Fitness Story

 At least twice a week, I go and 'hang-out' at a German fitness center.  It is a bit different from Air Force or Army gyms of my 'glory years'.  So there's five things I've come to notice:

1.  With this place, you have to make a hour-by-hour reservation (the 'boss' won't allow more than 25 people in at one time.  So you tend to notice the 4 PM slot is always about fifteen folks there, and the majority are teenies (15 to 20 years old).  

If you go at 9 AM (my favorite time)....it's five or six people and everyone is over the age of sixty.  

For the teenies, this is a social thing.....buff-up, BS while pumping iron, soccer chatter, showing funny videos while working out.  For the retirees, it's no social stuff....just work out and get the hell out of the place at completion.

2.  German guys spend almost nothing on work-out clothing.  It's not even unusual to see a guy with black socks on, a cheap 15 Euro pair of shorts, and a plain white t-shirt.

German women?  They tend to spend big bucks on some fitness outfit that looks 80 to 100 Euro.  With them, looks matter while working out.  Guys....less so.  

3.  A entire room is built-up and utilized for stretching.  I never see more than one person in the room (size of a normal apartment), and question the necessity of stretching.

4.  It amazes me the number of German teenie females and 20s females lifting free-weights and heavily indulging in muscle building.  

5.  We have this one 'customer' who walks around and wants to offer advice on fitness....while the studio 'boss/crew stand there and shake their head over 90-percent of his advice.  

I'm guessing he reads fitness magazines and he thinks that he is an expert off of this.  

Finally, I will say this.....in the youth years (military time),  I just did X, Y and Z for fitness.  I could have written a single index card (3 x 5) with what I'd typically do for fitness and it would have been valid for two decades.  Maybe times changed, but if you asked these people at the studio.....they probably have a dozen index cards of fitness habits/exercises, and for some of them....it's like the 'gospel of Luke'.