Gym Stats

Another fun by-product of gym note taking is I can now generate statistics! I know, I know, try to contain the excitement.

Since the 21st of August, 2006, I have numbered my workouts. I split the lift into 4 days you could call push, front legs, pull, back legs. So workouts are numbers as 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 2a, etc.

On the 27th of September 2009 I completed lift 145D. I don't record cardio, but I hit it at least once a week. Thus I can figure out the number of lifts based on notes and add 1 lift per week to cover cardio. Since I know the dates, I can figure out what percentage of days I worked out over a given year.

21 August 2006 to 30 March 2007: 68%

2 April 2007 to 1 October 2007: 70%

5 October 2007 to 11 October 2008: 65%

16 October 2008 to 27 September 2009: 62%

Conclusion: I don't like this trend!

Activity not recorded includes lawn mowing and 3 mile dog walks. Since there's plenty of walkers with potbellies and lots of dudes that have to wear a shirt while mowing the lawn as a courtesy to their neighbors, I don't count those as significant activity moving me towards my fitness goals. However, recent activities such as fatherhood and grad school have tempted me to lower the bar on what I call a workout. It's only a matter of time before workout 240c is recorded as, "walked to the far stall for the morning constitutional."

Gym Notes Roundup

Sometimes the gym serves me as a random thought generator. Since I carry a notebook with me, I sometimes write down said random thoughts. I actually write one phrase a day, and looking back on almost 3 years of gym notebooks reminds me that when lifting, I usually write gibberish.

However here's some that I feel like archiving here. These aren't the daily phrases, but the random thoughts I write in the back of the book. The extra fun for me is figuring out where I was in life when I wrote them

• Don't focus on the time you don't have, focus on the time you do have.
• It must be nice to get a new hair cut. I'm at the point in life where my next new hair cut is "bald".
• Good dog's name: Hurley
• The moment you realize that now matter what you do someone will be unhappy is a liberating one.
• Given the condition of Ballys, the fact that I don't go there and still pay dues should be deductible as charity.
• You don't have it figured out, and don't think you do, because it only hurts more when you realize you don't.
• Run with actual pumpkins!
• Sonic Boom!
• Gyms should have a book of the month club. First month: New Rules of Lifting
• You know you've hit the big time when you have 2 stair wells leading between the same 2 floors
• We've been gifted so many candy dishes that even Willy Wonka would find it excessive.
• There's people that see it in me, and people that don't. I don't wait to be led/managed/mentored by people that don't.
• Because I choose to
• People shouldn't complain that married people get special treatment for the same reason I shouldn't complain handicapped people get special parking.
• Maybe the point of sports talk is that it's so benign. Politics and religion get people fired up, but maybe sports don't matter just enough.
• A dog? I'm not sure if I'm ready to have something in the house she loves more than me
• Writing a letter feels so 1930s...like after I should go to war or something.

Yeah, good thing I wrote down those gems, eh?

Alas, PSC, I knew it

With the arrival of a letter I watched three years of blood, sweat, and tears comes to an end. Well, I never actually bled at the gym, and I might have cried once, but since then I've learned the right way to tie the weight harness around my waist.

Yes, Philly Sports Club in Cherry Hill, NJ will cease to exist on July 31st, 2009. At first, this news bummed me out. I've grown to love the gym for several reasons. One, it's clean. Two, it has great equipment in great condition that's optimal for the workouts I like to do. Three, it is terrifically located about half way between work and home. Four, they give out free towels which contributes greatly to number one, the cleanliness. Five, I can honestly say that in 3 years I never felt crowded, and the crowd that was there was pleasant and curteous. I think I asked to "work in" on a piece of equipment once, and even that caused the person using the equipment to scamper off thinking they had done something wrong.

Number five of the list always caused me concern. Is a gym profiting if the members aren't side-by-sweaty-side in the weight room? If we never enforce the "30 minutes when someone is waiting" rule on the Precor because no one ever needs to wait, then how can we remain solvent? Thus, when the letter arrived I assumed the root cause lied in lack of attendance.

Alas, if only that were true. As it turns out the lease expired on the space that PSC rented when the property changed hands to new owners. The new owners opted not to renew the space because they had a new and far more profitable endeavor in mind.

TEAR DOWN THE BUILDING A PUT UP A CVS.

That's right, my gym is going away so that another CVS can take it's place. If I search the store locator on the CVS website, the next closest CVS is one mile away. There's another one straight down King's Highway in Haddonfield. Factor in the Rite Aid's and Walgreens of the world and you can throw a stone in South Jersey and hit a place that will re-up your Lipitor.

You know what really grinds my gears America? That we need to see more preventive activity to stay healthy. Get exercising and you might not need that blood pressure medication. I see from their annual report in 2008 that $559 Million in CVS revenue comes from filled retail prescriptions. How many of those perscriptions would not be necessary if more Americans led a more active lifestyle. The way I see it CVS treats a symptom. Going to the gym addresses a root cause. Seeing a gym torn down to build a CVS is tragic. Especially when it's my gym.

It looks like I'll be back at Bally Total Fitness come August, an easy fit since I never cancelled my member. That caused me a great deal of anguish to type since most of the 5 points I made above are the exact opposite of your average Ballys condition.

Of course this aggravation all started with my initial question, "Why is PSC going away?" So the lesson learned kids is that ignorance is bliss. Have a great week!