Gym Rule #1 - Don't Make Eye Contact

I've been going to the gym now for about 3 months and I'm pleased to say I'm feeling the benefits (and according to my neighbour looking a little trimmer) of regular exercise. My weight has come down - I'm approaching an important landmark that I'll share with you soon - and I'm feeling fitter. My stamina at football has improved and I find I'm planning my weeks wherever possible to make sure I get to the gym at least three times a week.

But I wouldn't say I enjoy going to the gym. I enjoy the results of going but not actually going.

For one thing it's not competitive enough for me. I may have said before that I'd always considered exercise a bit futile unless I was chasing a ball - football, tennis and so on. I suspect I'm not the only one who thinks this way because the gym have recently introduced the 'Tour de France' to the exercise cycles: offering to record our times and distances covered and mapping these against the race schedule. Likewise we can 'row across Lake Superior' and 'climb Mount Kilimanjaro' whilst remembering 'it's not a race'.

Secondly, it appears the first rule of the gym is 'thou musn't make eye contact with thy fellow exercisers'. Now don't get me wrong, I don't see the gym as a social club, I don't want to chatter and I don't want others to, but must we all walk around looking at the carpet? Can't we at least acknowledge one another - a nod of the head, a smile, a wink? OK, maybe not a wink.

Then there's the 'audio and visual entertainment'. Audio means the local commercial radio station - or worse still BBC Radio 1 - so loud I can hear it from the car park. Even with my iPod on I can hear every minute of the inane drivel spouted by the presenters.

Visual refers to the two tiny tv sets that show alternately BBC and ITV1 with subtitles. During the week this means The Weakest Link and Goldenballs. Saturday mornings are even worse when we are treated to 2 hours of food and alcohol courtesy of the Saturday Kitchen. I know I don't have to watch but it's become an involuntary act. Years ago I used to do a lot of travel up and down the country by coach and, as a result, have seen the film An Elephant Called Roly 28 times - I didn't want to watch it but it was on and I couldn't look away.

I'm told there are plans for a refit - but in the current economic climate I'm not going to hold my breath - but anyway that won't address the 'eye contact' situation: maybe I'll follow my own earlier advice and 'be the change ...'. Maybe.

On My iPod Today

At the gym last night I was listenning to The Reason by Hoobastank.

I was introduced to Hoobastank about 5 years by a friend from work. Having listenned to their major-label 2001 debut - simply called Hoobastank - I remember saying to that friend that although I thought the music was excellent the band were let down by the clarity - or lack of - the vocals. Call me old fashioned but if someone's gone to the trouble of writing lyrics then I'd like to hear them. OK, I know I'm old-fashioned in many ways but I think you get my point.

Two years later and the band were back in the recording studio and released The Reason and I was delighted to find that even when the lead singer - Doug Robb - is screaming at the top of his voice I could understand him: perhaps a combination of developing his vocal style to suit the bands sound and an intelligent sound engineer.

The radio-breakthrough track from the album is the melodic album title track and my own favourite is Out of Control when Robb ably demonstrates his screaming qualities.

Subsequent releases confirmed the bands obvious quality - in 2006 they released Every Man for Himself and earlier this year For(N)ever.

Find out more - including videos for both The Reason and Out of Control - at their excellent website www.hoobastank.com

On My iPod Today

Last night at the gym I was enjoying listenning to All We Know Is Falling, the debut album from Paramore.

I discovered Paramore around about 3 years ago when the video for the song Emergency was first shown on TV here in England. I loved the sound - lead singer Hayley Williams' voice blended into the guitar-driver music sounded really fresh. Having picked up the album I was delighted that it was a case of 'more of the same' with standout tracks for me being Pressure and My Heart (if ever there was a song that could be described as 'screamo' then it's My Heart).

Since the first album the band have released a second studio album - Riot! - in the summer of 2007 and a live album with DVD - The Final Riot! late in 2008.

Listen to and watch Paramore at www.paramore.net and watch the video to Emergency here.

On My iPod Today: Ten by Pearl Jam

I was chatting with a friend the other day and he mentioned that he'd been advised that on each of his visits to his gym he should listen to something different on his iPod - the logic being that although the workout itself may be the same the different music would freshen things up.

So, with this in mind, this morning at the gym my music of choice was Ten from Pearl Jam.

I was trying work out when this album was released and I thought it was probably about 1994 - having checked on line it was actually 1991. I remember around this time Nirvana were the big rock band - their album Nevermind was released just after Ten - and they tended to overshadow Pearl Jam both in terms of musical aclaim and, for obvious reasons*, the media spotlight.

I didn't realise (or perhaps I'd forgotten) that Ten was the debut release from Pearl Jam - making the maturity of the song-writing and the confident sound all the more remarkable in my opinion.

The standout track for me is Jeremy which alongside a number of other truly great tracks - Even Flow, Alive, Why Go - means that Ten would comfortably be in my all-time top 10 albums.

Jeremy by Pearl Jam: video directed by Mark Pellington.