RE: A Fresh Perspective
Did you think this would turn into a guest post from my aforementioned fiancé? Me neither. Please enjoy!
Editor’s note: In my prior post I mentioned that my fiancé is how I get into Planet Fitness, but that we are definitely not a “gym couple.” She had some more thoughts on that, so, what the heck, let’s do the first ever Dunk Day guest post (funny enough, her nickname to some of our friends is Guest, long story). Please note that none of this was prompted and these are her unfiltered thoughts, italicized for emphasis. Gym couples, look away.
Hello gentle reader (too Bridgerton not enough dunk day?). You may have noticed this is in fact not Tim but the previously mentioned fiancé with a Planet Fitness membership. While Tim has been diligently educating you on his dunking journey, I’ve been doing some important educating myself. My contribution was nothing in terms of plyometrics or jumping (if you ask my family, they would agree I may be the worst consult when it comes to jumping advice) but rather the concept of the gym couple. Are you familiar with this term? Do you wish you were a gym couple? Have you been victimized by a gym couple?
To rewind a bit, I do have a super fancy Planet Fitness membership. For $23, I get access to any PF in the country, and it allows me to bring a guest with me each time I go to the gym (yes this is a brag). I had not much utilized this second perk until earlier in the year. Tim had embarked on his dunk journey, and I was seeking some accountability for myself so we started going together on Saturdays.
Enter the gym couple phenomenon. As someone who was single for most of her life and generally hated the gym, gym couples are not my cup of tea. Here’s what I mean. I would loosely describe them as a couple that enjoys going to the gym together, shares equipment, likely gets in your way due to inefficiently using the space for the sake of being near each other, and shows a bit too much PDA (yes I am a crotchety old women at heart).
Therefore, I agreed to go to the gym with Tim but only on the condition that we didn’t really acknowledge each other’s existence once we arrived. I check him in then coordinate when to meet him at the front when we are done. He occasionally gives me a high five towards the end of our respective workouts and if we are being fully honest, I fear judgement from the other haters like me.
What has really been fascinating to me is learning about different people’s perspectives of gym couples. I think I have made my feelings known by this point. Tim on the other hand was completely unaware of this label and generally confused when I brought it up. Wild! This whole situation has made me genuinely curious. Did I make this up? What gym couple hurt me? Do other people feel the way I feel? Is this just a girl thing?
I will say the perk of this non-gym couple, gym couple arrangement is that I do get to see (from a distance) Tim’s progress. I’ve seen his dedication to these workouts and how he always seems to be pushing himself to do something more when I look over (again from a distance). I can attest that every day is in fact leg day and that he can jump higher than when I met him. Getting to share these moments almost makes me think those gym couples might be onto something by getting to spend time together and supporting each other in their fitness goals…almost.
Editor’s note: Tell us your feelings on gym couples in the comments. We will resume “regular” Dunk Day programming in the next post, whenever that is, roughly one month in the future. Thanks for jammin with us!