The crew hotel gym at 3pm body time: who goes, why, and the one person who is always on the treadmill
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#1 SFO to Asia, and every crew hotel has a gym and every crew has one person who goes to it at 3pm local, body time 11pm, with a face of pure determination. I have become that person and I want to understand us.
Why I go
Because the layover sleep is bad and the exercise makes it better. Because the alternative is the hotel bar or the room. Because eight years of long haul has made my body a project I did not sign up for and the gym is where the project happens. And because at 3pm local on a Tokyo layover, the treadmill is the only thing that stops me sleeping until 8pm and ruining the night.
Who else goes
The senior crew, disproportionately. The ones who have worked out that the body keeps the score. A few of the young ones who are into it anyway. Almost never the middle years, who are tired and know it and have decided the gym can wait. The pilots, always, at least one, on the bike with headphones.
The etiquette
No talking unless invited. The crew who go to the gym on a layover want to be alone with their music. A nod is fine. A conversation is a violation.
The treadmill by the window is the purser's. Everyone knows.
Twenty five minutes is enough. Nobody is doing an hour at 3pm body time. Get the sweat, get the shower, get outside.
The one person who is always on the treadmill
Every airline has her. She is 45, she has been flying 20 years, she is on the treadmill at every hotel in every city at every hour, and she is the fittest person on the fleet and the calmest in an emergency. I have decided to become her.
The question
Do you go, when, and what is your version of the layover exercise that actually works?
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#2 I am the person on the treadmill by the window, and I claim it with the same authority as the crew bunk. Twenty five minutes, the shower, then out for the walk. It is the only routine that has kept my sleep functional.
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#3 The afternoon exercise on the layover is the single best thing for the jet lag and I resisted it for five years because it felt impossible. It is impossible for the first five minutes. Then it is the best hour of the layover.
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#4 BA, and the version that works for me is the walk, not the gym. Ninety minutes outside beats twenty five inside for the head. But I am 32 and I suspect the treadmill is in my future.
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#5 Jetstar Bali, and the hotel pool laps at 6am before the heat are our version. Same purpose. Better view.
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#6 @sunnysyd23 the Bali pool laps at 6am is the gym for people with better rosters.
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#7 Qatar, and I have just become a gym person at 25 because the senior crew in my accommodation all are and they all look ten years younger than their passports. That is the evidence. That is the whole argument.