I went to a gymnasium a few times when my kids were young. They had swimming lessons at the local gym, so I accompanied them, at least until they entered the water. At that point, I wandered off to the bar to enjoy a couple of pints of Thatchers Gold cider. On the way to and from the bar, I passed numerous gym-goers on running machines, lifting weights and stretching. They were clearly healthier and fitter than I was but my God they all looked so miserable, certainly compared to how I felt as that first pint was being poured. Nowadays, gyms are more popular than ever.
There are 5607 gyms in the UK today, with 11.5 million people using them. That works out at a sixth of the adult population belonging to a gym and, according to this article, gen zers, whoever the fuck they are, prefer to hit the gym than hit the pub. I remain in that minority of five-sixths of the population that is not convinced.
Gym exercise has to be the most boring form of exercise possible, along with jogging, or running as joggers call it. Why? Because almost everyone I see in a gym never smiles and is listening to something via ear pods. This suggests to me that exercise, purely for the sake of fitness, is monumentally dull. Far better to listen to a podcast or some music to take one’s mind off it all.
Of course, that is not a bad thing in itself. Exercise is A Good Thing and even I do a reasonable amount of it, usually on a golf course or round my local park. The latter, rather like gym work, is interminably dull and I employ distractions, like the aforementioned podcasts and music, to help get me through it.
In a recent report, 83% of those polled “cited improving their physical strength and fitness and 76% said boosting their mental wellbeing, including tackling anxiety and depression.” I get that. Why else would you voluntarily put yourself through all that physical stress that come with going to a gym? As ever, and you won’t be surprised to learn, I take issue with the “mental wellbeing” aspect and I shall dwell on that for a moment.
Anyone who has clinical depression and anxiety will know that the idea of just going to the gym, or going out for a run, is not the cure-all it is suggested to be. Just take a look at the actual symptoms of depression and then tell me that it’s so easy for a depressed and anxious person to give their head a wobble, snap out of it and stop feeling sorry for themselves and join that gym. Despite being medicated, there are days, most days, when it is all I can do to leave the house to do anything. Now, this point is purely illustrative and not every nutcase like me is incapable of engaging in physical exercise. I’m just trying to make the point, yet again, that saying ‘EXERCISE IS GOOD FOR YOUR MENTAL HEALTH’ is just words if you’re so fucking ill in the first place to even consider the prospect. I’d say that if you are a little bit stressed and/or fed-up, exercise may just be that little bit easier to manage, that’s all.
When I was young, I was fit (in the physical condition department, I should add) and my exercise was playing loads of sport and walking everywhere. If they’d existed, I would not have required ear buds and a smart phone to make playing football less unbearable. I loved playing sport, even though I was shit at most of them, and being so shit probably meant I had to work harder and run more than my more gifted team mates.
The Guardian’s report, which replies almost entirely on statistics provided by the vested interests of the multibillion pound fitness industry (UKActive is a not for profit company, by the way, but hardly an unbiased neutral), paints a rosy picture of something like 17% of the adult population and I am certainly not going to attempt to pour a bucket of shit over news that is clearly very good. However, I would question whether the report is particularly relevant to the other 83%.
Clearly, the rise in gym use is great news for the health of the general population in general and gen zers in particular and we should welcome it. And rather carp about it, as I am wont to do, we should be encouraging more and more people to get fitter and healthier. That will include the less well-off and the serially unfit, physically and mentally. That probably won’t include me because while I am a mental basket case, I’d rather go through root canal surgery without an anaesthetic rather than half an hour of gym exercises so boring I suspect my brain would blow up.
I might be depressed but I hope I don’t look as miserable as those people pumping iron, or whatever it’s called these days. I’ll listen to podcasts and music for pleasure, thank you very much, not to make life less boring. And mine’s a pint of Thatchers Gold, since you ask.
