Because some people go to the gym to supplement sports activities. Can’t take a boat out on lake? Why heck, just work out on the rowing machine.
Because some people go to gyms as part of a physical rehab program (which is my case because I have to rehabilitate a damaged ankle and leg).
And because some people like very individual, independent workouts. You don’t need a single teammate to workout at a gym.
People use gyms for a helluva lot of different reasons.
Oh, and I do “actual sport” as well.
BTW - in case anyone is wondering, the reason I go to a women’s only gym is because the weight equipment is designed for women. The machines are smaller and set up in amore accommodting way.
Someone will no doubt be along shortly to explain this to you.
Hijack in slightly dubious taste: Having to endure piped-in Xmas music is bad enough, but I object to performing an autopsy and having to listen to Burl Ives sing “Have A Holly Jolly Christmas”.
Shit, that’s how I get THROUGH my workout. I used to go during General Hospital or All My Children- 45 minutes doing the elliptical and watching them, my workout would fly by. I’m one of those people who hates to workout most of the time, and needs something to distract myself. I usually read now, but I loved being able to work out to my soaps - I have to go to the gym because of a leg injury from last year, and it helps to have something to take my mind off of it - especially since working out generally hurts. Since I love watching soaps (used to work for them, it’s a deadly habit I just can’t break), and it keeps my mind off of the fact that my leg hurts, it’s a win-win situation.
The gym I used to go to (I moved and haven’t found a new one) had five TVs on each side of the gym - they were tuned to mostly CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and ESPN - so there’s something for everyone.
I’m with you on this. One of the things I like most about my gym is that it seems that half of the members are Trenton city cops, so there’s lots of heavy metal pumpin’ going on. Even a skinny computer geek like myself can feed off of that kind of energy.
Oh yes. About the women in the gym. I have to admit that they are a distraction at times. I would be denying my masculinity if I didn’t admit to noticing all of the spandex-clad bodies at work.
They play good loud rock’n’roll from a Philly station all day long, so no complaints there. The only downside is that every time I’m in the cardio room, they have Dr. Phil on all of the televisions. There’s some problematic family with a teenage mom who he has on the program every other day, and I’m sick and tired of watching their drama unfold as I am slogging through my cardio. It’s so darned loud in that room that I fear I’ll deafen myself in two years if I turn up the MP3 player enough to drown it out.
A major selling point for me at the women’s gym I go to, is that you never see anyone in spandex at all! None of that crap. We’re all there to work out, not to flirt. So we’re in our sweats, grubby t-shirts, and common sense workout clothes. And we seem to come in all different shapes and sizes.
The only time you see lycra is when they have yoga classes.
Maybe that’s why we don’t hear any Heart or Celine Dion. We need the pumping iron music not the romantic adult contemporary hoo-ha. It’s a girl’s gym, not a girlie gym.
I can’t imagine going to a Gold’s Gym and trying to put up with the Titanic theme.
I can only offer a sort of extreme solution. you need a head set, not the little plugs that go in your ears and some earplugs. put in the plugs crank up the tunes and be deaf to the world…I should warn you though, even a fire alarm will probably go unoticed.
I wish it were a radio station. This is the company that provides the music that blasts through the gym. Not only is it shitty music, but they stick commercials in there too!
I work out at a gym that I’ve actually anonymously mailed mix CDs of gym style music. Where I work out there’s a plethora of music they play all from their personal CD collections which range from Tom Petty and Barenaked Ladies (which are fine, but to work out to? no.) to Warrant/Winger/Ratt/White Lion/80s glam trash “rock” (and really, “She’s only 17” makes me feel like a perv, erf.)
At least you don’t have to listen to Vanila Ica. I went to the gym for the first time in two weeks yesterday only to hear Ice Ice Baby. :eek: I had to ask one of the other regulars what was up and he said it’s been like that for awhile now. I really hope they put on something else when I go back today.
All this talk of Celine Dion brings up memories of a very strange night at the gym (coincidentally, also Gold’s) and two or more people fighting over control of the music about five years ago.
My gym uses the “DMX” music service from DirecTV, and one night, someone decided to browse the channels. 70’s hard rock was fine. Salsa was OK. Polka? Eek… Back to salsa. Actually, it was a bit refreshing. Then, someone found Celine in those 30 channels of CD-quality music. The whole gym just stopped dead. Her damned heart may go on, but the workouts sure didn’t.
I never did find out the story behind the psychotic music changes that night.
Have you tried a TV radio. These are radios you can listen to the audio of network tv stations. You can buy them at Radio Shack for not alot of money. They work pretty well for soaps. I used them when I worked in a place that made theatre drapes then later when I delivered mail. You learn to recognise voices pretty quickly and you get pretty much all of the story. It does help to check in and actually watch the show when they introduce new characters and such but I found when I went back to watching as uposed to listening that I was anoyed at being tied down to one room and liked listening better.
Just as an aside, when you say Gold’s Gym do you mean Venice CA, Pumping Iron, Muhammed Ali, Arnold Schwarzenegger. iconic American landmark Gold’s Gym?
Because not all of us like sports or are inclined to do them.
I work out to stay in shape, not because I enjoy it. Sure, some people love going to the gym for the rush of the workout, but I’m not one of them. I go in and get my business done. No need to drag it out any more than I have to. I wouldn’t join a sport if someone paid me.
To the OP, keep taking your headphones! It’s the only way you’ll get to listen to what you like.
There’s Gold’s Gym, the landmark in Venice, and then there’s the Gold’s Gym brand name, franchised all over the country, with little relation to the one in Venice.
My (college) football coach used to encourage us to do our offseason weightlifting workouts at 6:00 in-the-freaking-morning. (can you tell I’m not a morning person?) Thinking it might be nice (less of a crowd then my standard midafternoon workout time), I decided to give it a try.
His choice of music? Johnny Cash.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the Man In Black. But how in the hell can anyone workout while listening to I Walk The Line or Ring of Fire?
So I quickly went back to my afternoon workouts. Generally listening to AC/DC, Metallica, or Nine Inch Nails.
I honestly have no idea what my current health club plays… thank god for MP3 players. (offtopic: I just bought myself a Rio Karma last night and I’m already loving it)
Hijack
One time I went swimming at the Aquatic center. The place was empty except me and my very own little older than me perky life guard.
We chatted a little and I bemoaned how I wish someone would come up with a music you could listen to under the water to keep pace with.
My very own perky lifeguard says, " Oh, I can turn on the music for you!"
Thrilled with such personal service, I floated during my first lap, only to nearly drown from inhaling water at laughing at the strains of hearing, nay blaring:
*“Well, life on the farm is kinda laid back…” *
John Denver has never been music to work out too. Evar!
and every time I see this perky woman, I just want to say Far Out! and eat a bowl of grape nuts.
I love my little independent gym. Only weird thing about it is that there’s a spittoon (a real, IN USE One) in the corner, hiding by a dead treadmill. That’s what I get for moving from the wilds of Anchorage to the Buckle of the Bible Belt in smalltown Texas I guess :D.
I’m lucky, they play classic rock to medium heavy metal rock. I take an mp3 player or walkman on cardio days (because I like “dancier” music for cardio) and don’t worry about it too much on weight training days. The problem with even a good radio station is all the damn commercials!
To the person thinking that “soccer mom” somehow was a derogatory statement against WOMEN. It’s not. It’s a term that describes a specific type of person, usually the hyper dedicated stay at home mommies who drive minivans, and have no thoughts of their own aside from Stepford Wife like martyrdom.
Hope I described that correctly. At any rate, I’m reasonably sure it was NOT a comment by the OP “dissing” women in the gym, or saying that women are inferior. He meant the princesses who walk on the treadmill at about 1mph, while reading LHJ and talking on a cell phone. If they’re not gossiping to their soccer mom buddies on the next treadmill.