We wonder why americans are so fat.

[Steve Knight]

really cracked up with this picture.

[Leon]

Hey that is the new multi person "Stair Climber". It runs in reverse. LOL

[Luigi Zanasi]

After a couple of months of going to the gym, I realized the absurdity of driving there and then spending 20 minutes on an exercise bicycle or treadmill, especially since the 5km ride is mostly uphill both ways. But I did wimp out this winter despite having studded tires on my bike. Don't trust the drivers.

[B a r r y]

I've seen people waiting for the front row parking spots at my gym.

I've also fought with two gyms over a lack of bicycle parking. The first gym suggested that no one was interested in riding a bicycle to the gym, as the gym had stationary bikes.

My current place accommodated me, there are now 4 others who cycle to the gym! We get our cardio on the way to the gym, rather than in it.

Barry

[J. Clarke]

It's funny, but realistically odds are that the building was something else before it was a gym and it's cheaper to keep the escalators than to tear them out out and if they're not running then that gives a sense of disrepair.

OTOH, I like the idea of running them both down--they'd be a workout going in and when you've worn yourself out in the gym then they'd be a relief coming out.

[Lazarus Long]

[Lazarus Long]

I guess the only thing they can see is the business plan and not the results the customers are looking for. :( Kinda sad. Which gym is that? Might be a place to avoid.

[Leon]

That may very well be the case. The last guy on is taking a step and not holding on. Looks like he may not be riding. LOL

[Ian Wheeler]

When I was a memeber at the local gym a couple of years back, I could never understand why people parked illegally in the fire lane right outside the building rather than walking 100 yards from the back of the parking lot.

It happens everywhere.

Ian

[Larry Jaques]

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 22:04:09 -0800, the inscrutable Steve Knight spake:

No kidding. But the guy at the bottom is walking up the escalator, so he's only half bad.

-------------------------------------------- Proud (occasional) maker of Hungarian Paper Towels.

Comprehensive Website Design ======================================================

[mac davis]

Can't blame them, from a business standpoint... unless you're a life member, it's not it their interest for you to get in shape on the WAY there... Hell, if I owned the gym, I'd probably open a donut shop out front.. lol

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[B a r r y]

Both are local onesie-twosie Connecticut places. I started avoiding large gym chains in 1989.

The place that made an effort is Wow Fitness. The one that didn't is formerly known as Champions. The only upside of Champions is that you can get ice time year-round.

Barry

[B a r r y]

Lifting weights on the bike is difficult.

Barry

[Michael Daly]

Escher is the urban planner in your area?

Mike

[Hank Gillette]

Of course we can't tell if there are other businesses up on the plateau. And not everyone who goes to a fitness center is there to exercise.

[Mark & Juanita]

Well, since the roads were built for automobile traffic ....

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ The absence of accidents does not mean the presence of safety Army General Richard Cody +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Todd Fatheree]

Actually, most states have laws on the books that state that bicycles are "intended users" of the road system.

todd

[Mark & Juanita]

Yes, I know those laws are on the books. Doesn't change the fact that bicycles travel 10 to 20 mph below normal traffic speed, are at an extreme disadvantage, particularly on blind curves and are always going to be on the losing side of any encounter with a car.

Sorry, just hit a sore spot with me, I live in an area near subdivisions where people think that a narrow, 2 lane road with very narrow shoulders is a great place to go riding. This road also has blind curves where one coming around a corner could potentially hit a bicyclist travelling 25 MPH on a 40 MPH road in many cases, the bicyclists don't use the shoulder since the shoulder is barely there. The answer is *not* to penalize the people using the road for its *really* intended purpose by making the speed limit slower, it is hoping that somehow these recreational riders would gain a bit of wisdom and courtesy and realize that a) they are endangering themselves, and b) through their actions they are inconveniencing others, taking away time from those people who might also like to get home or get their business done so that they also can enjoy some recreational activities.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ The absence of accidents does not mean the presence of safety Army General Richard Cody +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Silvan]

Escalators. Outside. Escalators outside? Escalators OUTside?

Must be some left coast thing. A climate where it doesn't rain much, and only snows a few times a century.

Anyway, I hate escalators. They're too slow.

On the general topic though, some of you have probably seen that ad where the guy goes up to the lost & found desk with two jiggly pink blobby things. They turn out to be love handles. "Lots of people lose their love handles taking the stairs instead of the escalator."

Well, I'm here to tell you it ain't so. When SWMBO was in the hospital, I visited umpty times a day, and I only took the elevator down on the day they released her. I could almost always walk past the people waiting at the elevator, another 50-100' or so down the hall, then up four flights of stairs, then back 50-100' to the elevator, to be walking past as the baffled people from the ground floor were emerging. "How the hell did you get up here so fast?"

I bought a pedometer, and I was logging 10,000 steps a day easy.

It didn't do jack shit for my love handles, or my weight either one. All it did was further carve my already sculpted legs. Sculpted legs with a big blob of Hank Hill grafted on top. I'm a truck driver. I can leg press 500 pounds (or I could if my damn sorry ass knees were up for the strain) but above the waist I'm a bowl full of jelly.

My love handles are still firmly attached. I have legs that would make any leg wimminz (there are leg men, so there must be leg wimminz, right?) get all gah-gah, but everything north of there looks terrible. It's extremely depressing. (Well, my forearms are sculpted nicely too. Not quite Popeye, but getting in that neighborhood. I don't want to talk about my biceps though.)

[John]

A word of wisdom from my oldman. "It's better to be wrong and alive than right and dead" John