Technology Diary 4: Gyms

One thing I’ve noticed is that my gym is basically split by gender. There seems to be a consensus in the gym that the first floor is where everyone goes so both men and women are comfortable exercising there, but when you go to the second floor, you will very rarely see a women there even if the machines on the first floor are all taken. Unfortunately I never use the second floor myself even though there are a lot of machines up there that I enjoy using. The only time I’ll see women go upstairs is to get to the classrooms on the side of the second floor.

I would say  the second floor of my gym is somewhat intimidating. I would say it isn’t due to the machines upstairs being harder are more for men. If anything I would say it’s because they put all the heavy weights upstairs and all the light weight downstairs. So the heaviest weight you’ll find on the first floor will probably be around 10 pounds yet when you get upstairs it’s all 20 – 100 pounds. The way things are set up splits the gym up by gender because the men will more likely want to use the heavier weights. Even if a woman wanted to use one of the heavier weights I feel like they wouldn’t in gym just because the testosterone level is intimidating upstairs. There will be so many guys in the corner with their weights and absolutely no women on the second floor, not even on the treadmills that often women just go back downstairs because they feel out of place.  I remember I went with my cousin to try out the machines on the second floor and I left pretty fast just because the atmosphere on the second floor felt awkward to me.

Even though there are more guys on the second floor exercising, you will always find more women in the classroom.Whenever I go to my yoga class there will only be one or two guys maximum in a class of more than 20. I think it’s interesting to see how some people make not take part in some activities simply because they think that it isn’t for their gender in a way. I think the gym creates more of a gender barrier on what the men and women should participate in and causes people to flock only to certain things. When I took yoga in high school for example where the setting was more loose, half my yoga class would be filled with guys simply because they just naturally signed up for it and there wasn’t this gender specific barrier that was established.