“Gym Sins”

I’m listening to NPR’s Talk of the Nation right now and find myself laughing — and cringing — as people call-in to share their gym pet-peeves and horror stories. The guest is Tina Peng, author of Newsweek’s “Gym Sins,” in which “fitness club memberships dish about their members’ most obnoxious habits.” Among my favorite gym sins:

• A woman who was caught toasting bread and melting cheese for a grilled cheese sandwich in a sauna. She claimed she had done this dozens of times and didn’t understand why cooking — in the gym’s sauna! — would be offensive;

• The two guys who recently joined a gym and decided to weigh themselves. Naked. The only problem? The scale was outside the locker room and located in the public hallway; and

• The people who stick hairdryers in their dirty, sweaty shoes to dry their sneakers, and those that use hairdryers to, um… well, dry their general mid-sections.

I think I’ll skip this afternoon’s gym workout in favor of a run around the park.

Play, think…
J.R. Atwood

Filed under: Et cetera, People & Society, The Body, Health & Exercise , fitness club, grilled cheese, gym sins, hair dryer, naked, obnoxious habits, pet-peeves, talk of the nation