A Rant on the College Gym

A Rant on the College Gym Fear this woman.the forming of good habits. Now that youve entered the path of the gym rat warrior, the question of how to decode the college gym presents itself. Timing is everything when working out. Go to the gym with a plan;  its easy to get overwhelmed by the people.  Before dinner time on weekdays, the rec center could easily be confused with a flash mob, mixed with a Black Friday sale at Mall of America. My suggestion is to avoid this allotment of time completely and choose to work out in the morning or late evening. My second piece of advice is to learn, and abide, by the dress code for your gym. Nobody wants to see your areola exposed because you decided to   cut an old t-shirt into a sliver that covers nothing but your sternum and your vertebrae. Keeping that idea in mind, its safe to say that a large percentage of your peers wouldnt want to resuscitate you after a heat stroke that occurred from you wearing 4 layers of sweats. Try to keep a happy medium, and always remember: dont wear Timberland boots. A   common misconception for people at the gym: If I only do bench press every day, I should lose a whole bunch of weight.   This couldnt be more wrong. If youre looking to   lose weight, you are definitely going to have to throw in some cardio days. If youre looking to gain mass, you should get your swoll on more frequently. There are several archetypes of people common in most gyms. People watching is as essential as working out. With all due respect, I just want to say that anyone who decides to burn roughly 11 calories over a 45 minute span by walking on a treadmill upsets me on a deeper level than you know. Its easy to spot the people who go to the gym to tweet at their friends and claim the right to brag that they worked out that day. The range from neon spandex-sporting girls to body builder wannabe guys really shows that many people use different forms of motivation. Bottom line, reader: take the college gym for what its worth, and try to shape healthy habits. Balance is the key to every health plan, so utilize it. Eventually, it will feel weird when you dont go to the gym, and thats an enriching experience. For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.-Arnold Schwarzenegger