Today marks the first day that I have used my gym membership provided within my perks package from work. My membership is to Kennedy Club Fitness and they have five different branches throughout the county and the San Luis Obispo one is right by my work. So I'm able to get off at 5:15pm and make it to the gym, change and into the 5:30pm class by about 5:35pm. I am pretty stoked about that!!Well tonight I am a newbie at the SLO branch and so I don't really know what is okay and what isn't. However, I'm looking to my blog readers for some opinions.
How much skin is too much?
I went to the gym tonight with every intention to have a great time and no intentions of being weirded out or having a "WHOA!" moment. Well, tonight I had a few.
**Disclaimer** I have no problem with nudity. It's fine and dandy. We all have the same things in terms of anatomy, just some look better than others. Nudity. Whatever. But walking around the locker room in nothing but your birthday suit? Is that necessary?
Let me explain two instances tonight.... so I'm sitting on my bench right in front locker #155 (randomly chosen) and chatting with my mom real quick to tell her and my dad I wouldn't be home right away because I'm at the gym. Anyway, so I don't really notice the chick behind me who is fresh out of the shower. Well when I'm done with my phone call I turn my head and yup, got a FULL naked booty in my face. I don't think it could have been any closer without touching me. Let me tell you it was nice and dimply. It was quite awful. But hey, at least she wasn't prancing around the locker room like my next example.
After I did some exploring to see what this SLO branch had and where things were, I decided that I was hungry and so I wanted to get home. As I'm getting my things out of locker #155, I noticed this 60-year old women (give or take a few years) walking around the locker room with a towel on, but it's wrapped up on her head. Nothing else. Literally this woman with a full head of white/gray hair is just walking around, apparently drip-drying in the locker room. Props for being at the gym at her age, but it's not like she had a body to show off her hard work! Talk about an awkward double take!
I left the gym thinking about how awkward my two encounters in the locker room were but also wondering why they felt like that was okay. I am -- as I'm sure many others would agree -- fine with the quick drop of the towel facing your locker while you're making sure you're dry and then making it priority numero uno to get clothes on, but letting it hang out to dry? Yikes! Especially into the more "mature" years...
So I guess my question isn't "how much is too much" but more "when do you say when?" Or is it a combination of the two?
Questions? Thoughts? Concerns? or am I just going to have to accept this part of a gym membership?
*sigh*
Until next time...
Until next time...
Hi! Just made it to your blog through 20SB and had to comment because this is a topic near and dear to my heart - I do NOT get it either. I find myself in situations like that every single time I'm at the gym. I was recently talking to someone - making small talk - when she just started stripping. While we were talking. We did not know one another. I didn't know what to do so I kind of ran out of the room. I don't consider myself to be a prude...but modesty is a good thing, too. :)
ReplyDelete1st off - good work on going to the gym! :) I'd go to one if one was nearby where I live.
ReplyDelete2nd - I don't get it either. I never have. I've never walked around even semi-nude in the locker room. I guess I'm weird that way, but I just don't get the whole nakedness in the locker room thing... it is weird and awkward. eek
oh boy. I used to work there, and let me tell you, it never gets comfortable. it doesnt matter how many 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80+ year old women you see naked, it doesnt get any less awkward. I guess you just get used to it... or more like you get used to the fact that there are going to be saggy naked people in the locker room.
ReplyDeleteloosen up! its just a body- you said it yourself, everyone has the same thing, who cares if they're nude? its a gym locker room for the public for pete's sake. clothes are just one way of societal constraints on our daily lives. it's perfectly natural and quite comfortable honestly, there's definitely nothing to fret about.
ReplyDeleteHahaha....maybe you should stare at them in an obvious and very creepy manner. And see how they react to that!
ReplyDeleteHi there! I found you through 20sb and thought this was a very interesting topic.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I get being naked in a locker room. I mean, that's kind of the point. Everybody has their comfort levels, and I think it's great that those women you mentioned have no problem showing their less than "perfect" bodies. When you get out of the shower at home, do you jump right into your clothing? While a locker room, is technically a public space, it's kind of a special public space that is designed for nudity.
Just my 2 cents. :)
hey! Found you on 20 something bloggers...nice work.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that is stressing me out is people who try to make friends in the locker room. As if it's not awkward, we also have to talk about the weather WHILE I'm late to work?
God, I wish guys at my gym were that free with their bodies! Maybe it's just my timing (I get all the squares with 9-5s... not unlike myself), but I'd at least like to catch a glimpse of something nice out of the corner of my eye.
ReplyDeleteThen again, my gym's kind of a dump, so there's much less incentive to shower there.
You are such a creeper. Nudity is wonderful and let's face it a drip dry is so much nicer than a towel dry in a steamy area. I think you will get over it. Or you will stop going to the gym. Either way PROBLEM SOLVED!
ReplyDeleteMiss you creeper!