So for about the 876th time this year, I started up my exercise regiment again this week. It’s been kind of rough because my elliptical is currently broken (at $400, apparently you get what you pay for…) and most nights I just don’t have the energy or time to go down to the gym after I get home from work. Plus, I’ve started working longer hours again, so time is a luxury that I just don’t have, but as my doctor said – your health isn’t exactly the thing you want to slack on.
Anyways, today was my 2nd trip down to use the treadmill and luckily for me (ha!), I got to re-live a fond memory that I have from my last home – that of trying to exercise while the neighbor’s kids are playing in the gym. Fortunately this time I had music to tune them out once I got going, but it just blows my mind that these parents can’t have a little more respect for the people who live around them. When I showed up, someone was running on the treadmill, so I began to decide which other machine I’d use instead. But after a few minutes of sitting there half lost in thought, I realized that the girl wasn’t actually “using” the treadmill – instead, her and her friend would jump on and run as fast as they could (the motor wasn’t running), then hop off to watch the thing spin. Finally I stood up and asked if they were actually exercising on it, they said no and walked away. Nonetheless, they continued to horse around on the rest of the equipment for a good half an hour – completely unsupervised. When they left, the bowflex machine was broken, there were weights and whatnot all over the place, and although I couldn’t tell with the weight machine, it wouldn’t surprise me if something was wrong with that, too.
I have two issues here. Ok, well three…
- Why can’t I exercise in peace and quiet? People wouldn’t bring their kids to a membership-based gym while they exercised, and even if they did, it’d have been a different situation if there was a parent or at least someone actually using the equipment there. But the gym is not filled with toys – point blank, the kids shouldn’t be there.
- Who pays for what they broke? We all will, or at least we would if our HOA was on top of things, but in the meantime we’ll all just have to go without because someone didn’t feel the need to supervise their kids. Keep in mind, this is the same gym that had both TVs and one of the treadmills stolen several months ago … by someone who had a key … and now we just don’t have TVs in the gym anymore.
- What happens if somebody gets hurt? Exercise equipment can be dangerous for somebody who is trying to use it correctly, much less a kids who’s just horsing around. When I hear weights clanging and machines bouncing back and forth, I’m just waiting to hear someone start screaming. And even then, do I intervene and try to help them? If their parents don’t care enough to watch their kids, who’s to say they won’t try to sue me or something if I try to administer first aid?
It’s sad because this is really the best resource that I have available right now – this kind of nonsense really isn’t necessary. I don’t have the money to buy better machines for at home, and although I could get the $25 gym membership and go someplace else, right now I can throw on my exercise clothes and be on the treadmill in ten minutes. I like being that close to home … now if only I had better neighbors…
Tomorrow’s bout will probably be later in the evening, so we’ll see if I have another “audience” then. 🙁