Pumping Iron at Hei Da

The language program is not quite as intense I had expected. We’ve therefore been able to exercise regularly, sometimes making use of the university’s weightroom. The first time we tried to visit the weightroom, at 6am one morning, we learned that it didn’t open until 9am and closed at 6pm. While there are reports of another weightroom somewhere on the campus, this particular one has a lot of “character”; or rather, I should say there are a lot of unhealthily jacked “characters” pictured on numerous posters throughout the sparsely equipped facility.

One of our classmates, a former navy guy pictured in brown shirt, happens to have devoted much of his life to strength training and fitness. While he was unable to join the Seals due to an accident, he has been the drill sergeant for a motley group of us who know very little about strength training. His military intensity seems to threaten the guys who man the sign-in desk, and a little bit of a turf war has escalated over the kind of music that gets played whenever we come. The attendants have insisted that Chinese patrons do not appreciate songs with English lyrics.

Street shoes are not supposed to be worn in the weight room. Therefore, just before getting to the weightroom, we change into flip flops and carry our street shoes in. Once inside, we switch out the flip flops for the same dirty sneakers. Once shoed and signed-in, one will quickly notice the lack of large weights. This always serves to make me feel particularly strong and athletic - I can quite comfortably handle the heaviest weights that they have.

While ordinarily the lack of heavy weights might be a problem, Sean’s style (having a heavy dose of cross fit) is based more on high numbers of repetitions, not pure weight. Unlike most travelers to China, Sean happened to bring enough medical tape to create a medicine ball using sand from a nearby construction lot. Frequently he will also pull out unusual exercise equipment like hanging handles for the pull-up bars, stretchy rope for stretching, etc. He also brought the soundtrack to 300. We enjoyed listening to it today until the attendant switched it out surreptitiously.