Because of the timing that I’m raising a child now, I don’t think I’ve gotten nearly the cabin fever or feel that I’m missing out on as much as other people are when it comes to staying at home and doing my best to social distance. Sure, I miss going out to eat, and occasionally getting in my car and going somewhere frivolous, but with a newborn in play, it’s not like I’d be doing such regardless of if there were a pandemic or not.
One of the few things that I do miss like crazy, is the gym. For obvious reasons, the gym in my workplace is closed, and even if I wanted to pay another business, most regular gyms are closed as well.
For nearly the last 13 years, I can say definitively, that I’ve gone to the gym at least once a week, for at least 98% of that time frame. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I went longer than two weeks without hitting a gym at some point, and it gives me great satisfaction in not being too overly sore from working out on a regular basis, because my body had become pretty primed to the feeling of lifting weights regularly.
But with Georgia (foolishly) reopening, gyms have been given the green light to open up for business as well, as long as “proper” social distancing protocols are put into place. For a while, LA Fitness had opted to stay closed, regardless of the green light, and I kind of respected them as a company for doing such, even though I had less than fond memories of when I was a member for several years myself.
However, even LA Fitness decided to want to make money again, and has begun opening up their Georgia gyms as well.
Regardless, this is where I have to say that even though gyms are now once again open, and I could theoretically get back into a gym and start lifting weights again, the gym is about the last fucking place on the planet that I’d want to go to in the middle of this pandemic.
I mean seriously, there couldn’t possibly be a worse place short of a South American hospital to go to in order to reduce your exposure to sickness. Gyms are places where people are breathing heavily, spit flies, secretions get all over the place, and in general where things that should remain inside the body, inexplicably get outside the body, creating some truly unsanitary conditions, a perfect breeding ground for coronavirus to spread like wildfire.
Not to mention the fact that in my own experience, at least 80% of gym goers are shitheads who neglect to wipe down equipment after their use, exacerbating the potential for spit, sweat and other coronavirus droplets to remain, easily spreadable to anyone else using the same equipment.
Frankly, gyms are among the worst places possible to go to, if you’re trying to avoid coronavirus exposure. And as much as I miss going to the gym, and I feel like I’ve already dropped a lot of mass, it’s going to be a very, very long time before I feel remotely comfortable and confident about going to any gym, especially with an immunocompromised baby in tow.
Gainz can definitely take a backseat to safety, especially that of my child.
