Today is Sunday. It is usually a day I spend a good part of at the gym, making up for lost times that I didn't go on Friday or Saturday. I am sick today, for the millionth time in Korea, so my better judgement (and a South African guardian angel perhaps) convinced me to skip yet another day.
If you know me, you know my obsession with the gym. It's important to me. It's a way of life. It's something I won't compromise. Usually gyms are full of the same types of people, the same equipment, and the same kind of vibe. So one would think it would be the same kind of experience in a Korean gym than any other gym around the world right?
Wrong. Korean gyms are unlike any other gym experience, and it is something I will have in my memory forever (whether I like it or not).
Korean women are a rare breed at the gym. They do not lift weights. Unless you count those pink weights that weigh like 1.5 pounds, and I don't. Korean women also don't do cardio machines. However, Korean women are excellent at creating the image that they are doing cardio, when in fact they are actually doing nothing at all. If you're in the gym long enough, you'll see that the women are doing one of three things and one of three things only. 1) They are walking on the treadmill while talking on their cell phones. 2) They are sitting on the bicycle while talking on their cell phones. Or 3) they are sitting on a yoga mat while talking on their cell phones.
Korean men on the other hand are surprisingly in shape, and there is no age limit on this either. I've seen men in there twice my age with a 45 lb weight attached to a chain around their waist while they do chin ups.....and talking on their cell phones. There are two types of men that work out in Korea. The ones who actually work out and seem to know what they're doing, and the ones who stand there watching t.v. and barely touching a piece of equipment the entire time they're there.
Like any other building (whether it's public or private) in Korea, you're required to have a pair of indoor shoes and outdoor shoes. This really pisses me off. I don't want to have 5 million pairs of shoes for everywhere I go during the day. I don't mind having 5 million pairs of shoes in my closet at home for my own addiction and desire, but everywhere else is really annoying. I also really hate taking off my shoes. I never came from a family that takes their shoes off. In fact, my dad wears his shoes right up until the moment he changes into his pj's and goes to bed. We like our shoes, and we like them on our feet. So I like to pull the 'foreigner card' here, and I wear my gym shoes to the gym and when they try to explain that's not how it's done, I give them a very confused look and say I don't understand. Most of the time they brush me off like some stupid foreinger, and let me work out in piece.
The trainers at the gym seem to think they have the right to interrupt my work out and tell me what I'm doing wrong. Every so often they seem to take a break from their Starbucks coffee and pizza for lunch, long enough to linger around me entirely too long to see if I'm doing everything right. They're often telling me I am lifting too much weight for a woman, and that I should be on a cardio machine or taking the yoga class. I have literally had to put my hand out in front of me and yell "STOP!" to one of the elder trainers to get him to stop pestering.
And don't even get me started on the locker rooms. Between the ajumma's who stand there for an hour blow-drying their crotches, to the women in the shower head next to you asking you to soap up their backs...it's all entirely too close for comfort for me.
But like everything else in Korea, it is an experience I won't soon forget. The gym will get lumped in to every other wild thing I have witnessed during my year here in Korea. And who knows, maybe one day when I'm working out at my gym in America, I'll suddenly miss getting smacked on the ass in the locker room by an old lady, or getting harassed by a kimchi smelling trainer during my squats. Who knows.....
