I decided to go to the gym last night. I never go to the gym during the week. I have a thing about being out late on a work night. I like to come home straight from work and stay in for the rest of the night. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's a left-over from Boston winter nights when it was all I could do to get from the office building to my car in the freezing cold, taking care not to slip on any of the icy patches in my mad dash for warmth.
Or maybe not. Lagos traffic is crazy. On the way to my house, it builds up the later you stay out up till a certain time, after which it starts to subside.
Anyway, so I decided to go the gym. Normally I like to work out to DVDs or tapes at home, but lately I've grown bored of this and so have done nothing. The only time I'd visit the gym was on Saturday mornings. On the urging of one of my fellow gymmers, I decided to go more. She promised me that it would be fun. I'd get my much needed work-out and the traffic home wouldn't be so bad.
So I did. Wow, so many people work out. I had NO IDEA! I feel so ignorant. Well, how was I to know? On Saturday mornings, it's fairly quiet with about 4 to 5 people in my aerobics class. Last night, I could not even count all the people in the Step/Kick-boxing class. The patrons extended all the way to the back of the aerobics area - this does NOT happen on Saturdays. Well, I guess I can see why. These people all work out so faithfully during the week that they need to rest on Saturdays. I felt like such a lazy cow.
Nigerians have always been a very image-conscious people, though we don't tend to suffer from many of the same body image issues as Westerners. In recent years though, it's become increasingly fashionable for women to be slim. However, it's still been okay for men to sport huge, distended bellies (it's a sign of good living and that their wives are taking good care of them). I guess this is changing now? Or maybe not. I don't know. I guess there are people who have always been into fitness and not part of any new fad that might be sweeping the nation - afterall, I've always loved working out even when I was as skinny as a rake.
3 comments:
Reading this post just amped me more about coming to Nigeria. I'm such a gym rat now that I was finding it hard to think that I wouldn't head to the gym every other day. But it looks like there is at least one gym (if not more!) in Lagos. This really makes me a happy camper:)
Oh, you'll definitely find a few gyms in Lagos. I can only speak about the island, where you have Proflex (THE gym to see and be seen - I don't go there).
Ikoyi Club has a gym, which used to be crap but I think it's been upgraded recently. You have to be a member of the club to go though.
Eko Hotel has 2 gyms: an apparently really posh one that you pay through your nose for (another gym for the island's Big Boys and Big Girls); and the dingy one at the back of the hotel (which is where I go). I love my gym though. I say that you have to be a serious gym rat to go to such a place. LOL!!!!!
'Eni to ba yokun lo ma gbe owo fun' (the money goes to the pot bellied felow)
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