Gym Experiences in China Part 3

In my previous posts, I talked about some the things that I enjoyed about going to the gym in China, and some of the people that I encountered there. Of course, not everything was peachy keen. In this blog entry, I will talk about thing that I did not particularly care for.

The Music

If you thought that Top 40 or Justin Bieber are bad to lift to, you will thank whatever deity you worship for those musical choices should you choose to workout in China (at least at the gym that I went to). The music that they played did not get the blood pumping at all, and would be more suitable for a Chinese soap opera, or during a post-workout massage. To make matters worse, the bros working out often sang along off-key as they lifted. Although my stance on bringing a music player to the gym has not changed over the years, I was tempted to bring my phone just to play some Metallica, Disturbed, or Marvin Gaye (the latter of which would be appropriate in the presence of that hot PT from part two).

The Lack of Cleanliness

Compared to most places in the U.S.A. that I have been to, Japan, and Taiwan, Mainland China generally does not live up to the standards of cleanliness that I am accustomed to. When hitting the gym, especially in the hot, humid environment of Guangzhou, I expect there to be sweat. Unfortunately, there were no spray bottles of sanitizer to wipe down equipment after someone just left a puddle of sweat on them. Luckily for me, the gym provided towels, so I used theirs to wipe up sweat, and my own to wipe sweat from my body.

The Hours of Operation

I like to workout early in the morning before I go to work, so I usually hit the gym around five in the morning, come home, shower, get my protein, then head off to work. The gym that I went to, as well as most of the other gyms in the area, opened at 9:00 and closed at 22:00. I would be forced to go after work, but if I had found a job in Guangzhou with the same schedule that I worked in Xi'an, I would have been confined to hitting the gym on my days off. The upside to this was that the gym was pretty much empty when I went, allowing me to rotate around the equipment without having to wait for others.

If you want to read about my overall experience at my Chinese gym, then click here, and if you want to read about the denizens of the gym that I went to, then check out this post.