Gym is only welcoming to muscleheads

When living in a sunny haven like Miami, a feeling of constant masculinity and testosterone is hard to avoid. Most recently, I faced the onslaught of manliness as I walked through the Wellness Center with my middle school tee and high-socks on. I quickly took a glance around and felt I didn’t quite belong.

The Wellness Center is no longer welcoming of kids like me, who casually work out and stay fit just to be healthy. Rather, the gym is home to the guys who prefer steroids to vitamins and hormones to water. Just a simple look around at the enormity of every male in the gym gives the impression that the Wellness Center is on Olympic training grounds rather than a college campus.

Even walking through campus and seeing the manly men with no sleeves or humility, the “regular” people can’t help but feel overwhelmed. Miami is already known for beauty and sex, but as early as our college years, students are taught and practically forced to look beautiful.

With no intentions of staying fit, guys turn to supplements like Muscle Milk and HGH to provide them with some help in reaching their full workout potential.

The ideals of such a trend are grounded in an absolute obsession with looks and not much more. No longer are attractive men fit and lean, but rather enormous muscle-filled exponents of what these guys used to be.

My suggestion? Stop the lifting. Stop the weight gainers. Stop the two-a-day workout regimens. And for God’s sake, stop the sleeveless parade of muscles.

Make the gym a place where all are welcome, not just the guys who can lift more than my body weight. Working out and staying fit is a health necessity, but when it becomes a mental and psychological need to some, there is no longer a place for us “normals” to exercise our undersized physique.

Dan Buyanovsky may be contacted at d.buyanovsky@umiami.edu.