The new year at the gym always brings new members trying to accomplish their New Year's Resolutions.  This year at our little LA Fitness, we also added a slew of members from a Bally's Gym that LA Fitness bought, dumping all those members at our gym.  It's been a bit of a double whammy, which we could likely navigate except for one point…. Our gym has always been full of "unusual characters" (what gym is not, actually), but the recent crop of new members has taken the cake.

It's a real "Believe it or Not" kind of crowd.  Exhibit A?  The guy doing cardio while wearing a full-out gas mask.  Yes, like the one in the picture.  In fact, the next time he showed up I snuck a picture.  It's grainy, but there he is doing bench presses while breathing like Darth Vader.  Supposedly there is some concept of restricting air, possibly for working in high altitudes??!!??

The main problem with gas mask guy is the impact on the rest of the gym.  We seem to acquire a shared case of the willies.  It's just unnerving to have someone working out near you in this get-up.

So hopefully we will not see this guy much, and we can continue to try to live with all the other strange behaviors that we have to put up with.  One this is for sure, it's never boring!