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I finally got a chance to work out with a work buddy, PL, the other day at his gym. He'd been telling me for months about a WWE wrestler named "Bubba Ray" who works out there and he sees all the time. PL and I had frequently joked about going there together and basking in D-list celebritydom: "Maybe we'll both reach for the same weights," or "Maybe in 2005 we'll actually say hi." In real life, Bubba had been having back trouble and was on and off TV. PL saw Bubba at the gym more frequently when he was off TV, so he thought now was a good time to go.
So he acquired a guest pass for me and took me there earlier this week.
Bubba was there when PL took me, lifting free weights alone amid a few other young guys. I stared at Bubba for maybe 10 seconds before I was completely distracted by how nice the gym was. I felt like I was in some celebrity gym you'd find in Hollywood. It's quite possible that other, bigger celebs work out there. It's in a tony area of town, and of the gyms I've been to, it's second only to the RDV Sportsplex in poshness.
PL walked me past the free weights and Bubba, and I tried not to stare. Bubba was wearing a gray, long-sleeved T-shirt and shorts. The WWE's Web site lists him at 6-4, 275, but I'd say he's more like 6-2, 275. PL and I made more cracks about his wrasslin gimmick, which includes having a "half-brother" as a tag-team partner: "Where's D-Von?"
PL took me to a glass-walled room where the aerobics and kickboxing classes are held. It was a huge, vacuous room with a parquet floor and numerous TVs all loudly playing MTV2 mounted into the wall. Looking up, I saw 16 punching bags hanging by cables near the high ceiling. A huge shelf, which held colorful, girlie hand weights, blue floor mats and red, 3-foot-wide exercise balls, reached to the ceiling. In the opposite corner of the room was a PVC container full of more exercise balls. I felt like I was in first-grade romper room. Everything was so huge and colorful. We both grabbed a mat and ball and started doing ab crunches. It was hard to concentrate because I was so engrossed in my surroundings.
I'm so easily amused and distracted.
Meanwhile, Bubba had gone upstairs to work on cardio. After our ab workout, PL said, "Lemme show you around," which meant, "Let's go see what Bubba's up to," and we headed upstairs.
Bubba was bouncing up and down on an elliptical machine right at the top of the stairs, and his back was to us. We watched him as he rocked to a CD, and we snickered some more about how an "athlete" who works out as much as he does can be so big.
The second floor was as posh as the first, but smaller and quieter. There were about 8 to 10 elliptical machines, several treadmills and a couple of Stairmasters all in a line to the left and right of Bubba. A room to the left of the stairs had strange machines with cables that apparently were used during Pilates classes. Another room to the right had about 20-25 bikes for spinning classes.
We went back downstairs to the weights to finish our workout.
It was hard for me to decide what I wanted to do, mainly because I'd never seen much of this equipment before. It was clearly top of the line, and some of it was quite complicated. PL had to demonstrate several machines to me. My gym is cheap -- $55 for both me and the BF -- but it also is very small and has a minimum number of uncomplicated weights and machines. For this day, I decided to concentrate on legs and shoulders.
Toward the end of our workout, I was on a shoulder machine that faced the gym's front counter. Bubba eventually came downstairs with a towel around his neck and chatted with the front desk help. They seemed to know he was a somebody, because the trainers who had been previously killing time milling about wandered by to talk to him. About 10 minutes of chatting later, Bubba walked out.
We finished up our workout soon after and left. My legs are still sore several days later, not from overexertion but because the strange machines forced me to use different muscles. I'm still amazed by that gym. It makes me wonder whether spending more money on a gym like that would help bring back the enthusiasm I've lost lately for working out. I need to change my scenery every so often just to keep from getting bored. And the BF and I have been talking about taking a yoga class, and I wonder if this would be a good place to start. I have a couple more visits left on the guest pass. I'd like to take the BF next time just so he can see the swanky gym (and maybe we'll run into a B-lister or two).
Current mood: Exhausted