My dislike of the setup of the cardio equipment at the gym as it relates to my fear of yoga in high school.

A few weeks ago, I promised some posts on a few things. One being the title of this blog.

First a little history. For two months a year in high school, one of our gym units was yoga. We would go to our locker rooms and the boys would go to theirs. No matter how fast we girls tried to change we could never get out of the locker room before the boys. Which meant they crowed the back of the area in front of the TV. (Yeah, we watched yoga on the TV, neither of our old men gym teachers could do yoga.) We girls would come out and be forced to be in front of them. The yoga video would start and the boys would half-ass their way through the video and snicker at our bodies while we half-assed our way through. Because multiple gym classes were happening in the gym at the same time and our class was watching a movie, the teacher didn't spend much time watching our class...which meant the boys had ample time for snickering and staring. Really frustrating. But the boys were smart...they were never obvious enough for us to tell the teachers what was going on.

The Boy and I have started going to the gym every other morning during the week. (After about a month of this, I lost four pounds, slowly gained them back and then lost four pounds again...buh?) This is our third attempt in a year to make a real routine of going to the gym and sticking to it. I think what's making it work this time is that we are going early in the morning, before work and school. That way we can't come home tired and decide we don't want to go. I used to run on the treadmill but my overweightness and the shinsplints I've had since I was a kid made the treadmill unbearable for doing anything harder than walking on an steep incline. I have moved to the ellipitcal machines and have found a routine I like.

The cardio area that we exercise in has three long aisles. Up against the huge pane glass windows sit the treadmills. (This is where The Boy works out and where I used to work out which is why I haven't disliked the set up until now.) On the wall just above the pane glass windows there are six big TVs tuned to different channels. The treadmills have their own TVs attached to the machines but they can also watch the big TVs. There is an aisle walkway and then there is a line of ellipitcal machines and stair machines. These don't have tvs attached to them, but there is a little converter you can plug you headphones into to hear what is going on the six big TVs. (I just listen to WAMC, my public radio station back in MA, and watch the subtitles on the tvs if I'm intersted in what's on the screen.) After another aisle there is a line of bike machines, the ones you sit back in, not the spinning bikes and a rowing machine.

The other morning, looking and feeling sweaty and gross after a half an hour on the ellipical, I stepped off being careful to keep my balance. (Getting off is like sking for a whole day and then trying to walk in your regular shoes.) Upon getting off I noticed two men on the bikes staring at me and the region just below my waist. Once I turned all the way around, their eyes settled on the upper middle part of my body. I felt like I was fourteen again in gym class.

After getting over the embarressment, I started to get steamed up. Why the hell are the bikes (where you sitting the lowest, closest to the ground) in the back?! If the bikes were up front, the people on them could see the big TVs even better because they sit further back. There are chairs with backs on them so no one could stare at their backside region. The ellipitcal machines can stay in the middle, they can still see the big TVs and can see out through the pane glass windows better because the bikes are lower and don't have tvs attached to the equipment. The treadmill line should be last because their view forward is a bit skewed by the TVs attached to their equipment and so would be less able to stare at other peoples' lower regions. They have the tallest machines and therefore would make more sense in the back anyway.

I would bet a large amount of money that a man put this set up together. Not necessarily because this particular set up makes it easy for men to stare at girls (that was probably subconsious) but because the set up makes absolutely no sense. After I explained to The Boy why I was so steamed all he could say was that if he was working out behind me, he would be staring at my lower region as well. He was not at all sympathetic to my cause, but he encouraged me to go talk to someone in charge if it really upset me.

Now I'm not much of a complainer, though I'm more likely to speak up now then when I was a freshman in high school, but I'm a little nervous they wouldn't take my complaint seriously and that they are going to think I'm some sort of crazy feminist. (I don't consider myself a feminist but that's a topic for another post.) The more I think about it, the more the set up is ridiculous.

Oh and Palin? I never liked you but still. WTF? I'm so confused.