Letting my imagination run wild at the gym after watching Fifty Shades

A couple of weeks ago I went along to see the movie Fifty Shades of Grey. I had read the trilogy a couple of years ago – it was a great and fabulous distraction when I was going through a challenging time in my business, Creating Encores. I remember the weekend being lazy lying in bed with coffee, and then wine, reading my way through the three books in the series. This was the best therapy, to unconsciously move into fantasyland and let go of my challenging world for the weekend. When I emerged on Monday morning, my business challenges had faded significantly.

I went along to the movie excited and looking forward to the book coming alive on the screen. Immediately it was a great disappointment. The stylish home and work environment I had imagined were high-class trash. The acting was okay but apart from his beautiful helicopter, I came away disappointed.

So, on Monday morning, I turned up for my regular personal training session with Luke at the gym. And oh my God, my world suddenly took on a new life. We went into one of the rooms I train in a couple of times a week and what I now saw come to life was the “Red Room”. Complete with bars, leather beds, metal frames with ropes, cables and stretch bands as the Room of Pain in Fifty Shades of Grey. I thought WOW, now my personal training bumps up many notches and takes on a new direction. I am in this room a couple of times a week, where many times I go beyond my physical limits as Luke pushes me to do another round of cable rows, bench squats and some hard core boxing. I had to say to him in a bit of a girly voice, that this room has taken on a revamp in my eyes, “so where are the blindfolds, the handcuffs and more”? I was a bit unsure as to whether the newly-married man would take the remark as a come on, but he had a laugh. I imagine he went home to his wife with a few new ideas…hopefully not gym orientated.

I look back and laugh at the ways my imagination can suddenly turn a space I know well and work out in several times a week into a spicy sensual stage. So training for me now has taken on another dimension. I have always been a bit of a fanatical fitness woman who does get pleasure out of achieving great results from training. And at the back of her mind knows that the foodie and lover of great wines has to keep up her exercise regime or go down the slippery slide to 60-year-old flabbiness.

I believe that there is nothing wrong with having a bit of imagination when I train. I love being able to separate myself from the world – often it is restorative, a bit like meditation. I can enter into a fantasy realm, traveling overseas, visiting beautiful galleries and more, by listening to beautiful music, cooking Ottolenghi style food, drinking great wine and now training at the gym. Must admit I need to keep some of my thoughts to myself. Fifty Shades of Grey, gym-style is my personal world. Give this fantasy world a try when next at the gym…we might start a worldwide trend in weights and personal training rooms!

Has your imagination ever run wild like Sally? Have you read Fifty Shades of Grey? Share with us below.