I'm Ray, 33, and I have to tell you about what happened today at the gym! I go to the Curves gym, yes, I know it's supposed to be for women, but it was cheap and it's on the way to my office. Every day I lift for about an hour before work. Usually there's no men there at the time I go, so it's hard to do some things like benchpress, when I need a spot. But today, I was lucky, and this dude I never saw here before walked in just as I was finishing triceps pushdowns.
I watched him go in to the locker room, in khakis and a polo shirt, much like the costume I wore into the gym, and will leave in for work. Less than five minutes later he walked out of the locker room, now in a t-shirt and tiny shorts. These were like the kind a gym teacher would have worn in 1980. This dude looked younger than me, who knows where he got this kind of shorts. Anyway, as he approached the free weights, I walked over there to intercept him. As I mentioned, I don't often get a chance to bench heavy, so I wanted to take advantage of having a spotter.
I said hi to him, and introduced myself. He told me his name was Mike, and he was from Maksim, a town maybe an hour away. He worked at a company I knew well, it was in the same office park as my company, about five minutes away. I asked him if he minded to spot for me, I wanted to get a few sets in on the weight bench. Mike was happy to do it, he said, but he wanted to get a few reps of warmup on his biceps first. I watched him curl the 70lb dumbbells, slow up, hold, slow down. I don't normally stare at dudes lifting, and caught myself making a huge weightroom faux pas.