Lowering the BPM....

[thoreau]

Boxing while on the elliptical seems to be a new trend - it was reported by dendren this morning on his journal - and the last few workouts to the gym - there is this guy with his iPod on - in a tech-music trance punching into the air like (as Dendren so aftly described) a kitten after a roll of yarn. and you could hear the vocal cue on his iPod track - and PUNCH - and he'd swat out in front of himself accompanied by a "I'm the butchest thing on the entire planet" grunt.

Whether he realized it or not - he was fodder for much amusement as the five or six people around him - could hear the musical crescendos - and the next awesome, masculine scream on the recording of the word - "PUNCH!". LOL!

It seems almost too multfunctional to me - I mean you are already on the elliptical and listening to your iPod - adding punching and choreography seems to me like a recipe for falling on your ass and eating some elliptical machinery on your way down. "OH there goes Jose - down again... he needs to lower the bpm...."

Now I have to admit - that I download an elliptical workout track on my iPod as well. (Link to Podrunner Cardio Tracks) But I try not to have vocal interactions or "sing along" if a favorite song cues up.

Less I become that character on someone's else's blog "omg - that muffinguy was at the gym again singing "Clang Clang Clang Went the Trolley" while on the elliptical; somewhere needs to get her off the trolley and onto the Clue Bus!?"

I guess we all need that 'something' that keeps us on the elliptical - I know I'm constantly changing stuff up so I don't get bored at the gym. How do the rest of ya'll feel about iPod useage at the gym - is someone humming to "bootylicious" while you are trying to concentrate on a lift? Do you find it makes the gym less social?

Comments

[surewood31.livejournal.com]

LOL!

When I used to go to the gym, *sigh* I was the guy always falling down. No seriously! I was on the treadmill, and a guy came up and talked to me I tripped and went down. Then my friends were making jokes how I couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time. I started smarting them back, tripped and went down.

As for the ipods, LOVE EM! People don't realize some of the things they do when they can't hear themselves. I remember we were looking at one guy, massive muscled body, thinking he was so butch so straight. Then he started singing out loud his ipod song. "G. L. A. M. O. R. O. U. S We're flying first class......." We had to turn away so he wouldn't see us cracking up.

PS..as for always asking to see stuff and never showing.........well you guys never ask to see anything from me. Ask and thou shall receive. That's why I always ask! ; )

[dendren.livejournal.com]

Aside from desperately trying not to belt out "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me" or "when I grow up I wanna have boobies" I would never get through my cardio/elliptical without my ipod. Tho, I only listen to my ipod for cardio. The rest of the time weights, locker room, shower (hehehe) I keep the ipod off.

[bibliocub.livejournal.com]

I was actually giggling, manfully of course, at my desk while reading your post! You are going to be the best workout partner EVER!

[tatsf.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen the boxing/eliptical combo yet. Sounds like a real eye roller. :-)

For me, the gym is physical, mental and social. I love that I can get all of that out of it. So I don't wear an ipod when I'm there. I think it does make things less social. I know that when someone is clearly wearing earbuds I assume they can't hear me and don't speak to them. I go to the low key, relaxed and adult GymSF, and they have a constant rotation of upbeat dance CDs playing, so there's already music to cardio by! But it's also ok there to be social while working out, which I find a big plus. You don't have to worry about your speaking interrupting someone who's "in the zone, man"!

[joebehrsandiego.livejournal.com]

I don't own an iPod (or Zune), but if I went to one of the two giant, uber-muscle-ghey gyms here (World and Gold's) I'd probably get one just to be able to focus.

I go to City Gym, which sounds a lot like the one your friend TatSF patronizes. It's rare to see an iPod there.

[whiskerfish.livejournal.com]

I wholeheartedly encourage the use of iPods at the gym. That way nobody can hear me fart when I'm doing squats.

[squalidbear.livejournal.com]

"omg - that muffinguy was at the gym again singing "Clang Clang Clang Went the Trolley" while on the elliptical; somewhere needs to get her off the trolley and onto the Clue Bus!?"
That was funny!

I love my iPod for the elliptical. No iPod, no exercise. I have to refrain from putting my hands up in the air when Jimmy Somerville's cover of Don't Leave Me This Way comes on... "Ohhhhhhhh, baby! My heart is full of love and it's all for you! Da dada da dada da da-da-da!" Chuck heard me do it once at home and mocked me mercilessly.

[bnsd70.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks for the podcast link. I was looking for something like that, but didn't have very good luck. I'll have to check that one out. I only use my iPod while doing cardio. The earbud cord getting in my way when I'm lifting is a nuisance that I can't be bothered with. As for being social, maybe it's the straight musclehead gym I go to, but I keep to myself when I'm there. I greet people I know and may exchange a quick sentence or two, but my goal is to get in, get it done and get out. One of my biggest pet peeves is waiting for machines or benches because the socialites are using them to prop themselves up while they chit chat about the weekend.

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

I absolutely need some high-energy music while doing cardio (which for me is walking/running uphill on a treadmill.) If my nano's battery runs out, I drop everything and go back to my locker to get my iPhone to substitute, thereby having to wait again (sometime 5-10 minutes) for a treadmill.

OTOH, wearing earbuds while working out with weights does isolate you. Often accompanied by a hat and construction-worker-straight-acting, therefore-I'm-a-real-man clothes. I am less likely to talk to someone listening to music, because they have to take out the earbuds.

Humming or grunting or moving to the beat is distracting and people should rightfully make fun of anyone who does those things. :-)

And don't get me started on trainer-pushed routines like doing your dumbbell workout standing on a ball or boxing while doing cardio or other supposed improvements. Lift weights or do yoga or kickboxing or dance -- don't try to combine them.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

Less I become that character on someone's else's blog "omg - that muffinguy was at the gym again singing "Clang Clang Clang Went the Trolley" while on the elliptical; somewhere needs to get her off the trolley and onto the Clue Bus!?

First of all, there is nothing wrong with that song. If you happen to be able to choreograph it while on the elliptical, so much the better.

<ObQuote context=VictorVictoria>:
“Use your shoulders. Remember—you're a drag queen!”
</ObQuote>

There's one guy at our gym who uses earphones to hear his music but then talks to himself in a much louder voice. His self-talk is quite illuminating: Huh! Yeah! C'mon boy, you can do it! Yeah!

It's quite the joke among many people there.

The ones who use the earphones while working out (vs at cardio) just seem antisocial to me.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

Well of course that's how it works and in my book, it's unmockable. It's like mocking ABBA: it's simply not done.

[allanh.livejournal.com]

I must be the exception here; I don't go to the gym to socialize. I go there to work out. :)

There are a number of Chatty Cathies at my gym. I use an iPod, and find that it keeps me focused on what I'm doing, rather than half listening to the girls (of either gender) gossip.

I suspect my answer would be different if I went to a gym with a largely GLBT population.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

I grew up sharing a room with an Abba-obsessed pre-queer. I can't listen to it - and consider it dreck from the lowest level of hell.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

you know that "our" gym - is my gym too. You don't live in the burbs no more dorothy!

[anziulewicz.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, if the guy punching the air while on the elliptical trainer had lost his footing and tumbled off, I would've LAUGHED and LAUGHED and LAUGHED. Some people think they're such hot shit.

People listening to their iPods while on the elliptical trainer don't bother me. I'm usually immersed in the Food Network or the Travel Channel on the TV anyway. But when the person on the elliptical trainer next to mine is laughing and smiling and yakking away on cell phone, sharing every pathetic detail of his or her personal life with everyone nearby, I'm reminded how much I would love to invest in one of those illegal cell phone jammers.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

Who are you? And what have you done with Robert?

Next you'll tell me you think Britney is fabulous. I may have to cut you.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

During the week I go to the Mountain View Gold's. Only on weekends am I at Brannan St Gold's. I'm bigymnal.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Thank you SO much for that! I just spewed soda on my monitor!

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

So you really don't want those tickets to see "Mamma Mia" I was going to offere?

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

no as in never as in no thank you.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

I love most things gay - but Abba is a giant permanent exception.

iPods an' such at the gym

[capy.livejournal.com]

Without my iPod, I simply wouldn't work out. I'm picky about the music I listen to and I don't much care for the same ol' loop of tunes they play (loudly... grrrr) at Gold's daily. Pete Savas's podcasts work well for me, as do other well-mixed, well-matched dance mixes. Generally, fast-paced/"high energy," 'tho.

I've tried listening to audiobooks or musicals, but when I'm on the cardio, I'm pushing myself and don't want the distraction of someone talking or singing in my ear; it draws my focus.

There are only a few things that irk me at the gym: people talking on their cellphones and people wearing perfume/cologne on the workout floor (tryin' to breathe deeply here, people... we *all* smell like horses out here; get over it.) Oh, and people monopolizing workout equipment without actually using it (draping themselves on it while having conversations, then "remembering" they're working out, doing a set, before returning to their conversation.)

[pklexton.livejournal.com]

"when I grow up I wanna have boobies"

You're so butch you make me moist.

I listed to the iPod on the elliptical too. I don't shadow box (it would look even sillier than your friend, more like shadow slap) but I sometimes lipsync, and bop a little. Or at least I think I'm lipsyncing. For all I know I'm sounding like the handicapped choir to the folks on the neighboring machine.

[pklexton.livejournal.com]

Great post. Reminds me to be more self-conscious about my lipsyncing and bopping when I'm on the elliptical. One must maintain the illusion of manliness, or at least a hint of it.

BTW, the (newish?) heading at the top of your journal is fantastic.

[pklexton.livejournal.com]

*gasps*