Starting to feel alienated by omni gym culture

[SoupAndRoll]

I cannot escape everyone talking about the gym. All day it’s a babble in my large open plan office. Gym earlier later, body pump, spin, weights - it’s replaced television

It hasn’t really bothered me until recently. I started online dating and OH MY are the men keen to tell you about their gym time. So many photos. And if they are lifting weights they might be outside - but if they are outside, they are cycling.

Obviously I do know that this is healthy. But also - I sort of miss the days of the pub.

I'm with you. Gym people, especially on the dating scene, are such bores. And the gym selfies are too cringe. Instant delete. I want a real man, not some preening ponce.

Online dating is just full of men and their gym
photos. I don’t care! I don’t want a gym rat. It’s to validate themselves or for other men,

Its so fucking tedious.

I hate all these gym bores! Go to the gym and get your exercise done and live your life and bore the fuck out the rest of us.

I find it all so competitive and braggy.

Gym bores, horrible leggings ugh

I am really navel gazing about it all. I mean, people look good, feel good - what’s the problem?

but it does feel like there is a problem.

What’s an omni gym op?

I used to be a gym bore. In retrospect, I was addicted to exercise and was so monomaniacal in my pursuit of training that I couldn't see how fucking boring I was being.

Wrong thread

I'm a gym bore these days. I've spent 30yrs abusing my body with cigarettes, alcohol and junk food. In my 40s, I had a huge health wake up. I'm impressed that teens are more into the gym than fags and booze.

I think that most social activities are now so expensive, including the pub that a £30pm gym membership is fairly reasonable in comparison to spend a few hours a week at an activity and it is good for you.

The reason I'm a bore is not because I keep going on about it to people but mentally I'm always planning when I can fit the 4 weekly gym sessions in between working FT, ferrying 2 kids around, DH shifts and my hair washing schedule 🙂.

The sexy gym selfies can fuck off though.

With men it's because a lot of teenage boys go to the gym, so to appear young they go on about it... what they don't realise is that a) they are boring as fuck, b) a lot of boys are body conscious today and feel they HAVE to be in the gym

But there is nothing worse than a fitness bore. How many steps, how far they've run, what they have bench pressed... bloody dull and they sound insecure.

Right now I'm off to my home gym where I'm bench pressing 250lb and running 5k

I only really talk about the gym and running with other runners and gym-goers. Other people overhearing the conversation and not liking it isn’t really something I worry much about tbh.

I think most people try to put their best foot forward when OLDing: talking about your gym and running and cycling is ultimately a bit more interesting and generates more conversation in messaging than saying you like to go out with friends and flop about at home, which I imagine most of them also do.

I know people who go to the gym regularly and never mention it. I know others who are total bores whether it's gym/running or another 'addiction' replacement.

For those who are bores, I just nod and don't react. They soon get the message and bore off.

you don’t want a man who lives off prostitute’s earnings? well neither do most of us @Ablondiebutagoody? 🤦🏽‍♀️

To be fair some people just love gyms, including myself. I do it for me, noone else. Then again I'd never post a photo of me working out on social media. I hate that.

I’m a gym bunny, as is DP. It’s a huge part of our lives, and yes, I occasionally talk about it. I find conversations about exercise and eating well far more interesting than conversations about the ‘pub’ (I’m not even sure what form these conversations take, is it just people telling you they went to the pub?)

It's something a lot of people living a healthy lifestyle have in common.

Can I show you my home gym? 😁

It sounds like most of your colleagues are gym goers sho have a shared interest. So I am not sure what's wrong when them talking about it.

I get you! It’s even worse when your husband talks non stop about his latest endeavours to pretty much everyone he has a conversation with - and you can’t even begin to imagine or feel included because you’re disabled through illness! I often feel like a spare part because I can’t relate.

I lift weights most mornings before work. I never speak about it except with my partner as I ask him to get the dogs out of my way if they're being a PITA.

It is possible to work out without talking about it!

One of my friends recently moved back to australia after a divorce and she said almost every online dating conversation ended up with her asking the man what he was up to that weekend and him responding 'meal prepping'. She's given up and decided single life is for her.

I was thinking this just last night, actually. It's so rife, and so tedious. Posts about going to the gym, pre and post gym selfies, photos of gym workout routines, workout stats, before/after gym photos where the difference is hardly even noticeable, gym this, gym that, gym the other... 😴

I think a lot of people underestimate just how little other people care. If you feel great, I'm happy for you, but I honestly don't care how many reps you did today or any of the rest of it.

I miss the days of people who'd just go to the gym, but keep it to themselves and not feel like they had to share it with the world. But it was probably before the invention of social media.

I agree OP. It's not the going to the gym itself that's the issue it's the constant talking about it, it bores me silly.

That’s because in among the gym culture is a really worrying strand of orthorexia and addiction.

Obsession, never feeling good enough, strong enough/thin enough/bulked enough, gains and protein goals and zero treats and zero life outside the gym.

I think it's better than the days people would talk about how many drinks they had at the pub and how long they wasted in bed the next day with a hangover. Social media would be full of glamorous pre-drink selfies and then the later photos of groups looking drunk. Being able to drink a bottle of vodka was a brag instead of how much someone can lift in the gym.

Fat couch potato me would not have understood healthy me's gym hobby either.

I think it's a good thing that the teens are trying to get ripped instead of being off their faces in the park.

However I hate it when the gym is busy, it's bliss when I get the steam room and jacuzzi to myself so my official stance is "the gym is shit, please don't go, especially mine" 😉

How do you do it? I want to be more active but I work FT (need to be working at least 50hrs but can wfh a lot and at odd hours - just about to crack open the laptop and get a few hours in while dc are busy), DC in tons of clubs need ferrying around all weekday evenings and weekends, can't afford a cleaner etc so all downtime is spent trying to keep on top of the house. I would love a schedule to follow to see how people do it. If the pool opened at 4am I reckon I could do swimming but it opens at 7 which is useless for the school run.