Modern gyms aren’t really known for being social hubs.
Apart from the lone personal trainer and the couple of gym bros at the back pumping out partial reps and complaining about how sore they constantly are, no one talks. The music, a mix of early 2000’s pop songs that everyone’s since forgotten about, plays in the background. But no
one listens anyway, locked into their headphones instead.
Between sets, trainees habitually hunch over their phones, scrolling their instagram feeds. They alternate between this and sets of bench press for an hour before calling it a day.
No one makes eye contact, and it is only ever acknowledged that there are other human beings co-habitating the space when someone gets in the way of another’s mirror, or the set of dumbbells needed are being used.
And I get it. Some days I just want to rip in and get my session done as quickly as possible. I’ll put on an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience and sequester myself away to a quiet corner to get after my workout.
But so accepted has this anti-social culture become that starting up a simple conversation in the gym feels awkward and misplaced. This is a real problem.
Some of my most profound conversations have happened within the four walls of a gym. Some of the best people I have met have been fellow trainees. They are people like you, and like me who share similar values around fitness.
I’m not advocating for full blown symposiums and philosophical discourses that routinely took place in gymnasia of Ancient Greece. Not yet anyway…
I am saying however, that it shouldn’t be weird to start up a conversation with your fellow gym-goers; to have a laugh between sets or to share some hard earned lessons learned from lifting weights.
And because human connection is just as important to one’s overall health as physical training in the gym is.
This article was originally published in the October Edition of The Sydney Observer‘s Health and Longevity Section of the Magazine (https://online.fliphtml5.com/wtpec/zyvo/#p=1)
CHANGE IS THE POINT 