You all should stop going to Ben Stiller’s gym and start going to Vince Vaughn’s.
Seriously, I go to the Y and I’ve never had a problem. Lot’s and lot’s of average looking people, and I’ve never seen anyone act like an ass to anyone else.
Yep. I go to Fitness USA and while I’m frustrated with aspects of its ghetto-ness, I see a lot of out of shape people along with fit people (Fitness USA alternates days, so gyms are MWF men, TThS women or vice versa). What I do like about it is that if you want to chat, many people are willing to do so, but the default is to just go about your workout. Best of both worlds, IMO.
I have to agree with amarinth because I’ve never experienced the ‘runners high’. I’m 5’6”, weigh between 125-130lbs, and usually run/jog 3-4 miles a day. I’ve done several 10 Ks and have never felt any endorphin-induced euphoria. In fact, for the first mile I’m totally grumpy. When Eddy runs with me he threatens to kick anything that gets in his way. I don’t believe in PMS either so maybe I’m just lacking in imagination.
I’ve felt a runner’s high, but my mom, who doesn’t run but does walk her ass off, hasn’t. I strongly believe that she works every bit as hard as I do - just because I’m running and she’s walking doesn’t mean my exercise is inherently better or harder. In fact, a lot of the time she seems to be working harder than I am. Still, she hates exercising. She’s never gotten the high - she’s just glad when she’s done.
As you, GKW, and amarinth have indicated, not everyone gets into the “flow” or feels the high. People’s experience during exercise, like so many other things, is very individual. And if you really hate it, the best thing to do is find something you can live with (if not love) and stick with it.
For myself, I can’t wait until my husband and I move into a house. We’ve already got a trainer to clip our bikes into plus some weights. My next purchase (which I’ve been saving for for years) is a really good treadmill and a weight rack and bench. Once I’ve got those, goodbye gym!
oh, I hear you, overlyverbose…when I move into a bigger place the first thing I’m buying is a LifeFitness elliptical trainer…the ones that go for about 2K. It’s the only thing I use at the gym and I’m tired of paying fees.
I have no idea how so many people end up being spoken to or “hassled” at the gym because I belong to an L.A. Fitness (which seems to be fairly typically meat marketish) and the only people who seem to talk to each other are people who actually happen to be friends or cow-orkers. It might be worth investing in a pair of headphones that you can just dangle into the water holder so it looks like you’re not available for comment.
I love working out, and I also dislike people trying to socialize while I lift.
FWIW, my experience is that serious lifters don’t talk as much. And serious lifters use free weights, not machines. There is a core group of gym rats where I work out, and we are all congregated down in the free weight area with the squat racks and deadlift pit, and all the gabbers are over by the chrome-plated toys. Plus the personal trainers have learned that no, we don’t need a free introductory session to learn how to do lifts that we were practicing before Mr. Perky was potty-trained. So they don’t bother us either.
Rule of thumb is that no one will bother you within twenty feet of the chalk basket, beyond “can you give me a spot?” or “mind if I work in?”
All this is about the weights. Aerobics, you are on your own. I find aerobic exercise boring, so I always bring a book and don’t look up from it until the Stairmaster turns off.
Regards,
Shodan
Mambo From one fat bastard to another, I’ll give you the advice I use myself. It’s ok to hate the gym. I go 3-5 times a week, and hate every second I’m on the exercise floor. Pisses me dead off that I’ve got to be there in the first damn place, so when I’m working out, I put on the headphones, pull on my beenie, and just stare straight ahead, pissed off that I’ve got to be there at all. I put in some SERIOUS work that way, and as a bonus every chattering dipshit and oppressively happy harpie that decides he/she/it must ABSOLUTELY talk to me, ends up looking me in the eyes first, and just turns around and walks away.
Actually, it does happen to everyone. A “runner’s high” is actually the point in which the body stops engaging in aerobic exercise and begins anaerobic exercise. It’s the ‘second wind,’ or better yet, the ‘fat shedding’ portion of your run. I know I’ve felt it, but it wasn’t “euphoric, orgasmic bliss” like most of my buddies say it is. I just find that it’s a touch easier to run. It’s not any more fun than it was earlier.
~Mang
(PS: I run from my shop to the flightline and back. Call it a touch under 5 miles a day. I hate it…)
I’m not sure that it’s entirely accurate to say that runner’s high happens to everyone. In fact (and please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong), there’s still a lot of debate out there as to whether or not the runner’s high exists. Because the phenomena of runner’s high is based mostly on personal accounts, and it can be difficult to measure the amount of endorphins or anandamide (or whatever it is that scientists think might cause runner’s high) in the brain, it’s hard to say with a lot of certainty that runner’s high is the same for everyone or that everyone gets it. Also, there’s no clear definition of what runner’s high is. Again, it can differ from person to person depending on who you ask. And when you add into that that everyone’s personal chemical makeup can differ from individual to individual, it’s even harder to say accurately that it happens to everyone.
I found a few cites about the matter:
What is runner’s high? (from Runner’s World)
The cite from Runner’s World seems to be a little more positive that runner’s high exists, but from the way I read it, it’s still not conclusive.
Of course, I’m sure that you can find several cites to repudiate the above. Since there are two sides to the argument, there are always cites on either side.
So swimming isn’t as good for quick weight-loss as hard aerobic (non-aquatic) exercise, but it still will lead to weight-loss if you do enough of it. You will burn a lot of calories swimming steady non-stop laps for an hour, you’ll become incredibly fit, and you’ll feel great at the end of it (as opposed to feeling like a sweaty mess).
The problem with a treadmill or exercise bike is that they’re so bloody boring, to me at least. Swimming is ‘my thing’, and curiously enough I don’t find swimming up and down staring at the line on the bottom of the pool boring so much as meditative.
And it is much much easier on your body than pounding a treadmill.
So that’s my ad for swimming done.
Also:
It’s pretty hard for some perky idiot to speak to you about anything when they’re talking underwater. Or you can just ignore them, swim away, and use the “Sorry, my ears were blocked by water!” excuse.
Now that is poppycock. Nobody makes you believe anything. Once you know that it is not a moral weakness, don’t rent them space in your head.
Is your problem compulsive overeating? That is the problem that I am familiar with myself. If compulsive overeating were a moral weakness, then it wouldn’t respond to the same medications that contol seizures.
Do you ever hear anyone say that someone who dies of anorexia has a “moral weakness”? No. They have an “eating disorder.” Compulsive overeating is also an eating disorder.
I don’t fault you one bit for needing to exercise your way or for ranting about it here. But some of those people you seem to resent have been in your shoes.
Part of your transformation begins when you cut out some of the crap you are telling yourself.
For one thing, you are not the fat that you are carrying around. You will lose it and you won’t feel its going or see it set apart from you. The core of you will still be there when it’s gone. So “the fat” you can be snarky about, but “the core” that is you must be treated with respect now. Do you understand?
When you lose five pounds, go into a store and pick up five pounds of meat and feel how much it weighs and see what it looks like. It’s impressive. Do the same thing at ten pounds and more.
And if you are dragging yourself to a gym, you have more discipline than I!
I go to a YMCA, myself, and never really have this problem. Of course, I’m usually the one being an asshole. stares at all the womens’ breasts in the thread, saunters over to the OP, distracts him from his routine and leaves 
Seriously, though, if it’s really a problem, I’d suggest trying another gym. Each one has a different chemistry to it.
Mostly I never get that because I make a point of doing exercises that look like they’ll kill me if I break my concentration. 
There’s a women’s only gym near my home that a good looking friend of mine joined for a while. She got hit on there more than she ever had anywhere else. Just thought I’d share. (Really good looking. I mean YOWZA. So hot her clothing catches fire.)
The best gym in my area is actually associated with one of the medical center / hospital complexes. Branched out from physical therapy is how it was explained to me by a staffer. It’s a great place. Basketball and racketball courts inside, outdoors tennis and basketball, indoor swimming pool, lots of free weights and machines, pilates, aerobics, etc… Yeah, the place is huge. But, real estate isn’t expensive out here. Fees are very reasonable, you can go month by month (pay per use) or yearly or lifetime.
I go there sometimes. (I bike regularly and have other stuff at home.) Pretty friend goes there all the time. Rarely gets hit on.
Ahh. A woman after my own heart.
That’s the key and it took me a while. For me anything involving fast hand/eye coordination was right out because I am horrible at that. I have a fucked up ankle from a compound fracture as a kid so anything with high impact on the legs won’t work. I really liked the exercise aspect of yoga but the pseudo-spiritual baggage was more than I could stand.
I am left with brisk walking (with dog) and cycling. I recently discovered a form of yoga where they make it a point not to stress the spiritual at all, Bikram. The down side for some is that it’s an intense 90 minute workout in a sauna like environment.
Anyway, you really should find the thing that you hate the least. Most gyms/studios/whatever will have a very inexpensive, if not free, intro class.