Humongous Fungus

“Humongous Fungus.” This is what one of my friends started calling me when I told him about this little problem I have. 

I have struggled with some degree of Athlete’s Foot for the last few years.  Sometimes, it can get pretty bad, and other times, I have cracked flaky skin on my feet that I don’t even notice.  I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.  It can get uncomfortable and look downright nasty, though. 

Athlete’s Foot goes with the territory of someone who sweats a lot and has to shower in locker rooms.  It is just one of those annoyances, like work out gear that you just can’t seem to get the rank out of, no matter how many times you wash.   Heck, it’s even less worse than the Ringworm I got that one time when, after swimming, I decided to use one of the stretching mats that was next to the pool 

This past winter, my Athlete’s Foot entered into this almost remission type phase.  Aside from working out, I guess my socks stayed pretty dry.  I didn’t hit the pool at all, so my barefootedness in wet environments was pretty much limited to running back to my gym locker, on my tippy toes, because, you know, I wouldn’t want to catch anything.  I do have a spot or two of notable cracked skin, but it doesn’t really itch. 

Once the weather gets warmer, it will be a completely different story.  Aside from the obvious, which is that my feet will be wet, festering bacteria magnet much more of the time, I wear these gnarly Birkenstocks that are a bacteria magnet themselves.  I envision full on red, cracked feet, that is, unless I take some action.

My main deterrent for Athlete’s Foot is pee.  Growing up, I had swimmer friends who would tell me about how they peed on their feet in the shower to help prevent/soothe their Athlete’s Foot.  I don’t make a regular habit of peeing in the shower (maybe I should), but whenever I start feeling my feet itch, you better believe that I pee all over them. 

Sometimes, this plan backfires, because I wait to go to the bathroom until I go shower.  Last week, after a spin class, I had to go really, really bad.  I ran to the showers, and the only stall available was the middle stall of a row of 5, one I normally stay away from because that is where the main drain is.  Unfortunately for me, the drain, in this little trough, was clogged, and was starting to overflow into my stall.  Now, to be clear, when I pee on my feet, I do it over the trough, so it’s not like it goes everywhere. 

This day, because of the clog, there was no way I was going to go; it would have overflowed all over the place.  What’s worse, as I was trying to hurry and finish showering before the entire backwash completely flooded my stall, I realized that if anyone in any of the other stalls also took a pee, which I guarantee at least one of them did, it was going to be all over my feet.  I still had to go, and I was showering standing in other people’s pee!  I guess someone else’s pee would have the same effect on my foot fungus, but still, that just crosses a line. 

In any case, aside from pee, I use sprays and creams, but only when I really feel the burn.  Someone recently sent me a new product, which I will test out and review in about a week. 

Work Out – Cycle 2 – Episode 2 – Recap – “Opening her door to Rebecca”

We pick up this week’s episode with the Jackie/Mimi train wreck/therapy session. Mimi had left the room, and the therapist asks Jackie why she is still in it. Jackie realizes she is punishing herself by staying in it. Mimi comes back in, more bitching. The therapist points out that they must be miserable. Jackie (finally) realizes that she is “at her end.” (Thank you thank you thank you. Please do NOT bring Mimi back on the show)

Sky Lab is the new priority. The objective is to teach overweight clients to eat right, cook right, exercise, and rehabilitate emotionally.

Jackie interviews several potential clients and tries to get to the heart of the weight issues before assigning them to trainers in order to see if they qualify for Sky Lab (still a bit confused as to what exactly Sky Lab is. If it is her new branch, why do the same trainers work there? Or do they all work there and not Sky Sport anymore?)

Tess from last season is one of the potential clients. She was making incredible strides and lost more than 20 pounds of fat in season 1. Then, misfortune struck and Tess hurt her knee, and gained all the weight back over the past 6 months. Jackie is super emotionally invested in Tess’ progress.

Each client goes then goes through hydrostatic weighing to measure their body fat. They jump in a tank of water, inhale 3 times, and exhale as they go under. This is supposed to be the most reliable method to measure body fat. This is pretty cool. I’ve only had my body fat tested with calpers.

We come back to the gym to set up some more Doug/Jesse drama. They are each working out with clients, and Jesse takes his outside to get further away from Doug. Peeler starts to make fun of Jesse. Oh snap! Beef in da gym!

Jackie eventually says something to Jesse about making up with Doug. We’ll see.

Some time is spent devoted to Jackie working out D-List comedian Kathy Griffin. Zzzzz

Jackie is on the phone with best friend Erin, confirming the breakup. Jackie is more relieved than sad. At the end of the therapy session, we are only left to assume they end things.

Rebecca shows up at Jackie’s pad. Jackie is “opening her door to Rebecca,” and taking her to a lesbian bar. Rebecca admits that she’s hooked up with a girl. Rebecca tells Jackie about her hookup and says she didn’t know what she was doing. Jackie sure wishes she had been there.

Jackie admits her first time with a guy and first time with a girl both happened when she was 13. Rebecca tells her she was a “secret slut.” What a bonding moment between the two.

They finally go out, and Rebecca says this is her integration into the lesbian world. All these lesbians keep coming up to Jackie. “Lesbians runneth amuck.” Rebecca says to Jackie, you know you want to do me. Jackie denies.

Commercial

The trainers are having a meeting about Sky Lab, and Jackie assigns each trainer a new client. Their job is to act as both a therapist AND a trainer. Even though they are certified as only trainers. Still, it is good to be able to talk to your trainer on that type of level. Trainers who do that are usually better trainers. But how close is too close?

After assigning them to clients, Jackie tells them it is their turn to have their body fat tested. They aren’t happy, but they do it. And of course, Peeler “could not wait to see “Jesse’s fat ass in the water…to set him right.”

Jackie explains that 65% of Americans have over 30% body fat.

The optimal range for women is 13-19%, and for men it is 5-15%. Here are the results:

Erika 13.4%

Rebecca 13.1%

Zen 18.2%

Gregg 10.1%

Andre 10.6%

Doug 10.4%

Peeler 8.6%

Jesse 21.3%

Jackie first digs at Peeler and tells him she is shocked that he hast he lowest body fat. She is even more shocked by Jesse’s results, and that his body fat is higher than the women’s.

Joanna Krupa (model) comes to work out with Peeler. She notices that as she gets older she needs to work out. Peeler says that even when you are at the top of your game, you have things you want to improve. His training is a “dynamic workout and weight training regimen.” It looks good. Peeler says he is the best trainer, ever. Open challenge?

Victoria Fuller, playmate, comes in to workout with Rebecca. She just had a baby and needs to drop 20 pounds. Rebecca tells her about her night out with Jackie. Victoria tells her she dated a girl for 4 months. Rebecca keeps asking questions, Victoria doesn’t seem to want to answer.

Commercial

Jakcie is throwing a party for her trainers at her now house in the Hollywood hills. Rebecca says she is going to start dating Jackie so that she can sleep in her bed. (since it comfortable and King Size)

Andre and Peeler walk in with a bucket of beers.

Jesse tells us that nobody parties harder than trainers. If you give them a bottle, good lord. They spend all week concentrating on fitness and eating, that when given the chance to let loose on the weekend, they go all out. I subscribe to that school of thought.

They do shots, and shots, and shots. Some tall Russian chick is all over Jackie. Jesse and Doug make up. Now, this is a party.

Jackie starts talking about someone training her. Peeler gets cocky and says that she will never be the same if she works out with him. Uh oh.

HDA – Jackie starts going off and puts Peeler in his place. Says that he has a job because of her. He is riding the coattails of her and her empire. Oh snap!

Commercial

Peeler says don’t make me feel like crap in front of people he doesn’t know to Andre about Jackie in the bathroom. He then works in his “hands of Michelangelo” line. Peeler walks out of the party. Doug tries to get him to come back.

Jackie does a shot in honor of Peeler and says “may he grow up.”

Rebecca and Jackie start getting all flirty to end the show.

At the beginning of Cycle 1, Erika was Jackie’s “best friend.” At the end of the Cycle and beginning of Cycle 2, it was Jesse. Now she is moving on to Rebecca. She sure does go through her trainers fast!

www.fitfiend.com

A fever I had to sweat out

During last week, after I had seen my strength gains, if you had asked me how I felt, I would have said great.  However, come Friday, my answer, my answer would have been, fluish.

What a terrible thing to happen, just when I had seen some progress.  Friday, I had planned to keep my momentum going with my back. It was not meant to be, as I came home early from work, passed out, and woke up with a fever and sore throat.  Part of me wanted to just take some Motrin and go.  Sanity kicked in, and I made myself stay in bed the rest of the day, forcing myself to drink water, and that’s pretty much it.

Saturday, I felt much better; at least I told myself I did.  After all, when I was competing as an athlete, there was more than one occasion that a coach had fibbed about the seriousness of a fever and I had gone out and played.  No big deal.

Anyway, my fever had come down, and I went about with my day like nothing was wrong.  I had eaten some soup, but just wasn’t feeling all that hungry.  I figured I would take a quick snooze before heading to workout; I intended to do a light workout.  1) I was still sick, 2) Since I wasn’t 100%, I didn’t want to lift because I wouldn’t have seen the gains I had seen during the week.

After I woke up, my temperature had risen a bit again to about 100F.  Should I, shouldn’t I go work out?  I said screw it, I got up, grabbed a (sugar-free) red bull, and went to the gym. The Saturday evening spin class isn’t too bad, so I did that.  I got in a good sweat, and, lo and behold, I felt great!  Released some endorphins, and fever was completely gone.  It was a fever that I just had to sweat out!

Obviously, I didn’t have the flu if I could hit the gym the second day into my sickness.  Still I was sick, and determined to force it to go away.  Definitely, the endorphins helped, and it wasn’t a super intense workout.  I did the same thing on Sunday, about 45 minutes of cardio that was not too intense for me. 

Before I go on, I should point out that working out when you are really sick is inconsiderate.  Forgetting about how I felt, if I had bee really ill and did have the flu, and still went to the gym, I could have infected other people.

Many people say that you can’t sweat a fever out.  I don’t know whether that is true or not.  It could be a mind over matter thing.  If you believe you feel ill, you will be ill, to some extent.  I think that is why my coaches wouldn’t be completely transparent the few times I really was sick and they convinced me I wasn’t.  In any case, this time, I really did have a fever that I had to sweat out.

Overcoming obstacles and making gains

One of the things I have been working on this past winter has been getting stronger.  Week after week, day after day, I would try to make sure that I would eat properly, get the right amount of rest, and do enough cardio that made me happy, but would still not take so much out of me that I couldn’t really get stronger.

Still, the gains felt kind of minimal.  I was building, but only adding maybe a few more pounds here or a few more reps there.  Nothing really concrete.  Take the overhead bar military press, for example.  I had reached a point where adding 25lb. plates on either side of the bar was my  heaviest, and I was just trying to add reps. 

Last week, all of a sudden, I was able to pump out 3 full sets with no problem using what had been my obstacle weight.  And not just with that, but also with squats.  I overcame my obstacle weight, to the point that I wasn’t just trying to build on reps, but I actually killed all my sets.

Aside from eating well and sleeping better, I definitely had cut back on the frequency of my heavy lifting days, something that I am normally reluctant to do.  This overtraining has been sort of a stumbling block, but I think, for now, I am over it.

So how did I feel after breaking those obstacle weights? Pretty damn amazing.  Any goal you ever set and achieve, small as it may be, is worth taking note of.  The little things will add to bigger things, and so on. 

Unfortunately, right after I hit those gains, and was super pumped about them, I caught the flu.  Guess I will be starting from a lower base this week. 

Work Out – Cycle 2 – Episode 1 – Recap – “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re full of sh*t!”

The new season of Work Out is upon us, and opens with a surprising message: Dedicated in loving memory to Doug Blasdell.

Apparently, Doug, the oldest trainer on the show, passed away earlier this year due to a severe illness, after the filming of this season.

Jackie Warner starts talking about how her life has changed since Cycle 1. Mimi is still in her life, and they are trying to work things out. Sky Sports was a roaring success, and now she is about to open a new branch, Sky Lab.

We then get some snippets of the trainers talking about themselves and each other. Here are some of the highlights!

- Gregg – The New Guy. Dated Zen.

- Rebecca (was she really this hot on the Amazing Race?) – Loves to spank other chicks, has a great ass.

- Erika – Walks the walk, Talks the talk. That bitchy friend you love to have.

- Brian Peeler – Can create a masterpiece out of anything, like Michelangelo, only he probably doesn’t know who Michelangelo is, according to Jesse.

- Jesse – The Favorite, Jackie’s bitch, and he likes to eat, and cook, and eat, and eat.

- Andre -The Military Guy

- Doug – The gay brother Peeler never had.

- Zen – She mentions that her parents were not flower children

After we get the refresher on who these trainers are, we cut back to Jackie, who is starting a new branch, Sky Labs. Jackie doesn’t like how the trainers let the success of last season get to their heads, so to put them back in their place, she organizes a Beach Boot camp. She orders them to take their shirts off, but Jesse doesn’t want to because he is “gay fat.” (I wonder if that is different from normal fat because he sure just looked fat to me).

The trainers start whining, Jesse points out that Jackie doesn’t ever do the boot camps herself (is he still the favorite?), and Rebecca, jokingly, calls her a whore (we ain’t seen nothing yet).

Erika comes up with some crazy exercise. Peeler complains that it is too complicated.

All of the trainers, except for Zen and Erika, give up and go get water. Jackie taunts them after Zen and Erika finish the complicated exercise, saying those two girls could do it, and nobody else could. Jackie does point out that they would never let their clients just give up and walk away.

Cut to clips from last season of bickering between Jackie and Mimi, culminating with Mimi hurling glass at a bar at Jackie, Rebecca, and Mrs. Peeler.

I bet you thought it was all over then! Guess what, it’s not, as Mimi and Jackie are trying to work things out. Jackie admits that Mimi is her “personal addiction.”

After the commercial break, we get an insight into what is happening in the gym between the trainers and clients. (Sort of)

Gregg is working out client Daniel, who is trying to get bigger and eating 4,000 calories a day. He says he is eating a lot of chicken and eggs, and Gregg tells him that eggs are his best friend. Daniel started off at 141 pounds, as Gregg puts it, “your average frat boy.” Frat boys are scrawny?

We get the scoop on Zen and Gregg; she says he is too young for her at 23.

Ellie K., a radio talk show host, is training with Jesse. They seem to love each other and friends outside of the gym, partaking in fast food binges.

Jackie is giving Jesse a hard time for getting fat, because he should be a representative of Sky Sports and Sky Lab (I wondered if it really mattered in “Fat Trainer”). Ellie K. is with them and keeps telling Jackie about all the crap she sees Jesse eat.

Doug’s former partner of 14 years comes in to work out with him. He is trying to get back into shape before his kidney transplant. Eerie that his friend is very sick then Doug gets sick after the season airs.

Commercial.

Erika walks in to train client Beverly, who drives down from Vegas every weekend (an 8 hour drive) to train. (No doubt Erika is hot, but she couldn’t find anyone closer?) She can relate to Beverly because they both have had eating disorders. Beverly is happy she found someone who she can relate to, which prompts Erika to say, “they say, when the student is ready the teacher will appear.”

Doug and Jesse are talking, separately, about how they each had been interviewed after Cycle 1, and had said things about each other. Doug called him Jack from Will and Grace. Jesse said some mean things about Doug to the papers. (I smell a catfight!)

Jesse is Jackie’s best friend in the gym. They start talking about how Doug and Jesse don’t get along, then the conversation turns to Mimi and their lack of communication. They go to a hairdresser, where Jesse gets his nostrils waxed. (OMFG are you crazy?!)

High Drama Alert (HDA) The crew goes to some Gay/Lesbian function. Jackie gets a hotel room for them to chill at and knock back a few cocktails. Peeler, the mischievous little rascal, stirs the pot and asks if there is still a Jesse-Doug beef.

Doug explains to the camera he meant what he said as a compliment, that Jack was his favorite character on his favorite show, Will and Grace. (Hehe) Cut back to the room, and Jesse is a little trashed and keeps going off on Doug.

Commercial. More arguing. Jesse can’t forgive just yet. Rebecca points out that it is Jesse’s limitations that he can’t accept apologies. (Thank god that is over)

(HDA) Jackie and Mimi go to couple’s counseling. They start cracking up when therapist asks why they are at therapy. First she asks about fighting, then sex. It kind of seems like Mimi is a little tipsy. The two have it out, start yelling at each other, blaming each other. Every time Jackie tries to say something, Mimi says “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re full of shit.” The therapist says they have awful communication (shocker) and doesn’t know why they are together. Mimi walks out.

From the looks of the previews for the upcoming shows, it looks like Mimi won’t be back. Jackie starts hooking up with Rebecca?! and it looks like we are set for a whole heaping more of HDA alongside our HLA.

Takeaways for the FitFiends

- Eggs are your best friend.

- Trainers need to set an example for their clients.

- Finding the right trainer for you is extremely important to achieve goals. Not all trainers necessarily can relate to you or work you out the way you need.

www.fitfiend.com 

 

High Intensity Interval Training

People take this type of training very, very seriously. I am not an expert on it, although, as someone who grew up playing as a competitive athlete, I can tell you we did a lot of this type of training. I don’t remember hearing the phrase “High Intensity Interval Traning” being used, though it was referred to, circumspectly, by coaches and trainers. For example, we knew the way to get the most out of a run was to throw in some sprints, then actively recover.

I suppose indoor cycling does incorporate this as the class is generally run on an interval principle.

When I say that people take HIIT very seriously, I don’t only mean those who do it get really into it, I also mean that there is normally a huge disclaimer that is only for people who can handle advanced training and who have no medical or health issues. The main reason is that your heart is put under stress by spiking your heart rate and then bringing it back down, then repeating the cycle several times.

I would guess your average FitFiend who incorporates cardio into their regimen, barring any underlying health problems, would have not problem doing this.

Aside from doing spin classes, which I generally do 3 or 4 times a week, I have been trying to do HIIT on the Stairmill. Over the course of about 30 minutes (after a warm up, of course), I would spike the setting to Level 20 for 30 seconds, and at the end of 30 seconds, I would bring it back down to Level 7. For the 30 seconds on Level 20, I would basically be running up the stairs (running, not sprinting). It would get me pretty winded, and my heart rate generally did spike. It certainly was a great workout, although, for the sake of true HIIT, I think that doing it off of a machine is probably better. With a machine, you have to wait for it to increase to the desired level, etc. Also, since I was running up the stairs, I could have still worked harder, but the machine was at capacity.

Results wise, I definitely felt like I had gotten a great workout, and did so in less time than for a comparable jogging workout. Calorie-wise, I am a little skeptical, but maybe if the machine could bring me to a sprinting level, it might have been more comparable.

I know I have been saying this for weeks, but winter is finally over (I hope), and will try to do more HIIT outside, the way it should really be done. It makes a long run a whole lot less boring, trust me. For more information on HIIT, check out this link. HIIT is becoming more and more popular, but it has been around a long time.

www.fitfiend.com 

My Healthy Eating Hypocrisy

I try to eat healthy foods. I eat whole grains, lots of greens, lean meats, and I stay away from ALL processed foods or sugar as much as feasible. My portions are small, but they are spread though out the day. As a supplement, I drink a few protein shakes to cut some hunger pangs. While I had known about the right things and ways to eat for a while, I only really started applying them last year, when I worked out with a trainer for a few sessions. As important as the actual workouts were, so was his constant berating of me when I would tell him how I had eaten. Even when I see him now, before saying hello, he asks me what I have eaten.

When I first started really dedicating myself to eating healthy, I would go to the grocery store (even when I was hungry, which is a big no-no, and also my main takeaway from “Work Out”) and have absolutely ZERO clue as to what I could buy. It was a little bit frustrating, but after a while, I became conditioned to ignoring all the bad stuff (most of the stuff that is there) and going for the whole grains, etc.

Another thing I have learned is to NEVER buy snacks to keep in my apartment, because I know that I will eat them all. If I were to buy a box of Cheez-its, I would finish it in a matter of minutes. One of my all time favorite snacks is nachos, and when you make them yourself, you can put as much cheese, salsa, and other things on it that make it taste so good, but it is really so bad.

I’m pretty good and set a good example, right? Wrong. When I visited my family during the winter holidays, I was awful. What’s worse is that they generally are the ones who struggle to eat properly and cut the bad things out. For example, pasta for dinner, which is often very late, is a staple. The horror! Although, they have been phasing that out.

I should be helping them, but instead of setting a good example when I visited, I was the one leading the charge to get a cake, to celebrate something or other. When they were going shopping, and they asked if I wanted Cheez-its, I said yes, get two boxes.

Just as bad, even when I was not enabling, I was at least participating. Like, when they already had a bag of chips, I ate them, all. Things I would never have normally even considered became fair game.

To be fair, it was the holidays, so I permitted myself some slack. Had I been at my apartment, then that would never have happened, though. One of the things people do is make those little concessions, and unfortunately, lots of little concessions add up to a whole lot of extra crap, which is what happened with me.

Anyway, from now on, I vow to make sure I set a good example even when I do go visit people, or at least, not really set an example so much as stick to my guns. It does make it more difficult when you are a guest, because you don’t want to seem high maintenance. But, still, making too many exceptions can be a perilous road in terms of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

 

 

fitness

No Pain, No Gain

This is an antiquated theory I wholeheartedly subscribe to. However, nowadays, if most people hear these words, especially people who are experienced in fitness, they freak out! If they do, it’s my fault and I should be more clear.

When I would come home from college for the summer, I taught at tennis academies. Part of my teaching involved leading the conditioning sessions for the kids, most of whom were 12-18 years old, competitive tournament level players. However, many of them were also lazy, and needed to be pushed; that is why they were training and also why I led the conditioning. Sure, if one of them had an injury, they wouldn’t have had to participate in conditioning, but if they were too injured for that, they wouldn’t have come in to train that day in the first place. Kids would stop, and I would do everything I could to make them keep going.

When I say “no pain, no gain,” I refer to mental toughness. This is what you need to push yourself through a marathon or even when you are lifting. Obviously, you need to discern between physical pain and mental pain. However, a lot of what you need to achieve physical results is driven by how mentally fit you are.

Now, I am not suggesting that you train through an injury. That would be stupid, er, and something I might do, like I did in early January.

If I am sore from doing squats or dead lifts one day, I still go running the next. Yeah, soreness does not feel good, but I find that the cardio actually helps to get rid of the soreness. It is a kind of physical pain that I believe can be worked through.

Still, there should be a differentiation between an actual physical injury and mental toughness when people say “no pain, no gain.” There is a huge difference between when you are super fatigued and you push yourself to keep fighting on, vs. when you are hurt.

Unfortunately, a lot of people mistake feelings of fatigue with feelings of physical pain. So much of what we feel is mental, and when people realize this they can see much more in the way of physical gains. Those kids I taught all would get tired, but it was only the ones who realized that mental toughness could make them keep fighting who actually progressed further in their tennis careers. This is a lesson that anyone can apply and this is what I mean when I say “no pain, no gain.”

fitness

Strange things at the gym and other observations

Winter is finally just about over here in NYC. You know what this means? This means I no longer have to spend the same amount of time that I have been at the gym since sometime at the end of October. A little embarrassed to admit just how much time, but let’s just say that I can run as many miles as I want outside now, and just do 60-90 minutes of strength training inside until it gets cold again.

Since I have spent so many hours a day indoors just training for myself, I have witnessed some rather strange things, and was wondering if other people might be able to add to my list. Some I am sure others have seen, and other things maybe not. But trust me, I found them odd or just poor etiquette. Here we go…

• The oddities began probably in November, when I saw this dude doing the tricep pushdown…with a phone between his ear and shoulder.
• Things grew more odd when I saw this girl, who turned out to be a trainer, working out on this leg machine, I guess to work out her hips/groin? Anyway, she was chatting with another trainer while she was working out, reached into her bag, pulled out this bag of snacks, started eating them, offered them to the trainer she was chatting with, then turned around to offer the snacks to the group of trainers behind her, all the meanwhile, still working out.
• Another strange thing was a trainer working, training a client, eating a salad, with tuna. It wreaked. I guess it shows dedication, almost like eating at your desk. I still thought it was pretty inappropriate, but hey, maybe not. It was setting a good example in terms of diet. However, I saw the same trainer a few weeks earlier, eating on the job, only that time, it was a McDonalds cheeseburger.
• Of course I need to mention the people who get dressed up to work out. I have seen lots of comments online about women who put their make up on, and I have seen guys style their hair before they hit the gym floor. The most I do is a smell check of my hat and heart rate monitor chest strap. I guess I’m still at fault for using them no matter how badly they fail the sniff test.
• I have mentioned previously the chick who would run out of spin class every time her phone would go off, then come back in.
• There was the spin instructor whose head spun around when she heard another woman’s Blackberry go off during class.
• I developed a heated mental rivalry with a guy who also frequently takes spin classes at my gym. We each always sign up for a specific bike, him #12, me, #24. The bikes face each other. Every single time I go, which is at least 4 or 5 times a week, he is there. We never acknowledge each other, but I can tell, we are totally at war during class. I swear, I think he even smirked at me when he thought he “beat” me during a sprint today.
• A spin instructor nearly singled out someone she thought was the “silent farter” in class. I swear, it wasn’t me.
• The girl who came into a 2 hour ride with a 4oz bottle of water. I guess 4oz is better than nothing…but in a 2 hour ride, surely you need more than 4oz of water!

Anyway, I found all these things pretty weird; who knows, maybe others don’t? I am sure there are many more weird things, though, that people notice, and would love to hear about them.

Still, I am super excited that today will be the last cold day (fingers crossed) for a looooong time.

fitness

Does this happen in the Women’s locker room?

 

I stumbled upon this blog posting from the East Village Idiot, who claims he is “bullied by gay men” when he tries to use his gym’s steam room. The post is pretty funny, and also spot on.

Earlier this year, a group of janitors sued Equinox because of what they claimed was happening in the locker rooms there. I talked to a good friend of mine who works there about a post on this, but she told me, uhm, not to touch it.

But, I do, because I feel bad that the East Village Idiot was flamed (yes, I said flamed) by some readers of his blog in their comments, because he touched the subject. Some of these people basically say that it okay for shenanigans to take place in the confines of the steam rooms/saunas at our local gyms. I already have to worry about getting things like athlete’s foot and other fungi when I am at the gym, but now, who knows what could be lurking on the floors in the steam rooms and saunas.

From what I can tell, there are a myriad of places for guys who want to get it on, whether at a club or bathhouse. Why is it necessary to bring it into a public, mixed place, like a gym. In fact, nobody cares about what you are doing; it’s just where you are doing it. The same would apply for hetero couples if there were a hetero steam room. There just are certain standards that apply. (And I don’t know of any mixed guy/girl facilities…let me know if you do).

Also, considering that several New York area gyms kept their steam room and saunas closed for years, wouldn’t every member want to make sure they behave themselves so all the facilities remain open? Day after day, for years, I would walk by my main gym’s sauna and see the big sign “Closed by the Department of Health” (though “Health” was crossed out and written over it was “Sex); I am happy that the sauna is once again usable and I want it to stay that way. I don’t really use it that much, though, unless it is empty.

Finally, I understand going to a New York City gym kind of leaves all guys open to and aware of certain shenanigans. I can deal with it. But, it would make me feel much better if I knew the same shenanigans happen in the Women’s locker room, because, frankly, that would be hot.

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