TL;DR – Fitness and Gyms in Korea

NeedlessQuestions asks: Can you tell us about physical fitness
and exercising in Korea? Do they have gyms? If so, what are they like?
What kind of people go to these gyms? and the question goes on and on
forever with very many points First say let’s just focus on going to the gym At the gym just working on my fitness~ -Who said that? Why would you do something like that?
-What? No I would never dance to Fergie at the gym First thing I’d like to say is that
gym memberships in Korea are really expensive -Whoa
-Like Whoa I guess in North America I’m used to
those ginormous warehouse sized gyms that have a pool and a swimming– a pool and a swimming pool and a pool swimming–
-Two different kinds of pools!! -and a pool to swim in
-There’s like a gambling pool -and a swimming pool
-and a pudding pool You can swim and eat pudding which
would be counteractive to the gym As soon as you get fat,
you can just run it off on the treadmill Okay, and a track and a basketball court You could pay 200 bucks for the whole year or– The one I went to had all that
stuff and it was only 250 for the year but the gyms that we’ve been
to in Korea– One of them actually was really small,
didn’t have all these extremities– no pool, no basketball court– and really limited equipment and it
cost $900 for the year -You can go to cheaper gyms in Korea,
-Yes and those expensive gyms
will go on sale So my advice is if you’re going
to go to the gym in Korea, wait for the sale period and then go -Okay so now–
-When is the sale period? I don’t know You just gotta go every 30 days be like, -‘Hey is it sale period yet? No?’
-‘No.’ ‘Then f*ck you!!!’ Okay now sometimes– -No, they give out flyers okay?
-We don’t recommend you saying that to the gyms They will give out flyers and you
can go there when the gym is on sale Okay so now that you’re actually
at the gym, in Korea what is it like? I think the number one thing
you’re gonna notice about Korean gyms is that they have air conditioners there but I think they’re just display
models for decoration because why don’t the gyms turn on
the air conditioner when it’s so hot in there?? Three gyms we’ve been to. Three And we’ve asked all our foreign
friends and everyone will say the same thing Why is air conditioning not on? You’re gonna get swamp ass, You’re gonna
get sweaty and disgusting and they will never turn on the air conditioner If some of you guys follow us
on Twitter or Instagram, you’ll see that I posted a photo
of the actual thermostat in my gym and it was 80% humidity and 28° inside the gym I’ve had some people say that the hot air is
good for your muscles and it’s good to relax and this and that, but here’s the problem: I actually have asthma and when the gym is 80° humidity and if I physically exert muself I have almost had an asthma attack
at the gym like twice So it’s really frustrating to me because
I’m paying money to go somewhere where I wanna be in a cold condition If I want 80° humidity– -I’d just go outside and exercise!
-I’d just go outside! Right! -why don’t–
-because they– You know what’s interesting is that in Korea -There are a lot of outdoor exercise
-Walking paths and outdoor gyms They don’t have the full bench-press and whatnot
but they have those little turny things that go like this and they have the machines that go URGH!
You know? You know those ones? I have theory about this
because I’ve noticed that maybe Korean people don’t feel
heat in rooms the way us foreigners feel them If you’re on the bus or if you’re on the subway
they also have decorative air conditioners which they barely ever want to turn on When we were in Singapore,
everything was air conditioned -It was awesome
-to icebox temperature and we were so happy Here in Korea you go to buildings
and they’re barely air conditioned they have it on at 25°, just a little bit
colder than outside, but not too cool -Like I physically sweat in the malls in Korea
-Oh yeah -I can’t–I go shopping–
-It’s uncomfortable but here’s the thing the gym is the one place where people
are going to raise their body temperature We know know why a lot
of Korean people don’t sweat at the gym because the number two thing
you’re gonna notice about Korean gyms is that they have a million treadmills and people like to do the walk setting I barely see anybody running
on these treadmills they just like, ‘Let’s walk for
a very long time.’ We’re talking about an hour and
a half of people strolling and then people will walk backwards slowly and then they’ll get on the bikes and they’ll
be on the bikes really slowly and they go on the bikes really slowly backwards Okay, so one hand I understand that–
and there’s TVs in all the machines– So I think that might be it Instead of staying at home and sitting on
your couch and watching TV, It’s better to have some physical movement
and watch TV at the gym while you’re going really really slowly
and you’re watching your show -That makes a little bit of sense
-It does So on the plus side, anyone who’s interested
in actually weightlifting and using the weight machines, -they’re usually pretty clear
-Yeah It’s the treadmills and bikes that you’re
gonna wait an hour and a half for BUT– and we’re not joking because you can
actually see the timers on it, when I walk by, like, this person has been
on this thing walking for 80 minutes But you know what’s really good
about gyms in Korea is that I do notice a lot of older people going
to the gyms and using this equipment while the gyms I went to in North America
didn’t really have older people -It pretty much people between 20, 30 and 40
-And they’re all hot and buff and they’re all like I think it seems like the Korean people that go to gyms
go for health reasons– it’s really healthy to go to gyms while in North America I saw so many
beef heads and muscle heads , they’re like, UURRR!! I’m gonna— protein powder
in my mouth so that I can get really beefy!! I didn’t really see that many really really
beefy people in the gyms in Korea I’ve actually– I can honestly say I’ve never seen
a Korean girl that has any muscle definition Honestly I can’t Everyone is very thin and they might be
physically healthy on the inside, but they don’t have any definition
on their arms and stuff -and you rarely see girls–
-No really body building kind of people we’ve seen I’m sure they must exist somewhere just in the
regions we’ve been to we’ve never seen them Another thing that we wound up noticing is that
gym etiquette in Korea isn’t really up to what we’re used to in North America as well It seems like in North America, as soon
as you’re done using a machine, you have to spray bottle the side
and you gotta wipe down your machine I’ve never seen anybody wipe down
a machine here in Korea -There’s also no spray bottles to wipe down
-Right and nobody brings towels And another thing we notice is that people
really monopolize the machines and the benches So for example, whenever I’m doing
bench presses, as soon as I’m done a set, I’ll stand up and
I’ll move around, get some water and whatnot and if somebody else wants to use it
in between my sets, fine But it seems like as soon as
they start using it -they’re gonna sit on that bench press for 20 minutes
-They’re gonna do all theirs and wait They’re gonna do one and then sit down
and be like, “Yep sitting here on a bench” -They’ll check their phone
-“White guy’s looking at me” You know, you should be able
to swap in and out at times So the same thing with the leg press,
I was waiting for the leg press machines So I do three sets on the leg press machine and I do
one set and then I go do something else and I go back Someone else will go there and literally
just do really slow leg presses– like 150 of them I’m on the mat trying to wait for the machine
and it’s never gonna happen and people will also take the weights, put
them down in front of them and then they’ll do something
else like stretch or whatever and I’m like, ‘Well you should have put the
weights back so that I could use them’ Speaking of putting weights back, whenever
I’m at the bench press, a lot of people don’t pull their weights off afterwards they’re just like ‘I’m done my set, I’m just gonna
leave it here for someone else to move’ and my theory about that is that it;s
very similar to when moving apartments in Korea is that when you get rid of all your furniture,
you’re supposed to leave dust there so that the new people that come in are
supposed to clean it so maybe that has translated over into gym etiquette
-No which nobody ever pulls the weights off
of their bars -I have a more realistic theory
-Okay Okay in North America, people work out, go to
the gym– they usually start that even in high school And even in high school you have gym class
101 where they teach you how to use the weight rooms So I just think that in North America, we’re used
to learning about gym etiquette at a young age while Korea doesn’t really have that Now the final thing I want to say is that we have seen
some people at the gym who are awesome with etiquette like few people do towels or they do
around the sets, they know what they’re doing but it is kind of rare so I don’t think– It’s not that it doesn’t exist, it’s just that it’s
not as common as what we’re used to So I think that the gym culture in Korea isn’t really up
to the same level of intensity in North America URGHH!! I’m gonna get really beefy!! Let’s walk for a very long time and I think we have a reason for that but
we’re gonna talk more in the blog post if you want learn about our theories and whatnot
so click on the link here So that’s it for this week’s TL;DR , if you have a question
for next TL;DR, leave your question in the comments section below or check out the questions already asked and you
can thumb them up, bring them to our attention And don’t forget to subscribe for more TL;DRs
where we work out to Fergalicious I think everything is over there
or is it over there? -Let’s flex our guns. Go! Show them your guns!
-No I’m embarrassed because I’m not muscular enough I’ve been trying. I just lost weight first. Now I’m
gonna try to add more muscle Look at that. Look at that Them glutes. Look at them glutes coming for you 2PM Wait wait… I can do this. See my chest moving?