The Secret Life of a Gym Rat

According to UrbanDictionary.com, a gym rat is:
One who spends entirely too much time partaking in muscle building, strength training, cardiovascular, or aerobic activity. Specifically, one who does so at a health club or gym.

Have you ever seen a gym rat in action? For years I hated the gym because of these creatures. All the grunting, staring at themselves in the mirror, roaming around aimlessly with a swagger, not to mention their perfectly tanned bodies make me want to puke. You may not know that I dated a gym rat for a couple of years in my early twenties. He eventually joined the staff of a gym as a trainer - the ultimate gym rat promotion. Not only can they workout for hours, they're actually required to be in the gym all day.

For the last eight months I've been working out five days a week. When the alarm goes off before 6am, I often want to turn it off and stay in bed, but once I'm on my feet I'm ready to get moving. The workouts consist of 30-minutes of cardio and twice a week I add about 15-20 minutes of strength training [my non-gym rat way of saying 'weights']. I've never wanted to be called a gym rat, but as the weeks go by, there are a few things that have made me question my status. Weight training gloves, an iPod armband, a gym bag with the essentials to get ready for work, I often get ready at the gym on Saturdays so that I can get on with my day without going home first, and various other details. The real indicator, though, is that I recognize & have been getting to know a number of the other 'regulars.'

I'm now one of the people who says hello to a few different people at the gym each morning. I look like a regular and act like a regular... I'm a gym regular. Am I gym rat?

Getting to know some of the other women was intentional. I see the same 10 faces at least four days a week, and I decided instead of just noticing each other, we should know each other. I started introducing myself to them in the locker room while we dried our hair side by side. So far, I've gotten to know Cory, Ashley, Heather, & Lindsey.

Cory & her partner have a 10 year old daughter in local schools. She's a physical therapist that sees clients in their homes. Every summer they take a trip to the Cape for a week or two.

Ashley's boyfriend lives near this gym location, so she often works out there if she spends the night at his place. She is a dance teacher at a dance school nearby, and seems young and very sweet.

Heather hasn't been there in a couple of weeks, but that could be because she commutes from Salem, MA for work and has to leave at 5am to get to the gym for her pre-work workout.

Lindsey is the newest of my gym friends. She's 25 and living at home while taking a leave from law school (2 years completed) because her Mom has been sick on & off most of her life. Her boyfriend of three years recently broke up with her, so she's back in the gym & spending time with her girlfriends on the weekends. She has made an effort many mornings to have real conversations with me and we've only known each other's names for a week & a half. Oh and she thought I was 22. :)

There are at least three or four other regulars who get ready alongside me on various mornings and I hope to eventually be able to greet by name, but for now I'm thankful for the small bonds being formed. I've had some interesting short conversations with these women and hope for more soon.

So, I may workout five days a week, I may have specific workout music mixes on my iPod, I may, in fact, be morphing into a gym rat, but I challenge that UrbanDictionary definition and declare that I will not go down without a fight. By God's grace, I will use my gym attendance for good and not simply to perpetuate my self obsession. I will be open & friendly to those I meet there and look for opportunities to invest in others for their own good and not for the advancement of my own kingdom, but for God's kingdom. I will -again, by God's power- love these other gym rats, gym rats in denial, and gym rat wanna-bes to the best of my ability.

While I'm doing that, though, I thought it might be fun to start another series to share some of the interesting and hilarious things I encounter at the gym. I am there a lot, after all!