Back to the Gym

The lockdown finally comes to an end. Those previously restricted premises are now accessible to everyone.

During the lockdown period, I learned to cook. Now I know how to make many different dishes and desserts, both Western and Eastern. I studied coffee with multiple brewing methods. Now I know how to make most of the coffee and espresso-based drinks offered by coffee shops and cafes. I learned self-haircut. Now I am happy with cutting my hair. I like to try different hairstyles and help my brother do haircuts too.

I still want the freedom to choose to eat outside. But with multiple skill sets built during the lockdown period, I don’t obsess about being unable to get into restaurants, cafes and hair salons. However, among all the restricted activities, I found one thing that is impossible for me to fully substitute by doing from home – workouts.

4 years ago, my girlfriend brought me to the gym. Since then, I have been going to the gym. This year, I went there 4 to 5 times per week. Most of the time, excluding the total lockdown, I went to the government gyms. I also tried the residential clubhouse gym before.

During the lockdown period, I couldn’t enter the gym. I bought a mat, a set of bands and dumbbells. I tried to find ways to fully utilise these pieces of equipment. Although there are limitations and inadequate equipment in the government gym and even the residential clubhouse gym, working out in these gyms can still yield better than working out at home. The first problem is I don’t have the proper equipment at home. All I have are dumbbells and bands. I don’t have a bench, pull-up bar or cable machine. They are so expensive, not to mention they take up a lot of space. This limits my choice of workout types. The only workouts I can do are in standing. Most of the back workouts require equipment. The home workouts almost stopped my back development. The other two problems are more on the psychological side. The environment for workouts affects productivity. Let’s think about it. You eat, work on the tasks, slide the phone for social media and work out in the same living area. Does your brain recognise you are doing different things in the same living area? Dedicating locations for doing different things can enhance your productivity. In the gym, everyone (probably) knows they are here for workouts rather than eating or reading social media. This brings us to another problem – distraction.

There are too many distractions when working out at home. This happened to me several times – I didn’t turn off my work laptop before doing workouts since there was a running process. I kept watching the process status while doing a set of dumbbell push presses. When the process status changed, I stopped the workout, typed on my laptop for a few minutes, and then resumed the workout. Workout quality and efficiency suffer a lot due to distraction. No gains can be obtained with such a workout pattern. On the other hand, personal belongings are kept in the cabinet while you are working in the gym. You may still grab your phone, but the rest of the things you can do are the workouts.

Today, gyms are accessible to everyone. Instead of returning to the government gym, I bought a membership from a private gym. This gym offers a much higher fee than the one in my residential clubhouse, but it provides more advanced equipment. Its access control allows me to use the gym anytime. I don’t have to restrict myself to entering the gym on the hour. And the most important thing is now I can work out with my girlfriend again.