Now that I’ve been faithfully going to the Y five times a week, I have had time to become thoroughly disgusted by some of the things I see. Here are the four things they don’t tell you about when you get your YMCA membership:
1) Occasionally, old men will walk through the place in really short shorts or spandex shorts. They must be re-living their youth. They’re showing way too much skin. I’m guessing they don’t have a woman at home to tell them how to dress. I wish they had somebody.
2) Kids, kids, kids. A lot of parents seem to look at the Y as a house of babysitting. So they drop their kids off and let them romp through the place, unsupervised. They get in the way.
3) Wipe off the machines when you’re finished using them. This is done as a matter of practice at the Northeast Y, my personal favorite. It doesn’t seem to be done much at all at the West Y.
4) Grunting on the weight machines. I recognize lifting weights can be difficult and, at times, excruciating. But if you’re grunting while you’re lifting, you’re trying to life too much weight. I think some of the men who make noises while they lift believe it sounds macho. Nope, fellas, it sounds pathetic.