Gym observations

Prepare to see a lot of interesting things if you ever participate in a race in China... prepare to see more if you enter a Chinese gym....

When I first started blogging I wrote about a gym visit where I watched an un-made-up girl enter the women’s changing room in tracksuit pants, a big hooded jumper and no make-up. Then I watched her as she changed into a tight, slinky outfit, put on make-up and ate the greasy content of the KFC bag she’d been carrying with her. Once she was done, she entered the gym. Funny how things often go the complete opposite way over here!

Some weeks ago at the gym I had another ‘whaaaaat?!’ –moment, as I watched a middle-aged Chinese man walk over to the treadmill carrying a tea thermos of the size XL as well as a cup of steaming hot (what I assume must have been) tea. He carefully placed his drinks on the treadmill before he went back to the changing rooms. A moment later he emerged with a package of biscuits as well as a bag of something that looked like mini-baozi. It took a while for him to arrange everything around his treadmill so that nothing would drop (especially the hot cup of tea was tricky) but he didn’t care and was in no hurry what-so-ever. When he finally had put everything into place he turned on the TV (of course! Watching TV on the treadmill is as natural for the Chinese gym goers at my gym as it is for me to run while listening to music) and started the treadmill. I think he put the pace on something like 1,5 km/hour and sloooooowly started walking, while drinking and eating. A treadmill picnic in other words?! (And I thought I was inventive at the gym, bringing my skipping rope and working out with weights on the balance ball? Gosh, I still have so much to learn). 

What I enjoy to watch the most, however, is the personal trainers working their customers. Since I have a lot of trainer friends (that I also regard as my ‘inside buddies’ –I know I know, I am a total geek!) I get to hear a lot of funny stories from them. Rocky told me that the rates of the trainers are different (the cheapest ones, like Rocky, charges 100kuai/hour and the most expensive one of them all –Scott –a beefy, tough looking dude, wants 250kuai/hour –out of that money, the gym keeps 60% and the trainer gets 40%). I wasn’t too surprised to hear this, and later realized that it makes sense: beefy Scott mainly trains 2 types of people (only males, never women): cooperate office guys and fat, reluctant young boys. The cooperative guys obviously wants ‘the best of the best’ and when it comes to the young fatties I can really imagine them being brought to the gym by their parents, who have decided that their beloved son needs to lose some pounds, and immediately asks for the beefiest, most expensive trainer at the gym to make the miracle happen. It is always a little bit painful to watch Scott and the uncomfortable, overweight young boy who just wishes he was somewhere else while he’s trying to look all cool and masculine under the bench press.

(And who do the not-so-beefy-looking trainers train? Women, of course. Tai tais etc).

Except for dividing the trainers into the beefy, and the non-beefy group, they can also be divided into a helpful and not-so-helpful group. The helpful group are the ones who will tell you if they see that you are using a machine the wrong way (I am always as grateful when they do this) or, who are happy to give you some training tips/advices/help you stretch even though you are not their customer. 

Then there are the not-so-helpful-kinds that will just walk by with a superficial smile on their faces even though they see that you might injure yourself if you continue to do that particular movement, and, who play dumb-struck when you ask them to help you. The not-so-helpful-trainers are also quite peculiar when it comes to handing out 'special equipment' like 'the stomach wheel' that they keep in a back room and only give to customers that specifically asks for it. I use that wheel every single time that I gym, and I know that they all know it, but they still manage to look like living question marks when I ask for it... 'what wheel? No sorry, don't have.' (Then I go to another guy and ask for it and he always gets it for me) 

There's also a third group of trainers: the sleepy kind, who you’re most likely to find napping in the corner of the aerobics’ room after lunch. (Although I don't know how OK this is because the last 3 trainers I have seen sleeping in there have later ‘disappeared’ from the gym, so I am guessing that sleeping on duty is considered a no-no, even in a nap-loving country like China).

Finally, there is the English-speaking personal trainer. The guy who is friends with all the laowais. He rarely mingles with his Chinese training buddies, instead he’s laughing with the big boys at the free-weight session. He knows most of the laowais by their first name and they love him, oh, do they love him! Everyone except for me. Him and I had a little ‘fall out’ during my early gym days when he insisted on speaking English to me and I kept replying in Chinese, and nowadays we acknowledge each other with a stiff head-nod.

Ah the gym.. got to love that place! Especially here in China. So much personality. So much.... interesting stuff happening. I haven't been for 4 days (sore throat) but today I am doing a much longed-for comeback.