Gym Hamster

Firstly I would like to thank Catherine for the term gym hamster, it was too good not use!

I joined a gym the other day and again have begun to experience a lot of differences and similarities from my days as a gym bunny in the UK.
For a start I didn’t really get much of a hard sell from Grégory, who seemed more interested in showing off his English and conducted a tour of the gym in Franglais. As we strolled around the gym and a wave of the left hand showed me the cardio area and a wave of the right hand showed me where the weight machines could be found and a pointed finger showed me where the changing rooms were. We wondered upstairs to the free weight area and he decided that it was the men’s area, so we wondered back down again. In my previous incarnation I would have got angry with this, but as I probably won’t frequent the free weight area, I couldn’t be bothered to get uptight.
When I joined a gym in the UK I was shown every area in detail, the state of artness of the machines was explained in great detail, the qualifications of the gym personnel was highlighted, the cleanliness of the changing areas emphasised in an amazing sales pitch.

So anyway, I signed up, paid by writing a series of cheques (no direct debits here, thank you!) and started to turn up for some classes.
I was intrigued to see how these would compare and again similarities and differences. Les Mills has taken over the world so the ‘Body’ classes are here too. I went to body pump, curious to know what the French called a dead row and was disappointed to find out that I couldn’t hear. The male instructors have the music turned up high and microphone turned low, so I was watching to follow along. Eventually (after a class with a female instructor) I find out it just ‘Tirez’ – pull. So disappointed.
In one class I had zoned out and was mortified to realise that the instructor had been trying to talk to me and was eventually saying ‘You do speak English, don’t you?’ Apparently my knees were too far apart.
The one big difference with these classes is that in the UK the instructors tend to mix and match the music from older routines, here they stick strictly to the entire latest release. Possibly the French obeying the instructions to the letter, whereas the UK instructors think to themselves that Les himself is unlikely to walk in and they have a bit of freedom.

I also seem to be the only person who goes into the steam room, but that suits me fine and the only major criticism is that the sauna seems a bit on the warm side rather than hot side. It is a small gym and the staff are friendly and do seem to know all the members and hopefully, over the next few weeks I’ll eventually be able to call myself a gym bunny again!