ESR-Social Situation

XSport Fitness

Place: I joined XSport a few weeks ago and have been attending almost daily. I'm usually at the gym about 7 pm every night. Majority of the the time it is very busy, very packed, and loud. There are two floors to this gym. The downstairs consists of a pool, treadmills, ellipticals, a gym, and a variety of machines for specific core areas of the body. Upstairs consists of a lot of the free and heavy weights, which is pretty much considered the men section, and then theres a few machines on the other side of the floor for the women. As sexist as it may seem, I have met some women who are too shy to work out with the men. Next to the women's section, there are two studios for classes and cycling.


Actors: The actors in this situation would be the members, trainers, and staff within XSport. The members are either working out individually, in pairs, or in small groups. Those that work out individually usually have their Ipods on or watching on of the TVs set up. Those that are working out in pairs are usually a member working with a trainer. The trainers push the members to their limits and test their boundaries. Finally, there are members who work in groups of about 3. It gives them a chance to talk while working out, as well as push each other on the machines. The staff of XSport are usually working at the front desk where they will see you check in, make a drink for you if you'd like, ring up any orders that you may have, or even answer any questions or concerns.


Activities: On this particular evening, I was just observing three male individuals working out together. The way that they were working out, is that they would each take a turn doing an exercise while the other two would encourage their friend and count the number of reps he was doing. They did a series of exercises, almost as if they were competing against each other. But, from personal experience, that is to be expected. I also saw them looking around the gym a lot too, almost as if they were comparing themselves to the other members there, or simply just observing who was there. Once they had finished downstairs with their exercises, they moved to the machines and continued their competition there.

Even as I was observing this group of men working out, I glanced around the gym observing some of the other members as well. One thing that I noticed from many of the members is that they all look around at others working out. Whether they are just curious about the other members in the gym, or if they were judging their fellow members, taking in their appearances and making judgment calls to themselves. I then realized that I glance around a lot at my fellow member too. Personally, though, it's just out of mere curiosity.