Rush Hour

I arrive at the gym expecting full capacity considering it was seven o’clock in the evening. Surprisingly, it wasn't what I expected it to be. The parking lot seemed to have an average amount of cars. As I was walking through the front doors, I did not expect to see any routine people that I would normally see during the day. I was wrong, to my surprise I noticed two women and one man that I would normally see at three o'clock.


I checked in with Maria, a worker whom I've only seen a couple of times, probably because her shift and my gym time are at different hours. She seemed busy restocking the shelves behind the desk, putting towels and water bottles back onto each self. She greets me as I walk away.


I decided not to go in the locker room today, mainly because I didn't bring my lock for my locker. But from what I can see from afar, about four women were in and out of the door while I was filling up my water bottle. I sat down at the bikes, where I casually have a view of the bars and ellipticals. I notice that not very many men use the ellipticals, you can usually find them on the treadmills. The ellipticals are extremely popular to the women, I notice as there are only about four open out of about twenty, and only two older men are towards the end of the row. There is a mixture of age groups, about forty percent seem to be under 30, the rest are older.


Looking towards the bars, three men and two girls take up the machines. The three men are each on their own, while the two young girls take turns on one machine assuming they know each other. The men tend to stay stationed longer than the women, even beating out the two girls. They are also obviously using more weight. I notice that even though they use more weight, their repetitions tend to be shorter. Whereas the women, are using less weight but do about five more reps than the boys. I assume thats why the guys stay there longer, to do more rounds with less reps.


Moving on, I decide to sit in the arm section of the gym. I see two young women taking turns on one machine, making small talk while they work out. The four sided machines hold about 2-3 people on each one today, all men. They all seemed to be in the age range of about 20-30 years old. All seem to keep to themselves, one man resting on the bench looking at his phone. The others glance around the room, Mario, who is closest to the TV rests while looking at the television, but seems too distracted to pay attention to the show. He continues to look at the home renovation TV show with no sound, then eventually sit back down at his bench.


Two men bump into each other while grabbing handles for the machines. They both laugh and introduce themselves and shake hands. I was actually quite surprised, because normally people would just apologize then continue with whatever they were doing. So, interaction actually does happen in the gym!