The Night Bar

One of my favourite memories in life is of those evenings working out by myself at a bar station.

A “bar station” is a fancy word for a small communal yard with workout equipment installed, mostly for kids and elderly people to exercise with.

A workout yard in Thành Công

In the evening, around 7 – 9 pm, I’d be at one of these yards to do my workout. I always try to pick a yard that’s away from the busy streets and with as few people as possible. The least crowded ones.

I absolutely love these workout sessions. One of my fondest memories are those days when it’s late in the evening and there is no one around; the air is clean, the atmosphere serenely quiet, and around me are nothing but trees and the open sky. I’m barefoot and barechested, and there is that feeling of direct connection between the wind, the ground, and my bare skin.

It’s almost meditative in a way. There is nothing in my head but the only task at hand: counting the reps I’m going through. I don’t bring my phone with me. It ruins the experience.

I have been doing these outdoor workouts for probably 6 years now. I started out lifting weights at home, but soon I realised I didn’t really enjoy sweating my ass off in my tiny and stuffy room. I tried going to the gym — same thing. It’s a noisy, chaotic, distracting, and… artificial environment. Just not for me. That’s when I decided to go for outdoor workouts.

Over time, I grew to enjoy the minimalistic and creative aspects of bodyweight fitness a lot. There isn’t a set amount of equipment like in a gym. There’s yourself, the ground, and the bar. You either stick to the basics, or you get creative! One of my favourite things to do is when I’m bored of a routine, I’ll think of new exercises. There are a million movements you can do with just the ground and a pull-up bar.

August 2019, K17 Bách Khoa yard.
July 2018, in a yard near my house. Had a 18kg weight vest on here.

Getting creative with playground equipment.

When It Sucks

Not every session is memorable. Some just suck. Usually it’s because there are way too many people around. Kids playing, running and screaming. At the Trung Liệt bar, I even regularly encounter this dude who blasts ear-raping dance music through his shitty bluetooth speakers.

I can’t really complain because it’s a public space, but noise is always the mood ruiner. Solitude and tranquility trump everything else for me. To do this, I have to work out either really late in the evening when everybody’s gone home, or really early in the morning when everyone’s still asleep. Right now, I mostly stick to the afternoon or early evening which is a crapshoot as to how many people will be around.

Another negative factor is when I’m tired. Could be a million reasons: bad weather, sleep deprivation, dehydration, food poisoning, illness — but either way, usually I have to stop short. It sucks when I can’t complete the workout I set out to do.

The Ideal Workout

I’d love to one day have a workout in the literal midst of nature. Preferably somewhere high where I can have a view down, and somewhere far from city lights so that I can see the starry sky.

This dude has an awesome workout spot

It’s really easy to just hike up a mountain somewhere around Hanoi and do a workout. But then, by that point you’d be exhausted from the climb and can’t really enjoy the workout as much.

Tree branch pull ups by the beach? Sign me up!

Ideally one day I’d love to live somewhere remote for a while. That way, the exercise becomes part of my routine instead of as a destination to get to. It’s a lot more enjoyable and memorable that way. I can just find a sturdy tree branch in the woods and bang out a workout. Let’s put this on my bucket list of the things I’ve got to do!

Even More Reasons to Love It

What also makes me so fond of these workout sessions is that they are a reminder of a moment of me being healthy and alive. Seriously, you have to be healthy and injury-free to do calisthenics! If any single muscle, joint, bone, or tendon of the body hurts, it becomes impossible to do most of the calisthenics movements which are high-impact and full-body in nature. When it comes the day when you are bedridden for whatever reason, those moments of being healthy become even more of a treasure.

Also, as you warm up and progress into the workout, the body releases a ton of dopamine. You’re active, sweating, feeling good, and there’s fresh open air caressing your bare skin. You feel alive. It really is a feeling to cherish.

There’s also a small sense of accomplishment in completing a goal you’ve set out to do completely by yourself, with no external motivation. You just do it for the sake of staying healthy and being true to yourself.

P/S I just realised that this can be a sequel to the barefoot running post I wrote over a year ago. It’s one of the very first blog posts I wrote too, and it’s funny looking back at how much my writing style has changed over the year. I used to write much shorter pieces, and now every post is over 1,000 words!

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