The gyms and pools are going to be crowded!! (Page 2)

I don't know about everyone else...but I thought this was a classic response! If you don't know the kinds of guys I'm talking about, check out "My New Haircut" on youtube. I'm talking about those guys. Also, I'm all for women getting a breast augmentation to make themselves feel better. A trainer at my gym has fake boobs and she's awesome because she dresses, let's say leaves something to the imagination. Plus, my comments were in jest.

Lets just say that this is my first season of revolutionists. Remember, though, that just as the pros get paid from endorements and entry fees from psychos like me, our sport grows from everyone we can convince to stick around! Cardio is easy, but lets teach people how to use those weights, and to be comfortable in the presence of all you hard-bodied triathletes!

Your post is a good one. I understand and appreciate that we were all beginners once. But still, the “January people” make everything a hassle.

I'm a member of the ProClub which is one of the healthclubs that Microsoft employees can choose as one of their benefits (MSFT pays the membership, you pay the taxes on the dollar value of the membership, it's $10 a month or so). Every December is 'open enrollment' and people pick their benefit options for the next year or just let them rollover.

Anyway, what this means is that the Redmond ProClub claims to be have the largest facility of any healthclub in the world as well as the largest membership. I imagine it probably is - lap pool, multipurpose pool, recreational pool, training pool. Multiple levels of locker rooms. The basketball court floor is from the old Kingdome when they hosted the the Final Four a while back. Six indoor tennis courts, two restaurants, childcare facilities, multiple rooms with dozens of treadmills, ellipticals, weight machines, etc, including "Women's Fitness" rooms for women to exercise without being ogled by us men, a dozen or so squash courts in two areas, and many weight rooms. It’s been enlarged several times and is a rabbit warren of rooms. There is also a day spa and health care available on site. Parking is in a garage with one above ground and 3 underground levels. Or you can take the shuttle vans that circulate among Microsoft buildings during the week from like 8am to 7pm.

All in all it's a pretty nice place to workout and a lot of people use their memberships. Normally the rush is evenings from 5:30 to 7pm, where the garage fills to the bottom level. Inside the lap pool gets 2-3 people per lane and they set up "slow, medium, fast" signs to make it a bit easier. The weight equipment gets crowded, the stretching area gets crowded, and sometimes the main fitness room runs out of treadmills, ellipticals, etc and I have to hike to one of the other fitness rooms. And BTW, this is not a place of buff men and women –this is the healthclub of 5,000 Microsoft computer people. Some of us are fitness people, but a lot of us are the stereotypical dorky / geeky anti-jocks. So you can imagine.

Every January the place goes absolutely nutty with people who checked the box in December, and people vowing to actually use the membership they've been paying for and not using.

What's nutty? Mostly parking. The ProClub rents evening parking from office buildings a couple blocks away and gives you $3 if you park there. The run the shuttles later so less people will drive over. Long lines block the street getting into the parking garage, and they hire flaggers to direct people in/out of the garage. Even so, it’s like trying to park 10 minutes before the game at Safeco.

The lap pool gets impossible with every lane with 4 people, and a dozen more people standing on the deck waiting for someone to leave. I’ve waited half an hour to get into that pool when the multipurpose pool is being used by the swim team. The cardio rooms all fill up, including the far away / hard to find Cardio Theater where the music is louder and the light much dimmer. The weight machines all develop a line. A normal workout now doubles in length because of the waiting.

The survival strategy is simple: avoidance. Come after 8pm and things are only as crowded as the usual 6pm. And by the end of January, things are pretty much back to normal.

But If I am crazy enough to show up in the mornings or early evenings, I’ll keep this post in mind as I spend 20 minutes parking, wander around the locker rooms trying a dozen or two lockers to find an available one, when I’m standing on the pool deck waiting for a lane, and standing in line for the showers. It won’t be easy.

Great post, thanks for the reminder to be more kind hearted to those who are starting out. I'm definitely going to make an effort this year to make them feel more welcome.

On the other hand, I do think you can tell the resolutionists from the newbies. The resolutionists are the skinny gals in heavy makeup who walk (yes, WALK) on the treadmill and chat on their cellphones. They don't sweat, they don't try (and from the looks of their tiny butts, they don't have to). They just take up time on the only working treadmill. I find it difficult to be patient with them. Does that make me a bad person?

Also, I remember last year I was doing my leg presses and one of those new girls walked up to me and began "correcting" my form. Incorrectly. She wasn't there two weeks later.

why not join the swim team

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Often gyms are open because of these people, they pay, dont show up after a month and keep paying allowing you to keep going.

marmadaddy - 2007-12-28 3:57 PM
You can't get in the pool because it's jammed with people using pull buoys on their arms...

You mean that's not what they are for?

Great thread - 14 months ago @ 50 I was one of "those people" when I decided to honor the good genes my father passed on to me.  And am thankful a lot of "seasoned" vets have taken me under their wings to help this old grand-paw realize good health and a whole new world of multi-sport living in the process...

Edited by Pop 2007-12-29 7:40 PM

Welcome Rueben

bump.

heh.  Great minds....   

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