Wednesday, August 4

Bike Mode Share at the Gym

Spinning With a Famous Bike Coach in Dallas
I’m mystified. At almost any gym in Tarrant County, you will see a room full of stationary bicycles, with people taking spin classes. At the same time, you will see a completely empty bike rack outside the gym entry door. Is it just me, or does anybody else think this is a peculiar combination? Personally, I find driving specially to the gym to be a time waster, because transit time is lost workout time, unless you walk, run, or bike to the gym.

As an example, it takes me ten minutes to drive to the gym near my house. It takes me fifteen minutes to bike there if I’m working at it. For the round trip, I get thirty minutes of exercise and it only takes me thirty minutes. Looked at another way, if I were planning to do a half hour workout, it would take me thirty minutes (plus shower time) to ride, but it would take me fifty minutes (plus shower time) to accomplish if I drove. On the other hand, I’d probably spend less time in the sauna and drinking post-workout coffee if I drove, so maybe the bike really ISN’T quicker.

REMEMBER, HOW YOU GET TO THE GYM IS PART OF YOUR TOTAL WORKOUT TIME and it can improve your overall results. Don't waste that trip!
Kermit and Frankenbike All Alone During a Spinning Class

10 comments:

Oldfool said...

Gym's are a social activity. If you need exercise do real work. Transportation, yard, garden, tote that bale lift that barge, etc.
Driving to the gym and taking the escalator to the entrance and riding the moving sidewalk to the exercise room is great comedy.

cycler said...

Yeah, I never got the spinning thing.
I have been guilty of driving to the gym, but mainly when the air quality was bad, or it was too icy to run outside. I also did drive to the gym when it was on my way home, but if you're making a special trip, it gets a bit silly.

Chuck Davis said...

A room full of stationary bicycles with people spinning on them has very little to do with bicycling and otherwise may be a lame excuse for "social activity"

........this is knot to say that there aren't desperate and lonely peeps out there!

Steve A said...

I DO drive to the gym on days I don't ride my bike to work. I leave the house at the same time as if I'm riding, and the gym is within a block of the shortest route to work. The gym isn't too social at 6 in the morning. It's also hard to do yard work at that time of day without a flashlight. Conveniently, there's a Starbucks next door to the gym.

PM Summer said...

Glad to see you using that rack properly... if not correctly.

;-)

John Romeo Alpha said...

I know several people who take showers before they go to the gym. That was the final straw that caused me to decide that the rituals surrounding the fitness club subculture are beyond the powers of mere reason to decipher.

Alexwarrior said...

Tons of people bike to my gym in Vancouver in Canada. But parking at it costs $5.50, which might have something to do with it.

Ed W said...

I'm told the after-work crowd at the gym is more focused on flirtation that actual work-outs. The ones who go in before dawn for their exercise are fairly serious about it.

A co-worker commented on how he saw someone driving round and round in the parking lot, looking for a space conveniently near the door, so he wouldn't have to walk so far in order to exercise. Go figure.

Steve A said...

PM, that particular rack is not possible to use correctly AND properly at the same time because the shrub is closer to it than it looks in the photo. Looking at the photo, however, it would have been "bike friendlier" had I parked at the left side of the rack, which would have allowed other bikes room to lock up, had there actually been any.

Steve A said...

Ed W, I have often seen people driving around in the gym parking lot looking for a good space. I just ride my bike up and get the best space of all. If the gym management reads Alexwarrier's comment, they'd charge for the "premium" spots just as they charge for "premium" lockers. I'll bet some would pay for the parking.

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