Locker Room Chatter

As I move work locations, I'm getting used to new routines. I will have to spend more time working out at my Stamford gym now that I won't be near my New York City corporate gym. It's been interesting in the last year to observe different gym cultures - particularly when it comes to the ladies locker room.

My corporate gym is abuzz in the early morning hours with the professional women all starting their day. The gym and locker room are small but sufficient, and I've found myself surrounded in the conversation of twenty- and thirty- somethings talking about their weekends in the clubs or worries about upcoming deadlines. Being a decade or two older than them, I often feel like an innocent bystander to my younger days.

At my Stamford gym, I'm a decade or two or even three younger than my fellow locker room ladies. They are talking about their weekends with their grandchildren or worries of upcoming medical procedures. I'm the innocent bystander foreseeing my older self. Sometimes I'm one of only a handful of women during the early morning or late evening hours as I appear to be a rare breed - a NYC commuter.

It's curious the sense of modesty the younger woman impose on themselves. I honestly don't think I've ever seen a nude woman in the locker room. Somehow towels are conveniently wrapped and dropped behind the closed curtains of the changing rooms and the showers. Despite their toned muscles, there is a real desire to keep their bodies hidden.

Not so with the grandmas. Their bodies show their age, and they don't care. There is even a very large changing room and the showers provide ample changing areas, but the senior women take it all in stride and just go for the convenience of dressing at their lockers.

So what do I do? -- I fit in to either environment and play by the "cultural rules". I'm quite content in my middle age. I have more confidence and discipline than in my younger days. I'm of course very happy to be healthy and hopeful that all of this exercise will pay off to keep me looking younger as I age. But, we all must age (or the alternative isn't that appealing either) and so I plan to accept what happens with my body and like the grandmas, keep on working out and not being afraid to show off whatever the results are.