OC Gym Culture: Home of the Broski

I've recently joined a gym. So far this has been a great decision, but it has reminded me about the types of people that go to the gym. I knew upfront that there would be beefcakes when I decided to join, but my most interesting observation has centered around another gym goer.

Music has a great way of setting the mood. Gym music is generally designed around this concept blending modern top 40 with pounding rhythm of the gym cacophony. I had forgotten my iPod yesterday and was subject to the mercy of the gym XM channel. All of a sudden a true gem of alternative rock came over the ambient speakers. "Stacy's mom has got it goin on..." What a great tune. I looked around the upstairs cardio area and realized that I was surrounded by a bunch of "Stacy's moms". Yes, the real housewives of Orange County, at the corporate LA Fitness at four o'clock on a Thursday afternoon. After all, no mother with any real responsibility could afford to gym it up at 4 in the afternoon. One OCmom was on the elliptical and clearly "workin it". The best thing about an OCmom is that when a young, firm high school girl walked by them to use a treadmill, they didn't follow her with judging eyes, dreaming of the days when they too were nubile. No. These moms still believe that they are as they once were.

I can't decide which is a more disturbing image. The OCmom that treats the gym like a second, forbidden, and exotic sexual partner. Or the beefcake that looks like Jude Law and his Latin friend who drink a creamy pink liquid while they groan in each others faces and check themselves out in the wall of mirrors by the weights. These guys watch with judging eyes as guys like myself (who can generally hold my own at the gym) work with weights a fraction as heavy as their own in a college underarmour shirt and my high, running style shorts. I pay them no mind. If i wanted to look like a roided Jude Law, I'd adjust the hair on my balding head too, drink creamy pink liquid and constantly scan for chicks to walk by before starting my reps.

I would say that the gym-goers fortunetly have a "do your own thing man" attitude. Generally we're good natured. I wonder if other people are preturbed by bra-less moms and beefcakes, although I'm starting to think that the two compliment eachother beautifully. Cougars and broskis getting ready for the weekend charge into irresponsibility and an overindulgence in the virtual identity making guys like myself gratefull that I don't subscribe to this particular form of bullshit.