude, NOBODY wants to call charges in a pick-up game. That doesn’t mean you take advantage of it by lowering your shoulder and going full-on snowplow through the lane. “a charge? oh, ok. . . that’s how it is, huh? I see how it is.” > > Finally, fuck you to the earth’s axis which has now created such a short-ass day that I get home in the dark and can’t ride my bike after work. No. it’s gay if you only use your towel as a scarf instead of tying it around your waste. ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/65 "2004-11-17T23:38:46Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > Fuck all if I’m gonna sit here and defend my actual position and feelings towards homosexuals, or if you think you got it nailed because I referred to one exercise from the gym with a joke from “Jay & Silent Bob” and then ran with it when you piped in. Please don’t hurt yourself with all that backpeadeling. > [@](#): > > Perhaps you should come take a ride with me from my house, in the middle of Baltimore, during rush hour, in the dark, on damp streets with no shoulders on hills where you either get run down or go 40 mph around corners. Please tell me just how well that hand signal and halogen light work at the intersection with a grand total of 11 lanes with cars stacked deep with their lights on in 4 directions. You live such a hard life. ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/66 "2004-11-17T23:45:51Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#): > > You live such a hard life. Whoops, hit the submit too quickly. I certainly have no problem with someone choosing not to engage in any dangerous exercise. The backpeadeling comment still stands though. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/67 "2004-11-18T02:03:47Z")
I use the elliptical trainer all the time. I prefer to run on the trails up the mountain behind campus, but for someone with chronic knee problems, that’s something you do once and only once. Then you writhe in pain for the next three days. Treadmills are better, but I’m only 18 and would like to still have functioning knees by the age of 30. So, the elliptical or a stairclimber. But, I’m a woman. Am I still gay? Or is it just the machine itself that’s gay? Is it only attracted to other ellipticals? Or something of that sort? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/68 "2004-11-18T04:50:13Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > No. it’s gay if you only use your towel as a scarf instead of tying it around your waste. Dude, that’s disgusting! Use TP like everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Llama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@The\_Llama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Llama)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/69 "2004-11-18T06:15:34Z")
A few things. 1.) Eliptical running machines are ZERO IMPACT. The only thing better for someone with ailing knees is running in the pool. 2.) Tracks will have less impact than a treadmill. Even the really good treadmills with the springs so it has some give. Unless the track is paved or concrete, even a cinder track should have more give than the average treadmill, and a rubber track is best of all. 3.) The stationary bike, while it has some uses, is probably the most useless of all of the indoor cardio machines. A bicycle, just by it’s design, is a machine that almost never, ever, lets you go into oxygen debt. Your sitting on your ass, working nothing but your legs and lungs, but not nearly as well as running or swimming. So you’re an idiot, and an uneducated one at that. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/70 "2004-11-18T12:18:47Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > Well, if you say so. It just seems to me that if there is no grunting and sweating involved, it’s not really exercise. But that’s just me. I can easily get to and maintain my target heart rate without grunting or sweating profusely. (After 45 minutes on the bike or walking on the treadmill, I’m damp, not wet. I can comfortably drive home without changing or showering without feeling gross.) I have no idea what grunting has to do with anything, and surely you must recognize that everyone sweats at different rates. This is a generalization just as much as the OPs, just without all the homophobia and stupidity and annoying-ness and the glayvin! and whatnot. > [@The\_Llama](#): > > 2.) Tracks will have less impact than a treadmill. Even the really good treadmills with the springs so it has some give. Unless the track is paved or concrete, even a cinder track should have more give than the average treadmill, and a rubber track is best of all. Perhaps it’s all psychological, but my gimpy knee cannot handle 2 miles on the indoor track at my gym (I think it’s rubberized, I don’t know from track materiel though) but 2 miles on a treadmill – walking – doesn’t hurt even 1/4 as much. To get up to my target heart rate and get in the miles I want, I need a treadmill or very soft earth (i.e. grass on lightly packed dirt). > [@The\_Llama](#): > > A bicycle, just by it’s design, is a machine that almost never, ever, lets you go into oxygen debt. Your sitting on your ass, working nothing but your legs and lungs, but not nearly as well as running or swimming. Spoken like someone who has never taken a spinning class. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/71 "2004-11-18T15:14:42Z")
> [@AwSnappity](#): > > **UrbanChic** , you saw right through me. I’m a verbal utterance elitist. I’m currently organizing a grassroots organization aiming to restrict the rights of those whose verbal utterances aren’t up to my high standard. But that’s for another thread. That shit is anti-semantic – 80’s style [sic]. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/72 "2004-11-18T15:45:50Z")
Hey **Trunk** , care to actually explain why you think the eliptical is gay? I mean, what exactly about it makes it gay? How can a piece of excercise equipment have a sexual orientation? By the way, you’re one of the biggest assholes I’ve seen on the boards in a while. :wally ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/73 "2004-11-18T15:49:55Z")
When I was doing rehab for my latest knee surgery (#3 and counting!), my physical therapist had me walk \*backwards \* on a treadmill at a very slow pace. Where does \*that \* put me on the \*\*Trunk \*\* axis of gay evildoers? Do I make it onto **The List**? ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/74 "2004-11-18T15:54:59Z")
When I go to the gym, I use the elliptical machine and I walk on the treadmill. Dontcha just fucking hate me? I do use the lists, though. The treadmill (at 11% incline) and the elliptical are the two ways in which I can best get my heart rate up without losing my breath, and since I have exercise-induced asthma, that’s my main concern. Wanna build me a track with an 11% incline? ---
**Author:** ![AwSnappity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/75 "2004-11-18T16:05:46Z")
_::checks Idiotic Homophobe Manual::_ **Spiff** , you are at the level of Harvey Fierstein Irritant. Basically you’re more annoying than malevolent, but you still scored high enough on the Malicious Meter to be in the manual. Knee surgeries are very campy–nothing screams “I’m gay!” like wearing a bandage or a brace around your knee and limping. Walking backwards is just plain sinister, and we can tell you’re up to no good. It’s people like _you_ that are undermining my heterosexual relationships. God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and … Walk-Backwards Guy! I gotta hand it to **Trunk** , this anti-gay anti-injury rhetoric is harder than it looks ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/76 "2004-11-18T16:14:54Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > I didn’t think I’d have to do this, but I’m making a list and sending it to Jesus. > > Now on the list. . . > > Telemark > Lord Ashtar > Brutus > Tristan > Rufus > AugustWest > Bambi Hassenpfeffer (Especially. . .god was that a gay post.) > Cheesesteak (Lay off the shoes, dude. Lay off. The shoes.) > Telemark, again. (I heard you the first time. You don’t like people calling something gay. Got it.) > > When Jesus comes back for us, you’ll all be smote severely. Just so you know, Jeshua and I were kicking it on the eliptical the other day, and I mentioned you. He says your a fucktard, and once you come out you’ll feel much better. Then he kicked it up to 20 and kicked my ass. Dang it. Jesus is such a show off. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/77 "2004-11-18T16:19:17Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > There are two things that aren’t (lame): treadmill and stationary. Maybe the rowing machine. Whaddaya mean “maybe”? Damn straight, the rowing machine isn’t lame. It’s the only _real_ workout machine in the gym. (exercise bike? only if you’re scared of sweating) If you’re so worried about getting your heart rate up without impact, why don’t you use one? There’s never a line and nothing else in the gym will make you work harder. Try to keep your split at 2:00 for 30 minutes and then come back and tell me how lame the erg is… ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/78 "2004-11-18T16:48:06Z")
> [@nyctea scandiaca](#): > > Hey **Trunk** , care to actually explain why you think the eliptical is gay? I mean, what exactly about it makes it gay? How can a piece of excercise equipment have a sexual orientation? Check post #48. It’s all a joke. That’s it. Joke. You dunces JUST DON’T GET IT. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/79 "2004-11-18T17:17:26Z")
My gym has either enough cardio machines or a low enough enrollment that we don’t have Lists. I’m probably unwittingly subjecting myself to gender confusion because of this. ---
**Author:** ![Genghis\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/45deac/32.png) [@Genghis\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genghis_Bob)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267/80 "2004-11-18T17:34:40Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#): > > Check post #48. It’s all a joke. That’s it. Joke. You dunces JUST DON’T GET IT. Yep, that’s the way I read it. The whole OP was over-the-top in a Jay-and-Silent-Bob/Jim Anchower sort of way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-day-at-the-gym/275267.md?page=5)