Vignette: Gender in the Gym

At 6:30 p.m., I found myself outside A-Fitness Zone in South Delhi. The thin shutter, located between a crammed row of houses, was half pulled down and looked shut. I usually went to the gym after 8:00 p.m. with my gym buddy Ratish, but today I came early because Ratish was busy later in the evening. The sound of music coming from behind the shutter seemed encouraging, so I lifted the shutter to enter. In the large rectangular basement, there were a few people working out but I could only recognise the trainer, Ashok. I went over to him and shook hands whilst scanning to see if I could spot my friend Ratish. He was not there yet. Instead of waiting for Ratish to arrive, I decided to start with my workout and walked over to the electric cycles.

As the loud Yo Yo Honey Singh tracks kept pouring out, I started on the cycle. I was advised only to spend ‘five minutes’ on the cycle because ‘nothing is going to change (pharak) with such airy (halke) exercises’, Ashok once told me. That evening, as I started, a young woman moved towards the treadmill. We did not look at each other, but she caught my attention because I had never seen a woman in the gym before. She pressed various buttons on the treadmill but there was no result, so she turned and called out to the trainer, ‘Ashok bhaiya (big brother).’ Ashok walked over slowly and she explained to him, ‘Bhaiya, this one is not working.’ To this Ashok knowingly responded, ‘Yeah, this one is not working,’ and turned off the main electric switch. He then asked her to move on to the second treadmill and started it for her.

A few minutes into my cycling, two young men came towards me to use the bench press. One of them was particularly muscular and the other seemed big but his body was not as well defined. At the bench press, the friends encouraged each other, saying ‘hit (maar) it, hit it more’ as they lifted heavy weights to develop their chests. One of the men egged his friend to lift a heavier weight as a ‘challenge’.