Being a rather fat individual who often wants to go work out, I find it hard to go to the gym simply because of people laughing or pointing or whispering or whatever. THEREFORE, I propose having individual rooms in local YMCA's or gyms for self conscious people or for people who just like to be alone. This way, rather than buying an expensive home gym, you just sign up for a room for an hour or two, go work out, and then go home! The rooms would have a treadmill, free weights, and a weight bench for bench presses and such.-- HAK, Jul 20 2005 Just use this instead http://www.photospi...s/thumb/0430086.jpggym mask [sophocles, Jul 20 2005] Welcome to buffitude... http://www.margaritaville.com/For when you just don't give a damn... [RayfordSteele, Jul 21 2005] What I like about my gym is the number of portly older gentlemen, besides whom I am the picture of buffitude.-- DrCurry, Jul 20 2005 I like all the tail runnin' around.-- daseva, Jul 20 2005 What if someone hurt themselves with the bench press or something? It could be two hours before someone came to help them.
Being pinned by two hundred pounds on my neck doesn't sound like a good time.
But that's just me being pessemistic again.-- ilanbg, Jul 20 2005 hah, drbuffitude. what the hell does that mean?-- po, Jul 20 2005 If you're so worried, just wear a disguise. Then you'll feel freer.-- sophocles, Jul 20 2005 ilanbg, if you can lift 200 pounds on the bench press, chances are you wont be that self conscious-- HAK, Jul 20 2005 Nature selects by design those whom it would eliminate. Point: everyone looks fat and ugly in a swimming pool; therefore, swimming unsupervised is a bad idea.
Not a bad suggestion, I say, since I could rank the worst experiences I've had as: #1 in a hotel gym, #2 in a public gym, #3 in a private gym, #4 at my home gym. I can relate to this in like vein from my running experience, but in upside-down ranking: worst experiences with the fewest people around.-- reensure, Jul 21 2005 [HAK], I share your discomfort when it comes to working out around others so I invested in a home gym. I don't know what gym membership prices are like around your way but if you plan to stick to working out indefinitely and pick your stuff carefully, I'd say you could get your investment back within a couple of years. Look at it as the difference between renting and buying, cos that's effectively what it is. There are additional benefits too - no time/fuel spent going hither and thither, your choice of music all the time, freedom to wear a tutu and a fez to work out etc.-- DocBrown, Jul 21 2005 Surely a lot of men go to the gym mainly to look at the girls? [-]-- Minimal, Jul 21 2005 I like the idea of individual weight rooms, mainly because I hate waiting for a bench or a specific weight of dumbell. But could you imagine how much it would cost a gym (and therefore you) to pay for individual weight rooms? They'd have to charge like 30 bucks an hour just to make profit, and after 50 visits, you might as well have just broke down and bought your own stuff.-- estreet, Jul 21 2005 I'm with [ilanbg]: free weights = spotters, or else. Just work out at home. I'd rather work out at home and be able to talk to someone than work out all by myself in a sanitized box.-- elhigh, Jul 21 2005 Stay at home and think up exercises that you enjoy doing. Maybe dance, sing, and practice taking off the ballerina outfit and hiding it. I once bought a wooden sword and developed some interesting cat-scaring routines.
Off-topic: The "gym mask" link reminded me of the time a friend offered me a set of those Groucho glasses as a Halloween mask. I put them on instead of my regular glasses, to cover my brooding eyebrows, strong nose and manly moustache, and they didn't change my appearance a damn bit. They must have been broken or something.-- baconbrain, Jul 24 2005 [DrCurry] They're probably saying exactly the same about you somewhere else on the internet right now :-)-- hippo, Jul 24 2005 Solo Gym? I'm right there with you.
Home gyms: I like being able to try out new and different machines, and would hate to be stuck with one particular of them for years.
What's the calculation behind saying that this couldn't work financially?
You'd just build walls around each machine, and have some protocol for reserving one and respecting occupancy. People move around between stations. Help/spotters would be available on request.-- jutta, Jul 24 2005 //Solo Gym? I'm right there with you.//
but.. surely.-- neilp, Jul 25 2005 Am I wrong, or was it not Curry who did the "naked fat, bald men, Olympics, or somethng."
Shit, probably just another stupid nightmare...-- blissmiss, Jul 25 2005 How about just getting used to the fact that the other people are there to workout and exercise, rather than to gawk and laugh at you? Having recently been on the fat side of the scale, and still there really, I found that when they see you truly exercising they'll respect your effort and motivation. Failing that I'd suggest Soloflex/Bowflex/$FLEX.-- Noexit, Jul 25 2005 Hmm. I don't want this to sound the wrong way, but, maybe you're spending too much time at the gym worried about what other's are thinking, subsequently not working out and getting fatter, which thereby leads you to worry even more about others next time your at the gym. My point is, you have to start somewhere, and I think it's somewhere between not giving a damn, and really actually just maybe enjoying a little bit of sweat on your brow.-- daseva, Jul 25 2005 random, halfbakery