To Gym or Not to Gym

So Patrick seems to be kind of a gym hater. Honestly, I can't blame him too much, most of them suck. But then again, most of everything in life sucks, it's all about ferreting out the 2% of stuff that DOESN'T suck. And I'm here to say right now that all gyms are not created equal. If your standard is Gold's Gym or 24 Hr Fitness or any of the other mega-corporate gyms out there in our fine country, who lock you into year-long contracts, and force you to work out in huge, open, agoraphobia-inducing rooms packed with sweaty fat people (or sweaty muscled people)...I can see how you wouldn't like the gym. However, I've been fortunate enough to be a member of two delightful independently owned gyms (the Olympic Health Club in Seattle and West Coast Fitness here in Portland) that I have very much enjoyed patronizing.

Patrick's main beef with the gym, as far as I can tell, doesn't seem to be with the actual gym itself, but with the people who go to the gym. Honestly, I don't really understand what that has to do with anything. I mean, come on, Pat, there are lame people EVERYWHERE. If I decided not to go someplace just on the basis that there would be lame, unhealthy people there, I WOULD NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE. I mean, doesn't it make more sense to base one's opinion of a place on the place itself, rather than the caliber of the people who go there? Anyway - my point is, the gym is what you make of it, no more, no less. There are lots of weights and machines and thises and thats that you can use in any way you want. You can do an entire PCP routine at the gym, and more - or you can do a bunch of stupid exercises that will get you nowhere.

The thing I like about the gym is that by going there and leaving the house, it allows me to really set aside that part of the day for ME and for exercising. There are no distractions at the gym (or way fewer than at home, anyway). Everyone who is there is there for the same reason - to achieve or maintain fitness (whether or not you agree with their methodology). All the equipment you'll ever need and then some is laid out there right in front of you (I never have to search for my door anchor when I'm at the gym).

My current gym has many other advantages that you may or may not be able to find, depending on where you live - i.e. it's a little over a 5 minute walk from my house. It's VERY underused, so it's never crowded. It's not too big, but has pretty much everything I need. It's affordable ($38/mo, I think). Oh...and it's attached to a video store. For real. Before I joined, I would walk past the place thinking "that's gotta be the most bizarre combination of businesses - video store and gym". However, they have three locations in Portland, all with the same combo (both are owned by the same people), so it must be working for them! I'm not a big movie watcher at all, so I've never even set foot in the video side...but it's just funny. As we like to say, "Only in Portland!"

Today we drove up to Olympia, WA to visit my brother-in-law. He has had a massive struggle with drug addiction and mental illness over the last five years or so, and is finally, seemingly on the mend and in recovery. The downside is that the meds he's on for his mental health issues have caused him to gain massive amounts of weight. He's been a very fit guy the whole time I've known him, but since the last time we saw him, I think he's put on 50 pounds. It was a shock to see him that way. However, the meds are also making it possible for him to lead some semblance of a normal life, so there's a tradeoff. He is currently living in a halfway house where he has to be gone for most of the day (the idea is, of course, that he would be working during the day). However, due to his mental health issues, he literally can't work (he would get his supply of meds cut off if he did). So, he's basically forced to wander around Olympia all day with nothing to do and no money. The last time he talked to my wife, he bemoaned the fact that he had neither a skateboard or a guitar, either of which would allow him to spend his days at least doing SOMETHING. My wife told me this, and I said "I bet we could find a skateboard on craigslist for not much money". Sure enough, she found one for $50, and we bought it for him. When we gave it to him today, it was almost like he could hardly contain his excitement over it. It really struck me at that point how such a simple, inexpensive thing could make such a difference in someone's life. We had him skate around a parking lot for a few minutes to show our little boy "how it was done" (he had developed a great affection for the skateboard during the few days it was in our house - he called it a "bo-bo") - and he got winded just from a few minutes of skating.
I know that going forward he will spend a lot of his free time on the skateboard, which will allow him to lose weight, get in better shape, and probably improve his mental state.

I just realized how long this post was. If you're still reading, I sure hope you enjoyed it. ;-)