Are Gyms Sociable? (Day 22)

Gym - 40 minutes, equipment various

In a corner of the gym is an area of free weights where men with big muscles tend to congregate. A lot of the time it is very sociable as a lot of them know each other and take turns at exercises, to both encourage and compete. I am always impressed with this, as I am when I come across any group of people who share an interest - always there is an exchange of information as people want to find out more, develop their practice, and pass on what they have learnt. It’s an informal, bottom-up model of development, where people egg each other on to do more but although there is no one with a badge saying ‘coach’.  Some people are listened to more than others but that’s just the way it as some people might know more or like talking more (not the same thing). However there is no hierarchy aside from a recognition of who is the strongest or best trainer

In the rest of the gym there are personal trainers, working with their clients: encouraging them, showing them how to use particular pieces of equipment. This is a different relationship where part of the motivation is outsourced and the trainer has to both decide on appropriate exercises and make sure the person does them.  Then there are friends (two or three) who come to the gym together and support each other. They might chat more, and  work less than the other two groups but they to keep themselves going, keep themselves coming back.

Then of course there is the group that includes me, people in a world of their own. We are probably in the majority. 

Although I am in my own world I like to look around at everyone else and try to work out what they are trying to achieve (apart from a generalised desire to get fitter) but it is difficult to tell what they are thinking. Most of them have glassy eyes and are looking inwards. I then try to work out if gyms are happy places or not.

Within Boundaries (Day 8)

Gym: 45 minutes, exercises - various

Not a running day, instead I was down in the gym for some strengthening (or accurately limiting loss of strength). 

Although some people’s Janathon challenge is to run everyday, for me that would not be wise. It would be doing much too much, all of a rush, after a less active period. It would invite injury.

I am fully convinced that most running injuries are caused by training errors, the foremost of which is doing too much when the body is not ready. It’s understandable when we have schedules and it is initially possible to overrule any subversive messages the body might send. We also have our pride -weak spots, well how could we have any? We  laugh in the face of weakness. But, and this is a big but, it is no good - we are bounded by our weakest link and cannot put too much pressure on it. We cannot, for example, be in the best shape of our life and have a tinsy winsy little problem with our knee that stops us running. 

Listening to your body is a wide ranging exercise that involves being realistic. This can be hard because in our heart of hearts we all dream of being better than we actually are (well I know I do anyway).  But we have to be clear eyed.

With that in mind, my plan for this month is not to try for any great mileage but build up overall strength. Today was upper body and core.

Janathon 2013 day 25 - Musonius on gender equality

Gym - run (treadmill) 6km, 30m, weights - 20m

I am going to start with an observation so blindingly obvious it hardly seems worth making: in the gym today there were as many women as men, and this is usually the case. How non-shocking is that? It is something I expect and if it were otherwise I think I would be a little startled. However outside this space there are definite divisions. Most classes are dominated by women: bodypump, boxercise, power hoops, dance aerobics, etc and, of course, yoga and pilates. Circuit training, martial arts, strength, and competitive games like 5 a side and squash are much more male. Overall there seems to be some difference in the types of exercise done by men and women. But in the gym we are side by side and the fact that it is unremarkable is something of a triumph.

Think of running. It is one of the sports where there are very low barriers to participation and there is an equality of participation - just look at the field of any road race. But  this equality is comparatively recent - in other words in my life time (and that I find shocking). For example women were not allowed to enter the Boston marathon until 1972 and before the 1980s there were no women’s distance in the Olympics. Imagine only thirty years ago there were dozy old men administrators who would argue that 1500 metres was the maximum competitive distance suitable for a woman!

But the question I hear you all asking is how did the Stoics stack-up in their attitude to gender equality? And I am pleased to tell you pretty well. Remember this is more than 2,000 years ago but this is what Musonius Rufus had to say

“If then, men and women are born with the same virtues, the same type of training and education must be appropriate for both. For with every animal and plant, proper care must be given to it to produce the excellence appropriate to it. Isn’t it true that, if it were necessary for a man and woman to be able to play the flute for a living, we should give them both exactly the same thorough training in flute playing. Well then, if it is necessary for both to be proficient in human virtue, that is for both to be able to have understanding, self-control, courage, and justice, why don’t we teach them both the art by which human beings become good? Yes that is the only acceptable option... 

For all human tasks, I am inclined to believe, are a shared obligation and are the same for men and women - and none is necessarily meant for either one exclusively ”

How many centuries did it take for that to be accepted as obviously true? You know, the more Stoic writings I read the more modern they seem.

Janathon 2013 Day 19 - Action by action

Run (treadmill) - 4.1km, time - 20m, Weights 20m

If I hadn’t already planned most of my January exercise to be in the gym, today I would have been here. Snow fell yesterday  and as the temperature has not since risen above zero it remains on most pavements as a slippery mess. I’m sure some hardy souls will be out there showing they can take mucky conditions in their stride, proving that nothing can stop a run if you are possessed of superior determination.

To all such people - I salute you. But I am not one of you. If conditions outside are adverse (i.e. majorly unpleasant not just a bit meh) I prefer being inside. It is after all one of the reasons gyms were invented.

Today a lot of people thought the same and the place was packed (though this might also have something to do with it being January: the month of resolutions). Sometimes I had to wait for a machine but I felt quite relaxed as it gave me a chance to look around and watch all the other people with their different routines and aims: some working on their strength, some on flexibility and some on just trying to get going. The thing is that we were all trying, and I liked that. Today everybody in the room was in earnest. I looked around out of curiosity but also on the chance of seeing something I could copy. Not today  though.... but I did see something extraordinary. A lady on a treadmill had taken off both her trainers and was balancing on one of them i.e her rear foot was placed across it, whilst the other leg was stretched out in front, not touching the ground. She slowly moved it to increase or relax the stretch, whilst squatting on the rear leg and then lifting up. It was controlled and wonderfully balanced and looked difficult. I have no idea what she was really doing or why she was doing it on a treadmill.

It is one of the fascinating things about being somewhere like a gym. We all share a common high level objective i.e. to get fitter but the reasons for this fitness, and the uses we want to put it to, vary. There are common machines but that are used in slightly different ways (according to those objectives), and everybody is going at their own pace (nevermind different speeds on the treadmill, weight and crunches are pushed at vastly different rates). Everything is similar but not the same. There are very few clues as to what anybody else is thinking and there is limited interaction. It is all perfectly civil, people smile at each other when their paths cross, and there are some small groups of people working out together, but for the most part the room holds individuals working on their own.

When I looked around I thought it a very stoical space - everybody was working on just what they could control and not worrying about anything else or anybody else's opinion.

One of the core aspects of stoical thinking is the division between things you can control and things you can’t. You must do your best with what you can control (in other words attempt to act virtuously), whereas for the things you can’t - well those things must take their course.

You have to assemble your life yourself - action by action. And be satisfied if each one attains its goal, as far as it can. No one can keep that from happening

• But there are external obstacles ...

Not to behaving with justice, self-control, and good sense.

• Well but perhaps to some more concrete actions

But if you accept the obstacles and work with what’s given, an alternative will present its self - another piece of what you are trying to assemble. Action by action.(Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book VIII 32)

This is what you see in the gym: action by action.

Janathon 2013 Day 18 - Noise

Running (on treadmill - 8.2km time - 42m, Weights & stretches - 40m. The weather outside was snowy.

Gyms are noisy places. Not only is there the thump of feet on the treadmills (some people are very heavy runners) there is the sound of the motors, then there is the background sound of some sort of music. If the body builders are in there are grunts, and if someone is using the punchbag there is a slapping sound. I cut out much of this by listening to my own music and concentrate on what I have to do. As I look around I see that about half of us do the same.

Gyms were ever noisy:

“I cannot for the life of me see that quiet is as necessary to a person who has shut himself away to do some studying as it is usually thought to be. Picture me with a babel of noise going on all about me, staying right over a public bath-house. Now imagine to yourself all manner of sounds that can get you hating your ears. When the strenuous types are doing their exercises, swinging weight laden hands about, I hear grunting as they toil away - or go through the motions of toiling away - at them, and the hissings and strident gasps every time they expel their pent up breath. When my attention turns to a less active fellow who is contenting himself with an ordinary, inexpensive massage, I hear the smack of the hand pummelling his shoulders, the sound varying according as it comes down flat or cupped. But if on top of this  some ball player comes along shouting the score, one is done for! ...But by now I have so steeled myself against all these things that I can put up with even the coxswains strident tones as he gives the oarsmen the rhythm. For I force my mind to become self absorbed and not let outside things distract it. There can be absolute bedlam without so long as there is no commotion within, so long as fear and desire are not at loggerheads, so long as meanness and extravagance are not at odds and harassing each other. For what is the good of having silence throughout the neighbourhood if one’s emotions are in turmoil.” (Seneca, Letters, LVI)

Seneca had his self discipline. I have an IPod. TA less virtuous method but times change. 

Juneathon 2012 Day 24 & 25 - Gym vs Walk

Juneathon 2012 Day 24 & 25 - Gym vs Walk

Gym - 30min; Walk - 5.75 miles, Time - 1hr 25min

Sunday was another case of getting the exercise done early. As the gym only opened at 8:00 I could only manage 30 minutes before I had to go out. Although it felt virtuous, as if the day had got off to a good start, there is not a lot more to say. In terms of personal interaction gyms are really quite dull. I enjoy the feeling of working my muscles and being able to see improvement and I think it is very important to incorporate resistance work in my routine but there is not a lot to observe and then write about. Ho hum! 

The walk was completely different. It was not exercise for its own sake but as transport - a substitute for taking the bus or the car. I had to get to Berkhamsted and so allowed myself the extra time (and then took the bus home). I averaged less than 15min a mile and walked with some vigour so it felt like proper exercise (unlike many of may strolls) but at the same time I could look around and enjoy the richness of the vegetation, the depth of the greens, and the sounds of the birds. 

The gym did a job and I felt happy both going there and then enjoying the way muscles feel after exertion. However the walk felt like pleasure and gave me a much greater sense of contentment. 

P.S. The picture is from the walk. I passed a village pond and took a fancy to the patterns of reeds and reflections of the sky.

Still at the Gym

It is strange not to be running outside and restricting myself to maintenance runs on the treadmill. It seems more like work i.e. having the objective and carrying out a plan in a prescribed manner rather than an act of enjoyment (gyms are, after all, fitness factories). But it is not all joyless:

Any exercise makes me feel better. If I don’t do something to raise my heart rate and pump blood around the body, my mind tends to get sluggish and muzzy.
There is satisfaction to be had from the quantification of effort – i.e. know you are maintaining a steady, known speed for set amount of time. (When I run outside my speed tends to go up and down quite a bit).

It is easy to gradually vary the effort of each session, either speed or time, and set yourself little challenges – much more easily than outdoors.

However the major benefit is the result of a treadmill’s major disadvantage. It is dull and time passes more slowly so you have to work harder on strategies to keep yourself going. It is mental training, which I hope makes me stronger

The other good thing is that you can people watch. I have written before about people with disabilities determinedly trying to improve -they always make me feel humble. But there are also other people who make me think about what I am doing.

Perhaps because I am fairly stiff, I am unduly impressed by those who are flexible but watching them reminds me that even if I have no natural aptitude it is an area I ought to work at. I am convinced that most of the injuries I have had have been the result of stiffness in my calves and hamstring and they have always happened after I have neglected my stretches for a period. For some reason I am better able to discipline myself to stretch properly at the gym than at home.

So there are advantages to gym sessions but they do not give me a feeling of deep enjoyment. That comes from being outside where there is fresher air and a sense of freedom. There is no sense of freedom in a gym – perhaps that is another way in which they are a bit like work.

Disassociation: Music and Memorials

Because of the weather I have been using the gym and running on the treadmill. In some ways it is good training because it forces me to trundle along at a set pace without slacking, and with no chance of being diverted by cows, swans or boats. The downside is that there are no diversions like cows, swans or boats and the treadmill is dull. I can only survive for any time by listening to my ipod.

I still have no favourite running tracks and no idea whether one type of music or rhythm is better than any other. The only thing that matters is that it offers some sort of amusement as its job is disassociation i.e. to keep your mind occupied away from the effort of running. For example by all objective criteria Nico's 'Frozen Warnings' must be one of the most useless running tracks, just about one rung down from John Cage's 4'33": it is slow, dirge like, no strong rhythm, with little tonal variation in her voice. It is, as the title suggests bleak, but haunting and somehow appropriate for the weather and so I think about the weather. Also one of the strange things about Nico's life is that this glamorous figure, ex-model, German exile, part of the Andy Warhol entourage, singer on the first Velvet Underground album, spent her last years sharing a house in Manchester (or Salford to be more precise). I then think of Manchester, which is good because I like Manchester. My daughter is at university there and I think of her. So everything is good and the song did its job - it kept me occupied. Next time it might just sound like a dirge and be totally useless.

The gym is OK but it is important to get outdoors. I still don't want to run because although some of the paths are now clear others are still icy or slushy, so I have been out walking. Although it does not give me the same sense of satisfaction it allows more time for looking and even more disassociation.

I have run past the object in the photo countless times, known it was there, thought of it as just some ornate street lamp, but paid it no real attention. Yesterday I stopped to look. The first surprise was that it was built as a drinking fountain. The second was that it had an inscription saying that it erected in 1835 to commemorate 300 years since the printing of the first English Bible. How wonderful is that? How many memorials are there to the Coverdale Bible in this country? I don't know but I now know we in Hemel Hempstead have one of them

In the Gym

For the past week a dodgy ankle has stopped me running. Instead I have been cross-training in the gym.

I have previously mentioned my mixed feelings about gyms. The are strange mildly unsociable places where everyone is in their own bubble and there is little interaction. I am no different. I plug in my Ipod and just get on with it, but I do like to look around me. I always watch people on the treadmills and examine the variety of running styles, seeing who lands heavily (not always the heaviest runner), who is graceful, who is too tense, who is economical. Sometimes it is surprising who moves easily and sometimes I want to say something like 'your shoulders are too tense, relax your hands' but I don't, after all we are all in our bubbles and I am not sure how it would be received.

I know that people argue about whether there is such a thing as a correct style with some people insisting you should land on your forefoot, whilst others are equally adamant the the heel strike is the best way. I am equally convinced that it is a futile debate. People run in different ways because their bodies are aligned slightly differently. Yesterday, for example, I watched two people side by side. The man was a heel striker, the girl a forefoot striker but both were very fluid and easy in their style, both were relaxed, both were compact. In other words they both had good form even though the mechanics were different. The common feature was that they were both upright and did not overstride.

There is one man who amazes me. He runs intervals and pushes the speed so high he has to hang onto the bar and bend almost in double (if he didn't I am sure he would go flying off the back of the machine). His feet land with such an almighty thud the noise blots out the music I listen to. I cannot work out what he is trying to achieve, surely going too fast in such a contorted fashion cannot help you run properly

There are other people though who are inspiring. For example there is an Indian man (probably in his twenties) who is badly handicapped. He can barely control his legs to walk and can hardly speak yet he comes regularly, with his mother, to maintain, or even gain, some mobility. I don't know who I admire more, him for trying inspite of difficulties or her for her constant, and obviously loving, support. Her whole life must be dominated by the need to look after her son but you can see the pleasure in her eyes when he manages to walk a bit further or throw a ball a bit straighter. One of the members of staff is often there to help, introducing exercises to test him that little bit more, encourage him by gentle teasing, whilst his mother will follow close by to stop him falling.

When I see the three of them working in this way I know I can put my reservations about gyms to one side. They are places where good can be done

Photothon 12: Kodak town no more

This is yesterday's photothon. I went to the gym for a bit of strengthening and resistance training but I have no interest in presenting a photo of a weight machine. They are dull and cannot lift the spirits but I still use them once or twice a week. As you get older you have to work harder. on muscle-tone.

I have mixed feelings about gyms and, referring back to my last post, they are an example of the way you can split what you think and what you do to contain a degree of conflict. I do not like the way they are activity factories and institutionalise fitness. (It really annoys me when people conflate getting fit with going to the gym and when you hear people talking about them as the default solution to problems of lack of exercise and obesity. They are not, they might help,but getting out and about more, for longer periods of time is likely to have a much greater effect). But they are a convenient way of doing certain exercises and I use them for that..



Anyway along a bit from the gym is this.

It used to be the Kodak Building, which loomed tall over the entrance to Hemel Hempstead, guarding the Magic Roundabout. At one time Kodak was important to the town. It was their European marketing headquarters and there was a big film processing plant in the industrial area. Film processing, of course, has long gone and a few years ago they closed their offices, which are now being converted into flats.

So what you see is a skeleton that at some time in the future will have a shiny new skin. Gradually they have reduced the height, so it is not so out of scale with the rest of the town. It will be interesting to see what this development will look like, especially as the market for this type of accommodation has gone haywire.

I hope it turns out well and the project is not frozen. The entrance to any town is an important site and should not be marked by a skeleton.