Mirror Time

I joined the YMCA recently, and enlisted the help of a trainer to set me up on a weight lifting regime. After a few meetings with Igor, my Ukranian trainer, I have about 7 exercises each that I do for upper and lower body on alternating days. Keeping in mind that each exercise entails three sets, and a short rest between, my gym time usually lasts about 45 minutes.

Here is what amazes me, however. In the time it takes me to do an entire upper or lower body work out, I will watch men stand around and complete maybe a total of 5 sets. The rest of the the time they either yak it up with their buddies, or their personal favorite, stare at themselves in the mirror as if those 5 sets have dramatically changed the landscape of their bodies since they stared at it for 30 minutes in the mirror that morning at home.

Vanity and laziness would be an easy explanation for this behavior, but here is my theory. In our society, thanks to ceaseless women's rights and discrimination fights, there are no longer many (if any) true Men's Clubs. Men no longer have havens of cigar smoke and leather bound books to retreat to. But even though YMCA, the Young Men's Christian Association, was forced to give equality to the sexes after a few lawsuits, the weight side of the facility is the closest thing these Y chromosomes have to a sanctuary of peace. So these men are not going to "work out" to see results (because 5 sets won't accomplish that) but rather to get away. And somehow, as I have ventured to that side of the Y and infiltrated one of the last of the remainding secret societies, I feel like Jane Goodall observing behaviors never before recorded.