I'm a gym rat. Even before becoming a trainer and spending all day at the gym, I was already there almost every day for at least an hour working out. The sweat and strain of guys and gals willing themselves to physical perfection is a wonderfully inspirational experience. The devotion. The sacrifice. The gym was a temple, and working out was worship.

I hate gym pigs.

They are blasphemers.

By their callousness, their thoughtlessness, they negate all it really means to be at the gym working out.

Care, awareness, intelligence. These are the human faculties which are truly exercised by the heaving of weights and the enduring of time. We practice self-care through working out, self-awareness in developing a relationship with heretofore unknown muscles and reservoirs of faith, discipline, will -- and we cultivate intelligence as we exercise our humanity, exercise our very mortality.

Gym pigs limit that only to themselves, if even that. They are not mindful of their environment, leaving dirty towels draped everywhere long after they've left the gym. They are not considerate of their fellow human beings, leaving equipment scattered all over the place. They are not, in the final analysis, intelligent, ignorant as they are of the connection between a sound mind, a sound body, and graceful, gracious living of the sort implied by one's actions.

Forgotten towels, mixed-up equipment, unclaimed water bottles. It is nothing short of littering.

Never mind the vandalism practiced in the showers and toilets! Broken mirrors, graffiti, gum, jeans with buttons that rip seats, boots with leather than tear cushions...how can people be so hostile? Were they raised without any consideration themselves?

It's all very disgusting to see, as if someone picked his nose and then returned to handling dumbbells.

When did physical culture become so removed from culture, from class?

At the less expensive gyms, people shrug and claim the place is a dump anyway. At the more expensive ones, people shrug and claim it keeps housekeepers gainfully employed. And that's if they don't tell you to mind your own business....

I think the moral of the Iron Game is lost on them, that context is everything, relationships are everything, and there is no healthy body without a healthy mind, and no healthy minds without healthy lifestyles. What is all that but a way of being?

Being a pig is not what being into fitness, health, and wellness is about. There is no caring for our bodies without caring for our environment, no caring for ourselves without caring for our fellows.