Trotted along to the local gym this evening for my induction session. Yes I know, but it’s there on my list. There. My list of Things To Do Differently Second Time Round. Use the gym.
I don’t like these furtive adult playgrounds much. They’re surreal and disturbing. How do you reconcile the superficial intimacy, the laying-bare, with the lack of communication? Apart from the Hits of the Eighties CDs, the only sounds are the rhythmical groans and crashes; you are rarely disturbed by the music of conversation. Here we find a worrying sub-culture of silent, bug-eyed obsessives; dripping elitists, sweating off their stresses and spare-tyres, inching towards Adonis status with a wild eye. And I may have opted to become one of them. Oh.
I almost prefer the idea of one of those old-fashioned gyms down the Old Kent Road; those boxing clubs with rough floorboards and bare lightbulbs and peeling paint. None of your lifestyle nonsense. Just free weights and squashed noses and bleeding lips, and more than a veneer of authenticity; they wear their grubbiness on their sleeve. But terrifying with it, I should think.
But where was I? Reasons for using a gym:
- Strength training can, it seems, significantly assist marathon training by improving the efficiency of the respiratory system and hardening the bones, thus making some injuries less likely.
- A treadmill will give me extra options if I’m bored with the local routes, or if the weather is just too bad (though that hasn’t stopped me yet).
- More variety available for the weekly requirement to do some cardio-vascular cross-training.
Will I take to it?
