Gymming It Up

I'm not a huge fan of exercise. As a concept, sure, I think it's great. I understand the health benefits and as Elle Woods phrased it in Legally Blonde, "exercise gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy and happy people just don't kill their husbands."

I'm just lazy. Sure, I was a runner for many years but it was predominantly for the social aspects. Without someone to push me, I'm just not a huge fan of exercise. I'm more of the "let's justify the hour of walking around town today" or "I climbed four steps of stairs to class, that has to be healthy" mentality.

So as can be surmised, I generally need someone to push me in order for actual exercise to happen. And that person yesterday was my roommate. She had heard about an aerobics class happening at the school gym and basically informed me that I was going. No option. So I go to sign up at the gym and learn that I have to give my fingerprint. WHAT? I don't know if biometric readings are common at gyms but generally the only times my fingerprint has been taken was for security clearance purposes for going into prison. Prison - Gym, interesting correlation.

So after I give my fingerprint, I enter into THE GYM. This gym is like no other school gym I've ever seen. It has a pool (which was featuring water aerobics), there was a separate gym for girls and boys, squash courts, basketball courts, volleyball courts, a track outside, a weight room and the natural feature of all gym...a rock climbing wall.

So by the time, my biometric registration is over, class is at least 1/4 of the way through. We decided to bike instead. I have to say I found it a little deceiving that if you sign up for 30 minutes bike time, they don't warn you about the five minute cool down at the end. We did some of the "core strengthening" machines. Slightly more difficult when the weights are in kilograms but we managed. And then it was rock climbing time. I started on the easy wall which you don't need people to belay you. There was an interesting moment when I got to the top and realized that I had no clue how I was going to get down but I figured it out and it was a lot of fun.

So there you have it. First gym experience in Ireland.