FATALOGY ON GYMs

Last sat, out of desperation to clock my required training hours, i decided to hit the gym, The kind that gives you a towel and a locker and a whole ton of machines to movtivate you.

i bought the day entry pass, took the locker keys and head for the "ellipitical runner" i press a few buttons and decided to do a fat burning workout...the computer then decides that i need to work at a heart rate of 155 and promptly starts to blink all sorts of information like:

1) no of stride per min
2) no of steps per min
3) no of calories burnt so far
4) no of i could burn if i keep this speed for 1 hour
5) current level of resistance
6) next level of resistance

that's just the amount of info on the big screen, i cannot even remember whats on the small dials etc....

As i was grudgingly running along staring into nothiness...hoping beyond hope the machine don't scold me for running too slowly, i started to observed the Body Combat class being held at the opposite room......

the music is loud, the room was packed and there was a lady instructor on the stage shouting instructions for the people to punch! Kick! duck! jump!

that's when i realised there is a lot of angry people in singapore.....these people all looked like they are punching somebody's guts out. And most importantly they all have that intense killer look on their face.......and lagi best.....most of them are ladies!

Today, i went back to that same gym, did that same hullabalulah and started on the stupid machine again.....that's when i realised why i hate gym....

1) in the gym, your sole motivation is the approval of some heart target...on the tracks.....HR is just an indicated...the real real rush is getting to the finish line and runnign your hearts out.
2) in the gym you punch some imaginary person's guts out, while you bike you just push a little harder to get a head of your buddy to fart in his face!

get it??

i enjoy sports.

i do sports because there is something more to it than heart rates and calories burnt, looking good and staying in shape.

i ilke the idea of running across a finish line, biking up a stubborn hill, tossing the frisbee across the end zone.

i love the friendly banter and tuants exchanged during a cycling sessions, i love coming home from a workout knowing i have discovered new biking route and improved my cadence....

to me, sports is a way to interact with the world, not a mean to release some hidden frastration.....(in fact i have never resort to working out when i stress.....i eat really good food!)

ok....enough rambling.....my conclusion....in desperation....i will be slave to the machine....but as long as there is a sunny day....you know where i'll be....

FATALOGY on GYM