So now that I've become pretty comfortable at school and have a slight idea about my current surrounding I wanted to share my stories of the Korean GYM.
First off, the gym is expensive. 10 mon won (translating to 100 dollars a month)gets me access to classes such as yoga, kpop dance and stretching as well as full access to a rather small but nice set of gym machines, eliptical, bikes, and set of weights and never has the same two weights in the same place. I also enjoy the attention of 3 personal trainers that are on the floor at all times, usually just greeting members as they walk in but also swarming me when I come in to help me work out and also selfishly practice their English. I doubt that knowing about how my weekend was as anything to do with my abdominal workout, but it is very amusing to hear them try.
I get shouted at "ABDOMINALS IMMEDIATELY" or "POSE" he means "PAUSE" but even after correcting his pronunciation he still says POSE, so I POSE, give him the peace sign or put on hand on my hip and turn my face into BLUE STEEL.
I am getting ahead of myself though, there is also an elaborate labyrinth of lockers and keys that I have to maneuver through each day to even get into the gym.
The gym may not be incredibly spacious and is totally dwarfed when I think of the epic Lifetime fitness or even the YMCA gyms that I have been to back in America, but it does take up 3 floors.
The elevator takes me up to the 3rd floor of a huge building which is the main lobby area, this is where I scan my keychain and receive my uniform. YES,I said UNIFORM, everyone at the gym wears the same outfit, it is blue for boys and red for girls. You also get a sauna towel as well as a receipt. Then I venture into the locker room, only to stop maybe two feet in to take my shoes off before I step on a large wooden plank. The shoes go into a tiny locker and i retrieve the key. Walking another two feet I give the receipt that I got with my uniform as well as the shoe key to a nice lady who at this point already has my other key ready bc I always put my shoes into locker number 102. I get the key for the other 102 locker which is where I can put my clothes while I work out. It is larger and even has a nice wooden hanger. They are not messing around. As I make my way to the locker I encounter on average 4.7 naked women above the age of 60. There is a sauna adjacent to the locker room and they (and now I as well) have no shame walking around and enjoying their fresh and clear birthday suits. After changing into my clothes and putting on my socks I go up a set of stairs that is lined with, you guessed it, more lockers. These lockers are for gym shoes, so you walk out of the locker room with only your socks. You leave the clothes key in the locker as you put on your shoes and this locker is a combination one, so you have nothing weighing you down as you work out.
Now comes the fun part- the actual gym. I forgot the mention that though both the ladies and gentlemen check in on the 3rd floor the men have to hike up a set of stairs to get to their locker room, but the gym-shoe-locker-stairs are unisex. SOOO...get ready for some heart pounding hip hop to hit you when you enter the main gym area on the 5th floor. It is se7en heaven, a girl's generation "secret" and everything in between, they also have the good notion of playing a few big bang songs just to make me happy! The running machines line the back wall, facing out to the street so you can stare at the row of delicious restaurants and imagine how much chicken you would be consuming if you were not at the gym. The middle of the gym is two rows of workout machines that look very new. What threw me off initially (which should have been quite obvious given that I live in Korea) was the the weights are on a different system of measurement, so I was quite surprised for a while when the 15 lbs was giving me a run for my money, I multiplied it by 2.2 and then didn't feel so bad.
So yes, the trainers at my gym are great, all under the age of 28 they are very helpful and very attentive. I thought I knew how to work out but I was very very wrong. A simple adjustment of my arm position or another way to lift my legs gives me a completely different level of intensity in my workout. Leg raises and arms is where I had been seeing it the most so two days ago I jokingly told my favorite trainer (the one who insists that I do everything IMMEDIATELY)that my legs were not getting a good enough work out and that he was taking it TOO easy on me. Well, needless to say I have not been able to walk down a flight of stairs since I made that careless remark because he took me through 5 different exercise, with 3 sets of 20 in each that literally left my legs shaking and I needed to grab on to several handrails to make it out of there. I love that feeling, the feeling of getting my money's worth.
Classes- I have only taken yoga and kpop dance so far, so there are still a few unexplored choices on the menu, but they are pretty fun. The first yoga class I ever went to was a partner class, I had to step on an old woman's feet and she made weird sounds sometimes. Better luck next time. Another class that I attend more regularly is the dance class, they basically play all the hits of the radio and we learn the choreography. Being that this class has a very regular audience when I first started I was probably 8 counts and a lot of crazy hand motions behind everyone else. I calculated that since one complete new dance takes up about a week to learn that those people have probably been attending for months thanks to a flashy show of dances they are able to recall as soon as the music starts playing. I did learn one complete dance though and have to pride myself of the amount of umph I put into every butt shaking move. I have also learned that though I was oblivious to this the trainers actually check to see if I am attending bc the one class I missed last week two of them asked why I did not come and another one informed me that he looked last time to see if I was there. I am not sure everyone else's attendance is accounted for, must be a miguk saram thing.
So then there is also the matter of coming back to the locker room and soaking up some lovin from the 5 different pools. Imagine 3 jacuzzi tubs, but way way bigger and each one has an electronic temperature gage, one is always bubbling at a piping 41 degrees, the next one is around 44 degrees and has purple water in it. The last one is even hotter, usually a 46. Then there are two pools in the back, a deep one set at 35 and a very cold one, 19 degrees that also sports jets that hang from the ceiling that you press when you have just jumped in after being in the sauna, boy do they tickle. It actually feels like icicles are being projected at your body in rapid progression until it hurts. The upside to this torture is that it feels amazing after being in the suffocating heat and my skin has never been softer. Literally, I don't think I have ever had better skin. So as i alluded to, there are also three sauna rooms. Now as a cautious mother should, my mom in America (read: real mother) warned me about staying in sauna's for too long. I read up on it and it seems like the saunas that i visit for MAYBE 5 minutes, 10 if I am really feeling like a champion are much cooler that the traditional ones in Finland. However, of the three rooms, one is made entirely out of some special green rocks that do not absorb any moisture so it is incredibly humid and the heat just hovers and clings onto your body. It is advised that people sit in the sauna, on the floor, because it is the coolest place. BUT, I like to watch the TV so I stand, it helps the time pass a little faster. After going through the jacuzzi and sauna and then cold jacuzzi process, which never takes me more than 15 minutes, including the times before and after when you shower your body, I feel like I never want to wear clothes again. I also lose about a pound of water during the process because every pore I ever imagined having is getting rid of those toxins like a mother-fer.
I dry off, change into clean clothes, give my clothes locker key to the lady and then get my shoes locker key, put those on once ive cleared the wooden plank and go home. The entire process of going to the gym takes me now 2 hours. If I take a class and really enjoy my soak, I have been known to get home at 10:30 after a 7:45 leave time. I really enjoy this alone time though and my host family knew from the beginning that i loved to undungheyo, so they are not surprised anymore.
I hope I didn't forget anything important about the gym and gave you all a little peak at what a true Korean health club is all about. PEACE!
