The Dreaded Spandex...

Let me be the first to admit right here... I hate the gym.  I am so uncomfortable with all of the artificiality of it, the through and through synthetic feel of going to the gym.  Wearing spandex and sneakers to go into a place where you climb on machines designed to work specific sets of muscles, while drinking water from a plastic bottle, and being told how many calories you just worked off.  I even feel like I'm artificial when I go; I look around and see the gym regulars who are compact and muscular, zipping around on the treadmills at crazy speeds and pumping iron, and I feel like I need to act like I want to be like them.  I feel like they look at me and see a weak, spongey woman who needs to "tighten it up."  And I need to act like it doesn't bother me that I see that judgment in their eyes, that their image of me is reality and I'm there to fix myself.  It's the same feeling I get when I visit a church for the first time.  The, "Hello, I can tell you are smiling like that because you think I'm a sinner and I'm there to start on my road to spiritual recovery," feeling. 

We need exercise.  It is important to our health.  It's true, the most efficient way to burn X amount of calories and reach a target weight, but what about maintaining physical activity and cardiovascular health?  What about being out in the world?  The CDC says we need at least 30 minutes of physical activity per day.  Well, I say, if you're like me and you're not ready for the gym, why not save the money you would spend on a membership and spandex and fancy sneakers and vitamin water, and fill up a canteen and go for a brisk walk in the park with some friends?  Go outside, see some trees and bushes and happy children playing, and have a walk and talk.  Eventually, maybe jogging will enter the picture and someday, if you love the sensation, maybe even running.  My point is, maybe the machinery is getting to us.  With so much high-tech calibrated to the nth degree exercise equipment out there, maybe we are starting to try and live up to the machines.  I say we embrace our humanity and our place in the natural world.  Go on some nature walks, even if the closest thing to nature you have is a city park, and go in your natural habitat; a community.  Get in touch with the human element.