Gym personas

I saw an interesting person in the gym yesterday. Not interesting in the good way so much as in the weird way. He couldn't have been much older than 16 (maybe a college freshman). He had 20 lb dumbbells that...he didn't really know what to do with. He basically yanked it up, and tried to shift his arm around so that he could support it in the air after it was yanked up. Only he wasn't really strong enough for supporting a 20 lb dumbbell (especially one being flung around uncontrollably). He did this flinging about 5 times, then gave up and called someone on his phone. Talked for a few minutes, then hung up and did some pushups. Then back to the flinging. Then the phone. Then the pushups. He did this series of fling-phone-pushups about 20 times. It was unbelievably annoying to watch, and this guy wandered throughout the whole weight room while he did it, so everyone got a good look at his ridiculousness. When he was done with that, he decided to hang from a lat-pulldown bar. Then he decided the hanging was too easy, and upped the weight stack. He literally grabbed the bar, and went limp. Clearly not doing any sort of actual weight lifting. What was this guy doing in the weight room? And he wasn't with anyone, so he wasn't just waiting for someone else to finish. And why did he need to call someone every few minutes? It reminds me of some of my friends in college who would automatically call someone the instant they were alone. Aka during the 1 minute it took them to walk between classes. I never understood this.

Another guy I see regularly at the gym appears to be strong, but not very muscle-y. I get the feeling he wants to have huge muscles. He blasts his iPod while screaming "yeah baby! yeah!!!" and lifting a ridiculous amount of weight (at least this guy can actually lift it though). I see him almost every time I go.

Then there's always the token old guy. Sometimes it's the dad of one of the younger guys there, sometimes it's just a random old guy. For some reason, people seem to be just shocked that an old guy is there. I think it's great! Exercise and fitness are not just for 20-somethings, and these token old guys help remind me of that. I hope that when I'm old and gray I'll be in the shape they're in.

Another girl came into the weight room while I was doing my upper body weight lifting yesterday. I was the only girl in there, along with about 10 guys. For some reason whenever a girl heads towards the free weights (there are plenty of girls bouncing around the weight machines, which I presume they like doing for the same reason I like them: they're fun!), I get all defensive like my kingdom will be taken. I don't even know why I think like that, I think it's great that girls are trying their hand at the free weights (which are said to be for the "more advanced" weight lifters, since there's nothing to save you like with the weight machines). But sure enough, every time a girl comes in I get defensive. And critical to boot! She was much thinner than me, and looked to be in pretty good shape. And then she picked up a 5 lb dumbbell. I was mocking her in my head. "Ha, you can only do 5 lbs? I can do 15!" But I couldn't stop, it's weird. I felt awful for mocking her secretly, yet I couldn't control it. And it only happens with the girls (which are very few and far between, and almost 100% of the time appear to just be the girlfriend who got dragged along). Why can't I be nicer?

I hope that phone kid doesn't become a regular. Or if he does, I hope he learns how to actually attempt a workout. I don't mean to pick on him, it's just really annoying to have this kid watching everyone very closely (I caught him staring at my chest in the mirror more than once) while yapping on his phone or flinging weights around.

On another note, I've updated my sidebar. It now lists my starting weight in lbs, my starting body fat as a percentage and in lbs (I'll mention why in a moment), and my goal weight, in addition to my current weight and body fat. I decided to list the body fat in lbs as well as % because I'm going to alter my goal for next month. It's still going to be to lose 5 lbs compared to what I weigh come April 30, but it's going to be 5 lbs of fat. The reason for this is that I'm getting stronger, and my weight is bumped up a bit every time my body fat % drops, making it hard to track progress in terms of weight alone. By setting my goal to lose 5 lbs of fat, it's much easier to tell how I'm progressing towards my goal (although I can't predict anything number-wise because of the correlation between my body weight and my body fat). If I gain a pound of muscle, that's great. But if I lose a pound overall and not sure where it came from - well then I'm not sure whether to be proud or not. We'll see how this goes during May!