Does anyone do normal exercise anymore?

I run 6 miles every day, do sessions of press/sit up’s & lift my own weights.
Old school & it works just fine for me, stick your gym up ya arse!

It feels like crossfit and yoga are being forced upon everyone at my gym

I understand your concern. The fitness industry is not mostly about fitness, it’s about whatever sells.

People running a gym will do what paying customers want. They have to pay the rent and utilities and insurance and salaries.

Accept reality. Find a different gym or buy your own weights.

About 20 years ago, it was all about step aerobics. People got hurt on those stacking steps (my personal ordeal – I felt my left meniscus tear when an instructor was having the class swivel and spin-around on top of the steps, an injury that eventually required surgery.) Today, there are no step options – zero, zip, nada – on my health club’s class schedule.

For a brief while, the slide took over; a sheet of slick material with stops on either end, for people to use with cushy socks and slide energetically back-and-forth. That thing caused all sort of joint problems, what with aggressive sliding and sudden stops. I once saw a woman’s body continue sliding after her feet had hit the stop; she landed hard and broke her arm.

As @jaytkay said, health clubs go with fads and whatever sells. Some of the ideas out well – spinning has been around forever and is still popular – but most fade away.

I laughed when I read your comment about big ropes and rubber bands. I’ve never understood how anyone could benefit from holding the ends of those silly ropes and waving them up-and-down. As for walking around with ankle bands, doesn’t that seem like the perfect recipe for somebody to trip, fall, and be injured?

Another great one is picking a medicine ball up above your head and then slamming in on the ground. They love doing that as well.

Using a machine is “normal” exercise?

When I clicked I thought you were going to talk about chopping wood or hiking.

How is using 15,000 dedicated machines more “normal” than weight lifting or yoga?

I’m curious what you mean by “normal.” Yoga has been around for thousands of years longer than exercise machines and is a standard part of the physical education curriculum in some countries (including India with its population of 1.2 billion). And even if we’re restricting ourselves to Western culture, deadlifts are an extremely common exercise for weightlifters (and one that is in the Olympics).

Machines have only been around for about 50 years. Moreover, they are inferior to other methods of weight training (particularly free weights). It’s also very difficult to train certain muscles through the use of machines alone and to train them in important ways. Machines are basically good for two groups of people: beginners and those who are higher risk of injury (e.g., the elderly or those going through rehabilitation). So that’s why you see all of the alternatives.

Yoga is done in a yoga studio or outside. People looking to do sit-ups on the sit-up mat shouldn’t have to wait till some lady gets done with her yoga dancing. I’m also all for free weights and standard exercises that came before machines. What I would really like is to have the crossfit people go to the crossfit gym and keep the yoga ladies in a room somewhere or outside.

Is this a serious Q? I honestly can’t tell. If it is, then save your gym membership money if you are dissatisfied with the scheduling, and walk and run and do stairs and get some weights for your home (they don’t take up much room) and do whatever you want whenever you want.
Normal exercise doesn’t happen at your gym.

I took “normal exercise” to mean the stuff that people remember from their high school gym classes – jumping jacks, pushups, wind sprints, etc., etc. That stuff isn’t sexy, and it certainly isn’t new or enticing, so it doesn’t sell health club memberships.

Scheduling? The sit up mat doesn’t have a schedule. I go to a huge gym with plenty of nice places for people to do yoga other than the sit up mat. They’re just inconsiderate ladies who want to bed over and show you their ass. And the crossfit nonsense in the middle of the weight room is the equivelant of me and someone else tossing a football back and forth in the weight room. I wouldn’t do that.

My answer stands. Don’t like it? Change it or leave it. That was my point. Don’t wanna look at yoga ladies’ asses? Don’t look. Don’t like the set up? Go somewhere else. You have choices.

My gym membership is $350 a month. I can’t go somewhere else. People just need to be normal.

@Buffaloman Do you have an unbreakable contract? $350 per month is a whole lot of money.

Because you’re called Buffaloman, and not Buffalowoman, don’t you enjoy seeing scantily-clad ladies doing dead-lifts, yoga poses, and jumping on top of things? Nature gave you about a 90% chance of liking the female body.

For $350 a month the yoga girls should offer a happy ending.

I cycle and walk in the fresh air where it doesn’t feel like exercise.

$350 a month? Wow. They sure got you! And of course you can go somewhere else. People “don’t need to be normal”. You need to get a clue. For $350 a month you should be able to buy at least a couple of clues.
Geez

OK, here’s a real answer to address your concerns. Form a group of fellow members that agree with you, then take this issue to management. They might be compelled, if enough people complain, to bow to your pressures.

@Love_my_doggie the good looking women aren’t the problem. It’s the older ladies who don’t want to exert themselves and workout so they create their own little yoga class on a mat intended for sit-ups.

@Buffaloman If the mat is “intended for sit-ups,” why not complain to the management about these impromptu yoga classes? Surely, the ladies could move their yoga sessions to a vacant studio or some other, general-purpose mat. If the women were to use a wood-floored studio, they’d each need to go through the effort of taking down a personal mat, cleaning it after their workout, and then returning it to the rack. But, hey, a little exertion seldom hurts anyone.

Oh, the older ladies, huh? Well, you should just smack dem uppity bitches! ~

Also, I’d assume the yoga ladies are paying the same rates, no? For $350, I’ll do yoga wherever I damned well please.

Intolerant much?

@Buffaloman If you are paying $350 a month, then you are going to a specialty club specifically designed for the activities you dislike. Complaining about people doing yoga and CrossFit at a specialty club is like complaining about an Italian restaurant serving pasta. The problem is you. Go get a membership at Gold’s or something. You’ll never have to see another person doing yoga or CrossFit on the main floor ever again.

What the heck is ‘normal’ exercise? I like to swim, cycle, walk, dance, lift weights and I never visit a gym.

As to the yoga ladies, I imagine they’re paying their $350 a year too. So I guess they could say you should wait for them to finish with the mat they’ve also paid to use.

If there aren’t enough mats, take it up with your gym. In saying that, how expensive is a mat? Buy one and do your sit-ups at home then nobody will be interfering with your sit-up schedule.

I thought the same as @Love_my_doggie I took “normal exercise” to mean the stuff that people remember from their high school gym classes – jumping jacks, pushups, wind sprints, etc., etc. That stuff isn’t sexy, and it certainly isn’t new or enticing, so it doesn’t sell health club memberships.

I think people tend to look for exercise they enjoy. Things like aerobics, step (I never liked step, only tried it twice) and now Zumba, in my opinion help satisfy the enjoyment to dance. Dance classes are a usually a fortune more than a gym membership. When I moved to a market where ballet classes were ridiculously expensive, $20 or $25 a class, I don’t remember exactly, I switched to Zumba.

Yoga has been around forever, as many people have mentioned. I never liked it much. I’m not good at it.

Enjoying exercise is such a gift. The primary reason. I get myself out to the Zumba class is because I enjoy it. When the class isn’t very good it’s frustrating, and then it become more about just getting some exercise. A few weeks of that and it’s harder to keep going back to do it.

It’s life gym, but not as we know it.

The better question is why do people now think they have to pay money and go to a gym to exercise. You couldn’t pay me to go to a germy sweaty gym. I do floor exercises at home and walk outside. Nice. Free. Clean.. Effective. Smart.