I've been hanging around the gym for years, and I don't understand why it took me so long to recognize one of the obvious truths of gym life. It is this:
There aren't many skinny people at the gym. Sure, there are a few who are occasionally seen shooting baskets, stretching on the mats, jumping rope or lifting weights to build up their slender upper bodies.
But you don't find them riding the exercise bikes, strolling on the treadmill, laboring up the stair climber, pushing or pulling on one of the weight machines, or sitting in the steam room, hoping, that through each of those activities, they might shed an ounce. If that should happen, they'll surely be back the next day or the day after, trying to lose another ounce and another and another, until it amounts to a whole pound.
That's today's typical gym population. Years ago, it was much different. Attendance at gyms was sparse, limited mostly to guys meeting for some one-on-one basketball, to play racquetball, or to punch the heavy bag. They were there more for recreation than for work.
The majority of today's gym participants -- I'm not calling them gym enthusiasts -- are there to work, rather than play. Fitness, health and longevity are the common goals for men and women. And the majority have another common bond: They all seem to have ample physiques.
That's a nice word, isn't it? Ample. It came to me just like that. Bingo. I was trying to avoid some of the common pejorative words used in descriptions of people with ample physiques, and I didn't know quite where I was going. Then it just came to me.
Ample is a pleasant, nonjudgmental, umbrella phrase that embraces a whole range of adjectives. It permits the user to avoid such negative words as heavyset, hefty, burly, bulky, beefy, husky, paunchy, portly, full-figured, stout ... the list goes on.
Various other terms have been used in the past, but since I've discovered ample, I might as well use it, avoiding such blunt synonyms as obese, fat and overweight. I can use any of these words without fear of being accused of being intolerant of the majority because, well, I have always been ample.
This raises a perplexing question? Where do all the skinny people go while their ample friends and colleagues are perspiring at the gym or running around the park? Are they in court, arguing a big case; on the phone, closing a major deal; or at a customer's office, picking up a substantial order? Are they at the movies or shopping at the mall? Or are they taking a nap?
I know a skinny person so I called him to see whether he could offer an explanation. I never realized what a snide and mean spirited individual he was until that very moment.
"I know that some of the people at the office go to the gym at noon," he said. "I hope they enjoy themselves. I usually go out and have a nice relaxing lunch."
That answer didn't provide much help or much comfort, either. Here is a guy whose primary virtue is his metabolism, and he insisted on making light of a serious journalistic quest for the skinny on skinny.
Back to ample.
This is the season when weight becomes a major issue. It happens in the wake of the holidays, when even vigilant eaters gain five pounds. At the beginning of each year, the population steps on the scale, then takes a look at itself in a full length mirror and recoils in horror. Commercials fill the airwaves for weight loss programs and health clubs. ("Join now for just $99 and become a new you.")
At the bookstore, they have inventoried a supply of the year's latest diet books and at the library all the standard weight loss books are already out on loan. For the talk shows, the subject is usually carbohydrates vs. protein, and seldom does anyone have a good word to say about sugar.
At the supermarket, shoppers are blocking traffic as they clog the aisles, standing and studying the boxes of the "light" and "low fat" items, trying to decide if the reduction is worth the extra money and the additional sodium.
Is it worth all the effort?
Allow me to cite the case of a gym participant who returns each winter on one of those three month, $99 memberships. He's back again, and he is just as ample as he was a year ago
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