On gym music

I just had a thought. I could probably write all of my blog entries about two things only: 1. my experiences at the gym and 2. my Bieber fever. I try to diversify the blog a bit with other stories, but today I have to go back to a gym story.

Story #1:
I am trying to get some wedding arms AKA Kelly Ripa arms for my upcoming wedding. I have a friend who I work with and he is a crazy gym going pumping iron fiend. I told him I wanted some Kelly Ripa arms by July so he made a workout plan for me that is 3 days a week of intense weight lifting. The best time for me to go to the gym is at lunch. The mornings are too painful (I am NOT a morning person) and the afternoons are way too crowded. So lately, lunch time it is. I have this GREAT fear of lifting weights in front of men. The weight room is typically full of men and maybe 1 or 2 women MAYBE. I get super self conscious and have these fears that everyone is either 1. watching how horrible my form is or 2. looking at my behind. I have an ipod shuffle (aka heaven) and the more self conscious and crowded the gym is, the louder I make the music. Also, I never ever ever make eye contact with anyone. Most of the people who go to the gym are men who I work with on a regular basis. And having the men who I work with see me doing squats in the corner makes me less than comfortable.

Today the gym was particularly crowded at lunch and I need to get into my zone of loud music, do my workout with no confrontation, and get the heck out of there. I put my music extra loud today to ease my self consciousness. I was in the middle of my squat repetitions when I could feel someone looking at me. I turned the music up even louder and I just knew that the man next to me was looking at me. I broke my rule and looked over at him intending on giving him the stink eye. He said something but obviously I couldn't hear it over Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." I took out one ear bud and said "What?" and he goes "You listen to your music really loudly. How do you still have your hearing?" I gave an awkward laugh. "Ha ha ha... Is it really that loud?" And he goes "Yes, you have listened to two Lady Gaga songs since you got here. The whole room can hear it." I noticed that with my ear bud out of my ear it sounded like Lady Gaga was in the gym with us wearing a meat dress and inspiring a dance party. I looked around a made eye contact with about three different men. Rule majorly broken. I don't know what's worse, having men I work with see me do squats in my spandex or having men I work with hear me blast Lady Gaga from my ipod?

Story #2:
No matter what, it is true that I am trying to get in shape for my upcoming wedding. It is also true that my super gym bum friend made me a sweet and intense weight workout. It's even most true that I am terrified of working out in front of the men I work with at the gym. So I had this moment at the gym the other day where my ipod basically put me in my place.

The two most embarrassing workouts that I feel most uncomfortable doing at the gym are squats and dead lifts. Just saying those two words make me feel like a 250 pound meat head man. When my friend told me that squats and dead lifts were going to be a part of my workout plan, I cringed. The most important thing to remember for squats is "butt out, legs spread, back arched." Definitely sounds dirty. Then for dead lifts you have to arch your back, spread your legs and basically look like a body builder. Well the other day I did both exercises in a very crowded weight room and I was feeling GREAT. My confidence was through the roof and I was feeling like the queen of the wight room. I thought my weeks long fear of working out in front of others was coming to and end. Usher was blasting on my ipod and I did a little look in the mirror and felt like a rockstar. Until my ipod decided to remind me who's boss. Right at the absolute peak of my feeling of awesomeness, the song on my ipod changed to "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid. How "Under the Sea" got on my ipod? I have no idea. I try not to take responsibility of what ends up on the shuffle. My ipod was on high volume and I looked around the weight room as my dignity crumbled into a puddle on the floor next to my 20 lb squat weight. Yeah, my ipod reminded me how uncool I was just in case I forgot during my repetitions.

Highlight the text after the star to reveal which story is true * The true story is story number two. Yes, Sebastian from The Little Mermaid put me in place right when my head was getting a bit too big. For now on I monitor my ipod shuffle a bit more closely.