Wetness First

I recently transferred gyms. I now have to walk around 250 meters from my office building to work out instead of merely transferring elevators in an adjoining building as has been the case in the last few years. My old gym seemed like another family to me and I will miss some familiar faces, but sadly, it had to close down at the end of the month because it wasn’t making enough money to carry on for another year. It had been in the red for the last two years or so, management says.

My new gym seemed to be the only logical option for me to transfer. It’s near, new, and, well, classy as some deem it to be. It’s on the eighth floor of one of several towering structures lining up Ayala Avenue. Although you can’t really enjoy the cityscape from that height, at least you can make out the stretch of the entire business district when you look out the glass panels. One quick look at the street traffic below and it can make or break your plans of heading home after a workout session.

Three years ago, I checked out this gym when it started operations. I didn’t like it at all. I didn’t have good vibes on the place. I felt like a stranger. True, it was, at that time, considered to be the most modern gym in this side of the city. The other gyms just stared and sighed as they watched their clients move to this new place. Among others, it had wider space, 30-plus cardio machines, five to six aero classes everyday, fully-airconditioned, and of course, a free-flowing offer of complimentary softdrinks, iced tea, and coffee for members, which has become the most popular attraction for the gym. It has in fact swayed some people I know to actually enlist. I still don’t understand how this has influenced some people to actually sign up, but it had. It’s not as if one is able to wolf down gallons of these drinks to become so significant a factor.

Things have been OK for over a week now. I don’t know most of the people there, but that doesn’t bother me. I go there knowing my workout program for the day, hit my one-to-one-and-a-half-hours exercise routine, hit the showers, change, and leave. I sometimes opt to spend a few minutes in the sauna to loosen tensed muscles, but I end up getting more stressed and uneasy. Everyone seems to be constantly on cruising mode.

But that’s another story.