Then He Stood There

There isn’t usually anyone in the weight room who isn’t exercising.  Today there was a guy standing around.  I was lost in my music but I tried to nod at him as I walked passed to pick up the dumbbell I use, first thing every day, leaning forward to pull up weight for my stomach muscles. He stood here.  Then he stood there.  Later he went outside. 

I was hard at work with what I’ll call the swivel exercise, the free standing pulleys you can draw out up or down from low to high at different points.  I use them to work my stomach and find them to be my favorite part of my routine.  For though I struggle with my positioning, I can handle most of the rack and certainly feel the effects on the part of my body I’d most like to strengthen.  (Shouldn’t that be my mind and not my stomach?).

I think the Rolling Stones “Sway” was up in my headset.  I was probably allowing myself to swing along, lost in Mick Taylor’s perfectly bended solo when suddenly the gent who wasn’t exercising suddenly tapped me on the shoulder.  This was unexpected.  “Yes?” I asked, as I pulled the earphones out and turned to see what he wanted.

“You’re crashing the weights” he stated.  “I realize you’re working with a lot of weight but . . .”  “Oh.”  I interrupted.  “Are they coming down too hard.”  “Yeah” he said with a smile that was a bit too self-interested for my taste, “they’re coming down to hard.”    “Sure.  Well I’ll see to that.”  And I continued, swinging two hundred pounds up and then, gently, as gently as I could, letting them return to rest.

Saturday 8/15/18