Up Scale

In a prior post about gyms and membership fees, I wondered: Is the cost worth it for “the super high end place that … lets you grunt away in a spa-like environment?” Well, I don’t want to talk about the circumstances, but I found myself in just such a location today. You know the kind of place – where the actual gym serves as a loss leader for the club café. Is this really a better way to work out? You be the judge based on the top 10 most remarkable things I saw:

10.  A dealer’s Mercedes parked on front lawn with a sign on the windshield promising special offers for members.

9.  A membership requirement that includes an initiation fee, an administration fee and a triple digit monthly fee.

8.  An empty Perrier bottle left on the gym floor.

7.  Eco-friendly showers that try to create the sensation of a regular shower by spraying a combination of 50 percent air and 50 percent water. (It just takes you twice as long to get clean.)

6.  An indoor waterfall.

5.  A man near the aerobics rooms balancing on his head.

4.  A locker room that includes a Miami sauna and a Phoenix sauna (door on the left takes you into a wet steam, door on right is a traditional dry heat).

3.  Plush leather couches stationed outside the hair salon.

2.  Mobbed machines.

1.  Empty squat racks.