A Lebanese Booming Industry: The Gym

According to a report in Albalad newspaper, the gym has become the place of choice for the Lebanese to reduce stress and meet potential mates..

Sweating the terror away.. (photo from Albalad)

It boils down to this: Wherever you go, there’s a chance a bomb might go off near you. That causes two problems: First, you get stressed-out and tired, and second, it becomes difficult to socialize. This is why the Gym has become so popular in Lebanon.

Like everything else, the Lebanese gyms have adapted. In karate classes for example, students jokingly ask for political opponents as “practice” partners. But that doesn’t mean that politics is tolerated. By gym policy, there are no political programs on those little treadmill TV screens. “People are here to forget about it all” says a manager of Beirut Gym. There are more Yoga classes and bigger “stress reduction” offerings like minted sauna rooms and larger jacuzzi pools.

There is also more mingling. Many are going to the gym to meet the person of their dreams. If they can stay focused on the spandexes or the pecs and forget about the perspiration and stink, they can be winners.

(To read the Albalad report, go to their website and select page 10 in their thumbnail menus. But don’t forget to come back for commentary)