Oh, the sportivnii zal (for those not in the know, that's the gym). There is a decent little gym right next to my apartment building, and I've been going there now for the last two weeks. Let's be clear--it's nothing fancy. The main area is a room maybe 50 by 50 feet, and there are small locker rooms, a sauna, and a smaller room for aerobics classes. After the world-class RPAC, my little Akademia Tela (the name means body academy) is decidedly modest. There are, however, all the necessary machines, if only one of each. Also, there is always a trainer around, and they freely give advice and tips on form and exercise selection. One of the trainers is a girl about my age who was powerlifter, and she has given me a lot of good tips

There are two negative points: The gym is like a steamy oven--there is absolutely no ventilation other than three windows, and when there are 12 or 15 people working out in a small room, it gets really hot and muggy. Also, the showers are unlike anything I have ever seen outside of Russia. Imagine a two basins on a small platform in a room maybe 10 feet by 6 feet. There are two spigots that connect to handheld shower nozzles. Draw curtain across the back of the platform and you have a decidedly non-private and very inconvenient showering set up. About a third of the tiles that cover the walls are missing, and there is enough mildew in the corners to make the people who stage the before-and-after bathroom cleaner commercials cringe. Good thing I'm not a clean freak....

The cool thing about Russian gyms is that they really foster community. In America, we occasionally talk to the people we work out in the same room with, but usually we keep to ourselves, shooting sideways glances at the other people and thinking that someone should really tell that one kid that he is going to throw out his back if he keeps deadlifting like that. In Russia, however, people talk to each other, give advice, and help each other in the gym. My gym is small, so I pretty much recognize all the regulars now, and they all know each other. In true Russian fashion, everyone shakes each other's hands when they enter the gym. I'd gotten to know a few of the guys (being the token foreigner is a good way to get to know people), and on Tuesday, the gym hierarchy apparently decided that I was serious enough to deserve acknowledgement, and they all introduced themselves to me, which led to a long discussion of cultural differences and American politics in the locker room. We're now on handshake terms.

Another difference is that no one listens to headphones while working out. Instead, the radio or someone's ipod is always playing. The music of choice is American pop, electro, and techno remixes of any pop song. This song plays several times an hour on the radio (sadly, the girl in the clip has not yet come to the gym):