Marquez Canery

February 7, 2010
English 102
Lay of the land

The Place to be

Every time I enter the gym, I get excited because I know if I work hard then I will be

getting results soon. I feel like when I’m in the gym, everyone should be here for the same

reason. For me, the gym is a place where I can go and it’s like everything else that is happening

in the world just stops. First thing I do when I get into the gym is give my card to the employees

so they can sign me in, then I put my book bag and extra sneakers in a cubbie near the door.

I picked a project site that is very important to me and is a part of my weekly schedule

from day to day. The Bridgewater State Campus Gym is the only place I go on campus to

workout. But at the same time as I’m working out, there are so many things that I’ve never

noticed because I never took the time to look. I feel like I’m going to find out so much more

about students here at this school by just watching how some of them behave in the gym. I

believe the way people act in the gym reflects on how they behave throughout their daily life.

It’s a early Saturday mourning and when I enter the gym, I’m surprised to see a whole

bunch of people there. Saturday mourning’s are usually the days when the gym isn’t packed, but

for some reason it was packed today. It was kind of weird because today the majority of people

that are in the gym were Asians. First place I went was to the left of the gym towards the

treadmills because I knew I could observe a lot of people from there. When I go onto the

treadmill, I started with a light walk around 3mph.

 First thing I noticed was the girl next to me. She was really struggling to keep a

consistent pace on the treadmill. She was a “bigger” girl and observing her I kind of started to

feel bad for her. She would start with a walk then try to speed up, but everything she sped up, she

would have to slow it down right away because it seemed like she was going to fall backwards

off the treadmill. Every time she would slow down, I could see her get mad at herself and she

would let out small curse words to express her frustration. I don’t think I did a good job at being

discreet that I was observing her, because one time she saw me then right after she saw me, she

got off of the treadmill and headed the a bike that was very far away from me.

After that I moved over to weight lifting area. I started to pretend that I was stretching

just so that I could observe people. First thing I observed was a beautiful girl wearing some tight

spandex suit and she was working on her chest. She was doing dumbbell chest presses, but the

thing that I didn’t understand about her was that she was doing different sets on all the benches,

so Im guessing she was trying to show herself off or she couldn’t find a comfortable spot. After

she was done on her 3rd bench she walked over to get some water and literally every guy that was

there, stared at her as she walked away. (Including me but that was only because she was part of

my project )

Then I started lifting because I didn’t want to seem like a creep. While I was lifting, I

started to get a cramp in my lower back. I had to sit down for a few but the pain still didn’t go

away so I walked over to the area where people do sit ups and push ups to try to get good stretch

on. This is he area where most if the girls hang out because they want to get the summer body so

they do their sit ups and their abs workouts. I’m not going to lie, I was pretty distracted when I

sat down in that area, but hey funny thing was that all the girls looked really focused and

determined. They were making all types of noises and were sweating heavily. This really
changed my perspective that most girls come to the gym to get guys because these girls were

really there to get in shape.

I really couldn’t completely get the cramp out of my back so I decided to go on the bikes,

but I didn’t want to make the girl from the treadmill uncomfortable so I went to the opposite

side. At first I didn’t really see anything that was worthwhile until this big diesel black guy

walked into the gym. This guy had a shirt that was cut off to it basically looked like he was

wearing a scarf. I had to go back into the weight lifting area so that I could observe him because

he went to the back of the gym where they have the bars to do squats and inverted chest press.

This guy was really strong because he squatting about 300 pounds which isn’t easy for any

regular guy. But the thing I noticed about him was that he was really focused and was barely

looking around. He also was very into his music and I could tell that it really got him pumped up

for his workout.

Just like the guys that try to get all the attention in the gym, there are also females that try

to do the same exact thing. They come to the gym in the tightest clothes they can find and make

sure that you can tell that they have a nice body. I don’t completely understand the point of G-

strings, but I don’t think those would feel the “most” comfortable while you’re sweating your

butt off in the gym but they seem to manage with ease. There was a Girl that wore baby blue

spandex with a red G- String so it made it obvious for people that weren’t even checking her out.

There’s also the people in the gym that you can tell want to get in shape, but have no clue

what they are doing. These are the people that use every single machine in the gym and watch

what other people do, so they can imitate them after they are done. I’m not going to lie, I was
once one of those people and I’m glad I did it. If I never “stalked” people when I first started

going to the gym, I wouldn’t have the routine that I do now. But I got lucky because the person I

was watching noticed that I was looking and let me join them in their workout.

I don’t mean to insult anyone, but there are people in the gym that are there just to get

their self-esteem up without actually doing anything in the gym. For example, I saw a really big

guy that was basically just walking around the gym. And when he would get on the treadmill, he

would just walk and not even try to challenge himself at all. Now I don’t really know the reason

behind why he didn’t challenge himself so it’s not polite to assume things, but I feel like he was

there just to be there.

But on the contrast, there are people who know that they need to get in shape and won’t

let anything get in their way. They don’t care if they are the first person in and the last one out as

long as they get their workout. These are the people that are going the hardest on the treadmill

and people that you will see almost every time you go to the gym. These are the people that get

the most out of the gym because in the end; hard work pays off.

The type of person I am in the gym is a focused one. Even before I make my way into the

actual gym, I get my mind focused on what I’m about to do. The way I do this is by listening to

music that gets me excited to workout. And when I’m in the gym I don’t really look around a lot

because I know I’m the type of person that gets easily distracted. Sometimes I hold myself back

in the gym because I don’t like to look dumb just in case I get too tired and can’t lift as heavy

weights. But other than that, when I go to the gym, I come out satisfied.