i feel like most of the people who are really into the hash tag gym life complain about how planet fitness’s business model relies on people buying a membership and rarely going, but i feel like the same can be said about gyms, like, in general.
i don’t bother with them anymore because they smell weird and it’s just very uncomfortable to spend an extended amount of time in a room full of people who are ignoring each other. but i remember when i was doing marathon training around 9 years back during a particularly brutal winter, i ate the expense at the closest local gym so i wouldn’t have to worry about slipping on ice. and when you’re enduring 20 miles worth of treadmill in january, you’re obviously camped out long enough and in the proximity of enough people to notice things. and it wasn’t uncommon to see people clearly pushing themselves way too hard and then never seeing them there again.
maybe i’m stupid, but exercise should primarily be a way of nurturing your relationship with your own productivity, and the social stuff in the context of sports is a great knock-on bonus if it’s practical for you to fit into your schedule. and a lot of people default to this idea that buying a gym membership is, like, an essential first step in health. no. bad. wrong. i feel like the best place to start with stuff like this is either putting aside a half hour or so every other day to listen to music and take a walk, or sniff out a rec league where it’s kind of implicitly understood that everyone involved kind of sucks at baseball, or whatever.
but you rarely hear advice like this, so people are rarely dissuaded from buying a gym membership that probably isn’t going to be super useful for them given where they are and what they want. and i doubt this varies based on whether the gym in question is a smaller operation or a corporate one.
not to be rude but some of y'all need to look on the bright side sometimes. like, yeah sure the world is fucked and people suck and we all die whatever, sure, but like. go outside.
ok i phrased this poorly, hang on.
i’m not saying the cure for depression is touching grass. however, if you surround yourself with sad things and talk about how terrible life is and how much you’re suffering and never take a breath and remember it’s not all bad, you’ll end up making yourself worse.
like, i’ve been diagnosed with clinical depression, and anxiety, and insomnia, and chronic pain, and a million other things that get in the way of me having a simple fucking good day, but you know what?
i watch videos that make me happy and wear pretty clothes and cut my hair in fun styles and do my makeup and drink strawberry tea and take two showers a day and i look on the bright side because goddamnit if god is trying to break me down, he’ll have to try harder.
i see so many people talk about how sad they are, who make their depression their first priority, and i get it, i really do, but you know that is actively harming your mental state, right? please, just do something nice for yourself, think positively for one day. i promise things get better when you step back and breathe.
