I Get By With a Little Help...

Yesterday Zach and I signed up for our gym membership.  The gym is only about a 10-minute walk from our apartment   That is exactly what we need - convenience.  If it's too far away, we won't go.  It's really helpful that it's near a bus stop so we can go right after school before we go home.  This particular gym (or fitness club) is a little different than what we are used to.

As soon as you enter, you must take off your shoes and lock them in a locker.  The shoes you wear into the gym should not the same shoes you workout in.  Then take the key to the front desk where they switch out keys and you either pay or they swipe your card if you paid for a month.  They then give you a towel and a shirt and shorts.

My fitness club card.

Then take the elevator to the 4th floor.  This is where men and women split up to go into the locker rooms.  However, the locker room is no ordinary locker room.  It is also a jjimjilbang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jjimjilbang).  I wrote about a jjimjilbang a couple of posts ago.  It's basically a sauna with a place to sleep.  In the locker room you are supposed to change into the clothes they provide.  After changing, you have to go down a flight of stairs to get to the gym.  The gym itself is like any other gym I have ever been in.

Today, Zach and I went into the gym with the intention of working on biceps and triceps and then running.  We started with standing curls.  Soon after we started, one of the workers (I am assuming a trainer) came over and fixed my form.  His English wasn't great, but I could understand what he was trying to tell me.  He then pushed a bench my way and had me do kickbacks.  Again, he fixed my form.  While I was doing kickbacks, he had Zach do a shoulder exercise.  When I was finished, he had me do a back exercise.

Normally, all of this would have frustrated me.  We had a plan and he was interfering.  Was every exercise I've ever done, been done wrong - according to this guy?!

However, I am trying to be more positive.  Here we were maybe the only foreigners to go to this gym and he was willing to help us.  Not only was he trying to help us but he was trying to do it in English.  We both had a mini personal training session with this guy!  I really appreciate all of his help and it was a pretty great exercise!