A month ago, I was at the gym working out and the most alarming thing happened; someone spoke to me. That was the second time in two months. Both times, these dudes didn’t even care that I had a headset in. They just started talking anyway! Like the first time, I started to think I was hearing voices, then I turned my head and saw a man speaking. He was already into a conversation I didn’t even realize we were having. Of course, I welcomed the conversation and paused my music.

I felt terrible because he was so far into what he was saying, while I on the other hand, had no clue. The reason I didn’t see him was because I had already done a set and had my arms blocking my view of the machine next to me. That plus music made me unaware he was even there. I took my headphones out and we started talking about the piece of exercise equipment we were both on. It is the kind where you lay on your back, on a bench, and use arm bars to lean forward into a crunch. He felt that it was effective at working out the abdominal muscles.

Shortly after that, he went into all kinds of details about a shoulder operation that he had. Due to the surgery, he was unable to do certain exercises for last two years. He kept talking and got into his workout schedule and mentioned how he could never get a good workout in because people were always talking to him. I tried hard not to roll my eyes as I realized at this point who was doing most of the talking. It almost made me feel bad to listen to him talk so long because there I was listening to him, keeping him from his exercise like all the others. It got so bad that he felt the need to exercise on weekends because there were so few people in there to distract him.

I felt like my new friend had himself to worry about and less about others distracting him from his workout. I’m sure it happens with a friendly fellow like that. The plain and simple truth was that the man liked to talk to people. What is shocking to me, is how we often get in the way of our own goals because we become easily distracted. Of course, I will always make time for small talk with people. I think it’s good to interact with others. But in the gym, I am so used to being ignored by everyone around because they are always listening to something, living in their own world apart from the rest of us. I will say that it’s great to take a break for conversation. As for my new friend, I hope he continues to reach out and speak with people. But for his sake, I hope he is still able to get an actual workout in!