My gym….mmm…so much to be said!
Knowing how much I loved the gym (and how desperately I needed to get back) my boss signed me up at the newest, latest and greatest gym in Cangzhou…a comfortable 15 minute bike ride down the road!
It's decent…comparable to any of the good ones back home for sure. All new equipment and most of what I would have used back home so it keeps me happy! But they gym is a daily experience in itself.
On arrival I am greeted with the usual over enthusiastic attempts at 'hello'. I oblige and quickly scoot on before I get stuck in yet another conversation I can't understand! Heading in, I am greeted with multiple pairs of eyes very surprised to see me there and I watch as their eyes widen as I head to the WEIGHTS section. What? Chinese Rule #1 - girls don't lift weights!
I get stuck straight in as I have had my warm up with my 15 min bike ride! I set up my iPod to override the ghastly chinese pop music, set up my towel to avoid catching some disease from the sweat the men leave behind - there isn't a 'no towel, no workout' policy like home - eww, I stretch my muscles and start pumping some iron!
The gym used to be my domain, my safe place. I felt alive in the gym just pumping iron with the rest of my gym family in bris! This is a whole different story. Every now and then I will look up from a set to find not one but about four of the gym staff sitting on the bench beside me just staring at me push out another chest press. Or if not the staff, a random stranger and his mate. This happens for the first 10 mins or so! Then it will appear they have left me alone but alas, I look up again from another set and there they are!
It doesn't help that the weights area has a glass wall the is adjacent to the inside of a mall…so all passer byers who are catching the escalators can see inside. So every now and then I will look up and find a group of seven teenage boys staring in wonder, giggling and waving! Man, I sometimes feel like a genuine freakshow. I really need to start selling tickets.
Chinese Rule #2 - girls don't sweat. Working out for me has never been a glamorous or classy affair! I sweat, and sweat a lot! Between the lycra, pumping iron and cardio I have a nice amount of sweat build up and it's not pretty! So the strange looks also re-appear as I am constantly towling myself down and puffing and panting.
Chinese Rule #3 - wear more clothes - the less skin the better. As far as the girls go, gym attire is conservative….lots of clothes and long pants! Even in this scorching summer. Well as I have already stated the sweating dilemma, my motto has always been the less clothes the better - this also brings about the stares!
Although the boys are more than happy to strip of their t-shirts and singlets and work out half naked! Ewww! Sweating straight onto the bench! Disgusting!
Chinese Rule #4 - Heavy weight is unnecessary! This one is for the boys. As stated, girls don't lift weights! They are happy to bicep curl their 5kg dumbbells! Really? Ridiculous! There has been one time where I have seen two guys lifting serious weights. The rest is token lifting and I usually exceed them. Even now, not being in any weight lifting shape compared to what I was!
Chinese Rule #5 - the gym is primarily for hanging out - working out optional. Yep, the gym is more for a social hang out than actually exercising. People just standing around and maybe just maybe throwing in an occasional set! There is a pool room (with bar), ping pong room, basketball room etc so it's more like a pub than a gym!
Not to mention the girlfriends that accompany their men just to stand beside them and hold their belongings! I want to shake them! And shake them hard! Haha!
So the gym experience is something very different to what I am used to! That comfortable 1.5 hours a day I used to love and cherish has become the most self-conscious experience of my life! All good! The upside is I stepped on the scales this morning and it has been paying off!
Oh, to add to my experience - every time I rock up to the bicycle parking lot and pay my 7cents parking fee the old Chinese ladies 'tsk' 'tsk' me about my freckles! Well ladies, welcome to western skin! Haha! I can't very well explain to them that I am a natural red-head and that's my natural skin! No! so I get disapproving looks that my skin is being marked by the sun! haha!
I am also not wearing the appropriate attire: hat, sunglasses, long sleeve shirt on backwards to make sure all exposure to the sun is completely avoided. God forbid I get a tan! They would be mortified to learn I lay out on my balcony sunbaking each day with the exact intention of exposing my body to the sun! haha!
I learnt yesterday that the love of white skin is because it looks cleaner! Mmm…I just use soap! Haha!
Oh China, you never cease to amaze me, bring a smile to my face and a roll to my eye!
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