Making a Fool of Myself at the Gym

I tend to workout at night. You see, I'm not a fan of big crowds and loud noises and lots of commotion. My local health club during the day is exactly that and no matter how hard I try to avoid it during my day trips I end up right in the middle of it all. It's like it actively seeks me out.

At night time though, especially late night, the place is practically dead. I can go anywhere in any room and it would be a rare night to see two people there with the exception of an occasional couple who came together. Do you know how wonderful it is to have a full size Olympic swimming pool all to yourself? I do!

Though I've often made myself look like a fool in the pool my most embarrassing experience working out at the gym came in the exercise room. It was late one night and I had found my way to my favorite exercise machine, an elliptical running machine, put on my headphones and went to town. Now, when I started the room was completely empty and I didn't notice anyone come in so as each song passed I loosened up more and more, a slight head bop turning into a strong head bop which transformed into humming along to a few notes which transformed into singing along in my head. By the time I was done I was singing along out loud whole verses of the songs that were playing on mp3 player. When the timer finally ticked off an hour I turned off my mp3 player, quickly slowed to a stop (foolishly avoiding the cool down routine the machine suggested) and hopped off the machine.

I cleaned the machine with the solution provided on the shelf next to the equipment and started to walk away. And I made it a good three or four steps before falling flat on my face. You see, my body had gotten used to running at high speed with high resistance in the strange elliptical pattern the machine allowed for and since I had skipped the cool down and moved away so quickly my muscles still instinctively wanted to move in that motion.

I felt a bit stupid for tripping over my own feet but I hadn't hit anything so I didn't hurt myself and fortunately no one else was around to see.

Or so I thought. The sudden "Are you aright dude?" caught my attention and suddenly I realized that sometime during my workout someone else had come in and I hadn't noticed. I wasn't sure how long they had been listening to me singing along to the music only I could hear but I'm sure she caught at least some of it; Plus she got to see a grown man run on a machine for an hour only to trip and fall right afterwards.

Needless to say I assured her I was alright, thanked her for her concern and made a quick exit for the locker room to salvage a bit of my pride.