Well, LAUGH-OUT-LOUD!

Peter, mate, what do you expect, living in the Eastern suburbs? The place is full of fa.., er, homosexuals. Anyway, one doesn't go to the gym to look good - like those others do - you're not supposed to be "looking" at the other dudes anyway, that's not the purpose. You're supposed to be getting on with physical exercise, pushing to the limit, working your self-discipline and giving the body and mind the workout it doesn't get each day sitting at a computer screen.

Stop eyeballing all those other blokes Peter and get on with the job.

Isn't life wonderful? The best laugh I've had for weeks. Thanks Peter, sincerely.

I know the feeling.

I'm fortunate to have a pretty good gym, with a fair share of not-so-athletic types. For a reasonably thin lad like myself, that's a blessing, though I'll admit, when you see someone bench-pressing more than you weigh, it seems a tad strange.

To try to get fitter for a recent 'veterans' sporting event I visited a few Bondi Junction gyms. None met my requirements at all, either too expensive or too trendy, or both, similar to Peter West's experience: by the way, I too live in the general Bondi area.

I have a general sporting and fitness history, so I simply added to my normal fitness regime: that is, 15 or 20 minutes of step ups at home, four times a week, long walks and the use of rubber 'resistence' tubes that you can buy at K-Mart for around $15.

Bondi is blessed with some fabulous walks, and the counsel has set up exercise stations along the beaches and at Waverley oval. Queens Park also has an exercise station, and both Waverley Park and Queens Park have hills and steps that can be used to vary an otherwise normal walk.

There are a good range of exercise machines - bikes, rowers etc, that cost less than even a three month membership of a gym that you can use at home. For the three months I would have gone to a gym the cost would have been around $500.

In my overall experience the people who go to gyms in the Bondi area are not doing it to get fit. Huge muscles are not a sign of fitness, they are a display of ego. Gyms have become theatres where individuals show off.

I remember when weight training for football 20 years ago, a guy with huge muscles came in to work out. He was struggling with weights 2/3 of what I was using. His muscles were bulked, all for show, and would have been a strain on his heart. He obviously did no cardio at all.

Unfortunately it seems little has changed.

I would say that more women go to gyms and to boxercise, water aerobics, yoga - the list is endless.

Women are the first to demand gym, fitness and relaxation therapy through workplace agreements and contracts.

Women really get kitted out for exercise and they also want other services (not being rude!) including health drinks and coffee.

Making your femininity in the gym might have been a better story.

A very funny and wonderfully human article !

Yep.. there is a gym near us touted as "The BIGGest Gym in the Southern Hemisphere"... and it has lots of the types Peter mentioned.. the steroidzoids.... waddle crowd...etc.. and after all that a lousy sauna and not particularly friendly.

Then there is my gym.. the one where I go for core strength and weight training and for a bit of social contact. Its friendly, has a great sauna, and its share of people who obviously do need to get in better shape.

Then there is the martial arts one.. Kickboxing and Bushido etc... I do the kickboxing and am the 'pet geriatric' at 57 with all the others in 'basic' class being around 20 though there are 2 x 30+ blokes there now.
For fitness.... hard to beat.. (if you survive :) and for confidence yep..its good for that mugging you imagine might happen one day.
Socially ? fantastic.

My future posts will probably look like I'm brain damaged, as I've found a fijian boxer who has worked for 15 yrs as a bouncer, and who looks like a world champ type.. he just wreaks of abilty to pound people into dust. We are going to do some sparring tomorrow night all being equal, but just light stuff. Even shaking his hand was like shaking a piece of steel his tone is so hard.

In conclusion, gym membership is really good if you find a compatible one, and I've never felt fitter or happier physically. The only problem is, I'm so hyper at times I end up poking and prodding my kids trying to get 'moves' out of them and am reminded of the Bible verse "Fathers, don't provoke your children" :)

The idea of gyms and exercise classes is interesting, as it shows that there are four kinds of people when it comes to exercise:

The first: those who don't, or won't.

Then there are those who need to be pushed, in an exercise class (I never could understand the idea of a 'spin class', how much education do you need to ride an exercise bike?).

The next group are those who need company when exercising, the type who goes walking in a group, or runs as part of the Hash House Harriers or similar - like Melbourne's fatal 'Hell Riders' (push) bikie gang.

I am glad that I am one of the fourth group, those who enjoy exercise for its own sake: the solitary long distance runner, the swimmer who follows the black line for lap after lap.

I enjoy exercising as part of a team - the veterans event that I took part in recently involved two months training and racing as part of a rowing eight - possibly the most teamlike sport in the world (first time in a shell in 30 years), where everyone must move as one - I can also train happily by myself. I have also spent some time in gyms, because that is where the equipment is. But I don't need that atmosphere to feel complete.

The gym culture is diametrically opposed to the lone exerciser.

Perhaps the gym culture are the extroverts - those who have the damned personality defect as not being able to stand their own company in comparison with the introverts, that is those who, whilst they can perform in company, don't need others around them to feel whole.

I would go so far to say that there are fitter people pounding the pavement or working out at home than those trapped in the commercialised world of the perfect Lycra-clad body in the gym.

Who is more masculine, or feminine?

The person who is comfortable with themselves, able to exercise without display, feeling good about their bodies and minds, or the overly hormonal population of our sweat-shop suburban gyms?