Break out of the gym

I can’t remember the last time I used a piece of fitness equipment that required electricity. It must have been sometime in the winter when it was too cold and wet to run outside and I attempted to run on a treadmill.

Every morning I walk past gyms crowded with equipment in San Francisco’s Financial District. From the outside it reminds me of staring into a hamster’s cage while it runs around and around on its wheel. I don’t know whether I should be entertained or feel sorry for those people stuck in a tiny space sweating with 20 other strangers on a Tuesday morning.

Less than a mile away is one of the most popular places to go to run, ride a bike, or exercise: the Embarcadero. Whenever runners pass me on the way to the beautiful street that follows the piers and the bay, I instantly want to drop everything and follow them.

I’m not sure I could ever go back to being another hamster on the wheel after so many months of learning to love exercising outdoors or at least in open gyms without any equipment that runs on electricity.