“Have you seen that weirdo who comes in and reads a paper whilst sitting on a bike?”

I was listening to a personal trainer at my gym speak to another.

“Oh yeah. He comes in at lunchtime and sits there pedalling and reading! Does he not know a gym is for training?” Replied the other.

Unfortunately, I’m the weirdo who would reads a paper!

It happened when I worked in Edinburgh. The highlight of my working day was to pop out at lunchtime to the gym but rather than sit bored on an exercise bike staring at a wall I’d read the complimentary Daily Mail that the gym provided.

It helped to pass the time during a very boring working day.

The other reason why I did it – I was training for a marathon and would run in the evening so I didn’t want to kill my legs at lunchtime.

So I’m not a weirdo. I’m just making the best use of my time by learning and exercising.

Which leads me to the reason I write this. The strangest things I’ve seen in the gym

• Today, I jogged next to a women who was wearing a big grey hoody jumper with the hoody up. Which is OK if you’re outside and its cold but we’re inside on a running machine in a very warm gym!
• A man sitting naked cross-legged on a bench cutting his toenails. Not a care in the world as his nails ping’d this way and that!
• A man doing ballet on gym mats. It would have been beautiful and graceful if he wasn’t wearing a see through leotard. The gym made him get changed
• A man singing Cher’s hit song “Believe” a the top of his voice as he did his weights. For a big guy he could really hit the high notes well!
• A squad of cheerleaders working out….actually that one was pretty good.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen?