Mondays are upper body days at the gym. The gym girlies and fitness accounts all suggest that ones fitness journey should be scheduled and timed; upper body, back and shoulders, core and abs and leg day. Whether or not the gym girlies are influencing me wrongly or not, I too have followed their footsteps in designating working out parts of my body to specific days. It is why on Monday at the hour that many are beginning to earn their daily wage, I am at the almost-empty gym caressing my bicep as I decide on my next workout technique.

Upper body days are actually my favorite work days. I always start with a quick run on the treadmill as my cardio routine for the day, and then move to the actual arm work workouts - lateral pull ups, chest press where I do a quick study and then the actual routines.

On each equipment is a description of how the machine should be used. There’s a cartoon drawing of a person using the machine and descriptive pointers of how to use it. It shows how my body should be positioned at the start and finish of each set of the exercise. And then my favorite thing is that it shows the particular muscles that are being worked. So for every time I use it, I check to see if my muscles tremor or quake as the universal signs that the muscle is growing. And when it does, I consider my day made just like the gym girlies have mentioned.

This Monday, I excitedly run towards the lateral pull machine, my favorite equipment at the gym. I get on it and put the weights to my regular 30 pounds, allowing me to pretend that I can carry a gas cylinder of that weight if need be. I take my position on the equipment and  reach for the handle above. I begin to pull down and then back up, slowly and gradually for about 20 times.  I normally just think about my life when using this equipment. My to do lists for the day, the leftover yoghurt in the fridge, my silent dream of being a singer. But today, none of those things come to mind.

A random streak of curiosity causes me to look up at the machine, to understand how it works. I see how the wires are connected in circles and there’s a fulcrum functionality that allows the exercise work. I immediately think of my Introductory Technology class in junior secondary school and how much I hated that I needed to take this course despite my interest in being a lawyer. But apart from that, I also think about how the design of this equipment is the basis for its functionality. I look at the other equipment and their wires and fulcrums. It suddenly occurs to me how everything I do at this gym is predicated on design. An intricate, deliberate and accurately implemented design. When I complete my 3 sets, I stand up from the machine in awe of what I have seen.

Walking out of the gym that day, I can’t help but think about the intentionality needed to work out at the gym successfully, but also at one’s life. In my own life. Could I live successfully without a deliberate plan? Could I live and let live my way out of life’s troubles the way I seem to want to at the gym? I walk towards my car and see that I was parked outside the designated marked lines for me. It appears that I have parked in two parking slots without even knowing it. The car to my left, a car that was definitely not there when I arrived at the gym premises, has kept a parking slot as well and parked in the next best space. I look around to see how the other cars are parked. It seems the way I parked has affected the others. The design of the parking lot has been affected. As there is nothing else I can do at this point, I put my car in reverse and drive off. It appears that I can’t live my life without a deliberate plan indeed.