EPT
Going to the Gym
So, as some of you may be aware, I've been going to the gym. I'd say that working out is kinda a constant battle. It's really not so hard to do once you show up at the gym, but actually working up the motivation to go is somewhat difficult. A fair amount of the time I'm feeling tired, lazy, or stressed, and I consider not going (or actually skip).
You see, going to the gym takes time, and working out is tiring. I considered skipping today. I had a kinda long day, and rationalizing the comfortable is easy. I even had my TL open and was ready to write a long blog post about something totally unrelated. I ended up going, though, and once I showed up I felt much better about being at the gym. I worked on my core today, and I saw the usual guys at Gold's Gym @ Shoreline, including a guy who I thought was wearing a TL shirt until I got closer.
Then, about halfway through my workout I saw a dude who made me realize I'm an asshole. I saw a guy on the inclined press machine pumping hella weight, and I was like "damn that guy's ripped" and thought to myself "no way I have time to get ripped like that" and then looked over and saw that next to the press machine was a wheelchair. This dude didn't have the use of his legs and was working out anyways, getting buff as fuck. Like, yeah it makes sense to do that if you have to move around using only your arms, but this guy's balls were clearly like 3-4x the size of mine, just because he clearly wasn't letting his paralysis stop him from working out whereas I nearly let my laziness stop me.
Seeing someone so determined I can't help but feel a bit more motivated to go to the gym myself.
As an aside, the business model of a gym is pretty interesting. To maintain the amount of equipment they need in order to provide for all the gym members, most gyms would have to charge very high prices, especially ones like Gold's Gym which upgrade their weights and machines pretty regularly. The actual cost of staffing and cleaning the gym is relatively minor compared to lighting, ventilating, and providing equipment for all the members. However, if they raised prices, people would find alternative methods of exercize or just buy some weights themselves.
So, in order to provide their product for a lower price level which members are willing to pay, gyms advertise aggressively and try to encourage people to sign up, and typically try to discourage people from closing their memberships. For every guy who goes to the gym regularly (ballers), there are like 4-5+ guys who have memberships but never go (rubes). The rubes are of course unwilling to give up their gym membership because that would be "admitting defeat" or whatever, so they pay to subsidize the ballers' subscriptions. I know Gold's Gym in particular requires you to show up in person to close a membership, and most rubes aren't willing to face defeat in the face like that.
In any case, if I ever stop going to the gym regularly, I'll make sure to not be a rube and just stop paying for a membership I don't use. It might be hard to admit to myself but I'd rather just save money then pay for a service I don't use. However, in the near future, at least, I plan on being a baller. I plan on being a baller like that wheelchair-bound dude who balled his way through my life today.
Keep on balling, wheelchair-bound guy.
