Weights and Measurements 1.5

Weights and Measurements 1.5

The gym is a place of weights and measurements, distances and dimensions, securities and insecurities. The physical body is perhaps in no other place in society placed under such scrutiny as in the gym. I walk in and look at the long row of free weights starting from as low as 2.5 pounds all the way to 100 pounds or more. The lowest weights are the closest to the door and the heaviest weights are the farthest from the door as if they were in their own exclusive area. Those that can’t lift as much are confined to the area closest to the door unable to advance for fear of injury and embarrassment in the land of the VIPs.
I have always been a smaller built person that some people would call skinny but I would prefer to call it – having been blessed with one of the finest metabolisms the world has even seen. Seriously my metabolism was born in a small village in Kenya and used to deliver messages to neighboring countries on foot – as a form of charity after he got home from the war. Although my heart greatly appreciates his hard work and dedication – it doesn’t do much for my muscle build – which my pastor calls the “Marathon runner look” and goes on to say that – “there is no other reason to look like a Marathon runner then to be a marathon runner.” So I have been eating a lot of protein – eggs – peanut butter- milk – cheese and tuna not for the taste but simply to change the way my physical appearance compares with the competition. Also, so my pastor will stop picking on me.
Some people say that they go to the gym to get healthy – which can be effectively translated into what most civilized religions in the world call lying! If you are under 40 and in the gym chances are your primary motivation is not health – I mean in some ways I am there for my health too – but really what I fantasize about on the way to the gym is my transition into a bulky warrior beast of a caveman – not an impressed look on a doctors face after a check up. So health is a factor but it is not what gets me under the bench press in the morning.
Although there is this shallow motivation to change my physical appearance and to a lesser extent to improve my health – I think there is a larger factor that I am neglecting to mention. It is this over all feeling of wellbeing that you get when you make significant physical movements during the day. NO, I am not talking about clicking the remote, or the long walk from the front door to the car door, or from the parking spot to the office desk - I am talking about physical activity that makes you break a sweat – and if any of the above exercises do cause you to break a sweat you should seriously consider seeking medical attention. But really this over all feeling of goodness that seems to just sweep over your body – and lets you know that you can do anything else during the day – is the main reason I go to the gym.
It’s the New Year and it’s a good time to get into the gym – its one of those simple solutions – that I have been able to implement and it has been well worth it. It would also be an added benefit if I could one day beat up my pastor for telling me I look like a marathon runner – in a fit of carnal man beast aggression and if I can’t – then I will just convert to Hinduism.