Olympians, Positive Reinforcement, and My Gym.

I was chugging along on the treadmill the other morning at my gym - and by chugging along I of course mean "running like a gazelle at a much higher level than everyone else because I'm in peak physical condition and am in fact the perfect human specimen" - anyway I was chugging along on the treadmill at my gym the other morning when all of a sudden a voice comes over the loudspeaker and starts talking to me and my fellow amateur athletes. He identifies himself as a U.S. Winter Olympian of some sort and then proceeds to explain that he became an Olympian by working hard everyday, just as we're doing now, and reassures us that all our hard work will most definitely get us the results we desperately hope for. The gym PA system then returns to its regularly scheduled programming of current Top 40 hits. Since I'm both caught in the throes of a workout and listening more to my ipod than anything else, I give the message no further thought.

A few minutes later, as I'm getting my things together in the locker room, another voice breaks in- this time in the middle of one of the myriad forgettable Black Eyed Peas tracks currently circling about in our airspace. A female now introduces herself, and congratulates all of us in the building for coming in so early in the morning (it's a little before 7am). She basically lays down the same message as her countryman before her, only at the end she reminds us that in order to reach our excersize goals we're going to have to keep coming to the gym (and paying our dues) as we have today.

At first I was pretty impressed with 24 hour fitness. Pretty good marketing idea, I thought. Get some of these guys to give us some encouraging words, align the gym with the U. S. of A., and hopefully motivate us to pay the extra scratch for a personal training session or something. But in the car ride to work I started to realize that the slight twinge in my stomach I'd felt during those messages was one of embarrassment. These PA system interludes give you the feeling that you're being addressed directly, as an individual. And that's kind of an embarrassing thing to participate in when you're in your workout clothes in front of a bunch of strangers. Everyone's kind of forced to look away and pretend that they're ignoring the lecture, which of course you can't because it's emanating from every speaker in the building.

Perhaps a more private approach would be more effective. Why not let me come to the message at my leisure by putting a well-designed ad in my locker or something? Instead of a getting called out in front of the whole gym population, I could have a discreet, private conversation: "Psst, hey you. Yes you Justin. I just wanted to say that you're a stud for getting in here today even though you've got 12 hours of work ahead of you and you didn't get to bed until past midnight last night. Keep it up dude." No loud theatrics, just a quiet nudge of encouragement from a respected athlete. A short paragraph visible to your eyes only would come off as much more sincere than an obviously pre-recorded voicemail-type announcement. Now then, I'm off to bed. The U.S. Olympic Bobsled Team is counting on me to show up at the gym tomorrow morning.