Wednesday Workout

It's Wednesday, around 3 o'clock in the afternoon as I drive to the gym. I pull up to the parking lot, I notice one familiar red car. Of course I do not know who the person is, but they seem to go to the gym around the same time consistently. I walk in, and Joe, a familiar worker takes my number down as I walk away. He and another worker are both looking down at the same clipboard, occupied by something on that paper.


As I walk to the locker room, I notice that it is common to make eye contact with other people. People see you walking by, they look at you and you make eye contact. Once the awkward eye contact has ended with about four to five people, I finally end up in the locker room.


I turn the corner, see only two older women with their heads in the lockers. One woman gathers her things, the other looks like she is sending a text message.


I walk over to the bikes, where there has been added about ten more due to the expansion. When I ride the bike, I usually see the men at the dumbbell section. Now that it has moved, I see two men and one woman all using the bars. The woman is at the very last bar, while the two men are on the opposite end next to each other. They all seem to keep to themselves.


As I continued with my workout, I sat down at an arm machine facing the doorway. People at a steady flow come in the doors, others leaving. I see two men walking in the door together, assuming they know each other. I realize that both of the young men know Joe, the worker at the front desk. One by one they give him a knuckle bump and talk to him while people pass them by. They all smile and laugh as they engage in conversation.


I move to another machine, facing the window that overlooks the street. The wire machines seem to be popular today. Each machine has four sides, and there is three people on each of the machines. The benches all face each other, so people are forced to face one another. On one machine, only two men engage in conversation. On the next, all three men keep to themselves; one looking up at the TV and the other two looking out the window.


The last machine is occupied by one woman and one man, sitting next to each other. The woman does about 12 pull downs and looks at her phone while she rests, I seems she comes to the gym often, noticing that she has nice form to her workout. The man however, looks like the bar is going to pull him up instead of the other way around. It seems that he is using well over 100 pounds, causing him to struggle while tries to pull down the bar. He is leaning back, feet unsteady trying to pull the weight. He can only do about eight to ten, then slams the weights down and starts to pace around the machine. Looks like he is trying to level up on his weights.


As I glance around the room, there is not much else going on. Given that there is much more room now, the gym is still at a steady pace as always.