Focus Group
Due to our lack of skill, my golfing buddy and I usually play a scramble.After each stroke, we both take our next swing from the preferred location of the better ball.I remember one hole when my friend blasted his drive almost 300 yards: his ball traveled 150 yards straight and then 150 yards right, landing deep in the woods. I launched my drive straight but sky-high, causing the ball to plug hard against the wall of a sand trap.Someone in our foursome, unable to contain his schadenfreude, yelled out, “And that’s your preferred drive!”
Golf is a sport that requires focus and concentration, just like serious exercise. I’ve long believed that proper conditioning is not just a measure of fitness, but also an ability to block out a gym’s countless distractions. Frankly, I don’t see how you can achieve the former without the latter. Just take a look at a typical week of assaults on my senses.
Sight: On Monday, I pushed open the door of my gym and walked into a cave. The fellow at the front desk asked my forgiveness for the power outage, and invited me to work out anyway. Dude: no apology necessary – I’m just delighted the front door is unlocked. The rest is up to me.
Sound: How about working out while a fire alarm shrieks endlessly? (Same gym, same time.)
Smell: On Wednesday, my jump rope and I were met at the threshold of the aerobics room by the health club version of tear gas: a repairman was applying industrial lubricant to a dozen stationary bikes. I counted on my clean-running liver to process the toxic fumes at the same rate I inhaled them.
Touch: On Friday, the gym I used has its free weight area built on some kind of plywood platform. When I perform heavy squats, I can feel the floor sag under the weight of each rep.
Now I know what you’re thinking: The distractions at the beginning of the week were just a coincidence, but an unstable floor is a permanent feature. Shouldn’t a weak base be motivation enough to go find a new club?
Actually, this facility is my preferred gym.
My last expedition to the gym (in my building, so it has no attendant or staff) was graced with the presence of children. I’m sure I should have felt somehow bless or pleased, like I was in some Judy Garland movie, but alas, the screaming and ceaseless staring just seemed to spoiled all that. I had to intervene after 10 minutes of channel flicking combined with a DB rolling contest, I just couldn’t take it, my senses were assaulted, beaten and stupendously bruised. At least the swiss ball got some use that day… a much better vocation for its presence in my gym I thought.
wow you had a busy week at the gym, most people don’t even goto the gym which is really sad.