No Gold in my sights

It didn't take me long to scratch Gold's Gym from my list of fitness centres worth considering.

Last week I was discussing personal goals with a life coach who is helping me sort some things out. One goal is that always popular "shed a few pounds."

Sidebar: Please note the language here. I'm not out to lose weight, but to shed pounds. The difference? It's mental. Think about it. If you lose something what does your subconscious start to do? It starts thinking about ways to find what you've lost. So, do you want to lose weight, or shed pounds?

I'm working at creating a vision board to help develop my focus on the future. That's when the gym issue came in. One of my activities this week is to locate a gym I can join to work on the physical aspect of my self-improvement project. So, on Saturday I popped into Gold's Gym in Lethbridge.

I'd been here a couple of times before and I don't really know why I want again. Don't get me wrong. I hadn't been here to work out. Once I had to pick someone up and once I had to drop something off. This time I wanted a closer look at things. So I walked in through the front doors.

It's a bit of walk from the entrance to the front desk. I went about 15-20 paces in, stopped, turned around and said to Lynda; "Forget it. This isn't the place for me." And we left. I didn't event make it to the front desk. Why not? That's easy.

Blaring music pounding into my head. Music that would have me hitting the 'seek' button on the car radio if it ever showed up on a station I listen to. Perhaps I should qualify this by saying I'm 51. I have no interest in rap (not really music, anyway) or hip-hop. Especially at volumes that could puncture the inner ear if exposure times lasted the duration of a workout. Even with my iPod playing, it wouldn't drown out this racket.

So it was out the door, back to the car and scratch Gold's Gym from my list.

Honestly, where do baby boomers go for fitness? I don't think Gold's Gym is alone in this approach. I have a feeling I'll find similar environments in more fitness centres in town. I sure wish someone would create a small facility catering to those 40+ only. Ideally, something like a circuit training similar to Curves . . . only something that allowed men.

Hey, here's a radical thought . . . maybe something that was for men only. It almost seems like there is a gym for women only on every other block in town. I can respect that. Women don't necessarily want to be somewhere that can have guys checking them out. Guess what, though? There are likely more than a few guys who would prefer not to have to show off the old pot belly in front of a bunch of women.

So the search goes on. I'll likely check out the YMCA. I hear it's fun to stay there and that you can hang out with all of the boys.