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A couple of weeks ago, I walked past the window of my gym and saw every treadmill in use, every runner synchronized with the next, and all of their senses consumed by the iPod-television combination. It was unnatural.  It was robotic.  It freaked me out.

How a space is designed determines what can be done in that space.  For example, a classroom is generally designed with a writing board at the front, rows of seats facing said board and little unallocated space otherwise.  This type of space facilitates one specific type of learning - I teach, you listen.  It does not lend itself to physical activity, it does not lend itself to group discussion (for sake of argument let's say the desks don't move), and it does not lend itself to experiential learning.  It does, however, lend itself to surveillance by the teacher of the students.

Now, let's look at the typical gym space.  Most gyms have all of the cardio equipment in the same area, often facing either windows or televisions.  All of the heavy weight machines that use plates are grouped together as are any newer hydraulic weight machines.  Free weights are grouped together by the benches.  Then there is always an area with mats for stretching with maybe some exercise and medicine balls near by.  I present you with the standard gym setting.  This space dictates what type of physical activities you perform and in what manner.  It is a space of discipline and self-surveillance.  Benches are often set at pre-determined distances apart, which means that those benches are only to be used for specific exercises and none of those exercises should require more room than what is provided.  Free weights are positioned in front of and near wall length mirrors so that each person can surveil his/her own form (not to mention the form of others).  Weights are also grouped together by heft; thus, separating the "men from the boys" so to speak, which in reality commonly separates the men from the women.  The only "open" space is the stretching area. It is the only area in which the space itself says - you may move your body in any way you like.  In every other space your movement is pre-determined.

The gym is an intimidating space.  It does not welcome freedom of movement. It does not welcome freedom of thought.  We wonder why our physical, emotional and mental health in the West is in such a state of disarray, and yet one of the few spaces dedicated to physical activity in urban settings is set up like a laboratory.  Compare the gym space to a dance studio or a martial arts dojo.  Both the studio and the dojo are large open spaces.  They allow for any formation of people.  They allow for intense physical exertion as much as they allow for quiet meditation.  These spaces promote large physical movements, which society says are unwelcome anywhere else (e.g., standing on a bus, waiting in line at the bank, having dinner at a restaurant).  These spaces also foster creativity, which is exactly what the gym space stifles.

Please understand that I write this, not as a hater of the gym, but rather a self-described "gym rat". I love the gym! I am grumpy if I do not go to the gym.  I love the discipline that the gym reproduces.  Yet, as much as the gym makes me feel happy, powerful, confident, and calm, I also realize that the gym, in many ways, chips away at our physical culture.  It produces (and reproduces) a limited notion of physical activity.  The gym, unlike our childhood playgrounds, provides structure to something that began as completely unstructured.  The monkey bars and imagination of our youth are replaced with kettle bells and the Food Network (ever notice that every gym plays the Food Network?), music and magazines.  These distractions become necessary because there is nothing natural about humans running on treadmills.  Should we be surprised that the healthiest countries in the world are those that predominately partake in unstructured physical activity? When I walk by gym windows it's like walking past human aquariums.  Glass is used to contain creatures that are not natural to that environment.  The gym space, I believe, does not facilitate physical activity, but physical passivity.  It does not foster health, as much as it breeds discipline.

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