Much beefcakes about nothing

Like any self-respecting grad student who has to pay 200$ per semester as gym fees, I decided one fine day to go and visit the gym at the university. The first day, there was a whole feel-good factor about seeing so many instruments, such huge facilities, etc. The initial excitement prompted me to use every machine, try the various weights, and I also looked around for the shortcut ways to building a Dara Singh physique. It all felt really nice until I woke up the next morning aching all over my body and having trouble even while brushing my teeth. Hmmf... that was sort of a dampener to the enthusiasm, but I managed to cling on. However, assignments, midterm tests and the lack of company ensured that I left going to the gym midway. I've picked up the habit here again while I'm interning, but I don't know how long this will last.

The frustrating part, however, is not the kind of lacklustre routine I follow about going to the gym. The real jaw-dropping phenomenon is the kind of fitness and strength the other regulars have and usually put on display when they come to the gym. While novices like me struggle to pull up anything beyond 90-100 lbs (I practise with much less), people pull up the whole rack of weights (250 lbs) and keep doing that on the machine 30 times. There are a few who come with ripples of muscles on display, and lift up the 150-lb iron wheels as though they are made of cork. The worst part of these frustrations, of course, come from the girls. I noticed this one girl who ran about 8-10 miles on the treadmill the other day and then came off the machine as though she had just had a stroll in the park, smiling effortlessly. And don't even get me started on the kind of swimmers who practice in the university pools. One day, a lady came into the pool in the lane beside me and was adjusting her goggles. I dived in and went splash-splash-splash and then paused for a second. I saw her go underwater from the starting point. By the time I had adjusted and gone a little further splashing tons of water, she surfaced at the other end of the pool and took in a gulp of air, absolutely no water splashed inbetween at all! And then again when I somehow was midway into the pool, she had returned to the starting edge and was doing backflips to get back. I was so, totally, completely frustrated with my swimming that day, I registered for the intermediate swimmers training within a week.

Oh, talking of swimming and pools, I must mention the mother of all culture shocks that I had seen when I went into the men's locker room for the first time. Guys of all ages: undergrad freshmen to really aged grad students, were walking about stark naked among the semi and fully clothed junta. I almost felt a criminal guilt walking into the shower room with my shorts on... thankfully my eyes have got used to such sights by now. :P