My gym is about half a block away from a major interstate junction, and seems to have a LOT of members.  I’ve never been there without at least 30-40 others working out at the same time.  It’s kind of a good feeling to know that I can work out with other people.  In fact, there are a couple guys I’ve been building relationship with that have the same schedule… working out is becoming something like community.  (If you know me, you know that this is NOT my idea of community).  At any rate, I was at the gym tonight.

Today was a ‘delivery day’ for the gym.  There was a semi-truck trailer being emptied when I pulled into the parking lot, and as I entered the gym, I realized that they were taking brand new equipment out of the truck and setting it up in the main workout area.  It was pretty exciting, I guess, because a lot of people were standing around watching.  First, wouldn’t it be just as much of a workout to help carry in and set up the equipment?  These people were waiting for like 2 hours to use the new equipment while one poor delivery guy was carrying the really heavy boxes in all alone.  Second, because the new equipment was there, it seemed like the gym was extremely busy, and really full.  The two guys that I’ve been working out with were there tonight, and we were all in the same row of machines.  But for some reason, no matter what I said, they were quiet and really unresponsive.  In the locker room, one of the guys appologised for being so quiet during the workout, blaming it on the fact that so many people were there.  Due to the huge numbers, they weren’t able to ‘open up’ as they normally would’ve.

On the way home, I got to thinking.  Isn’t that very much like community?  The bigger it is, the less you can be close to individuals.  I think I’m changing my gym schedule.  Because I don’t like the smell of old gym clothes and dirty, sweaty people, and I’m much happier with a smaller group of people.