Yes, you can test anywhere, even the gym

​Taking a short break from the Accessibility content to ask some “what if” questions. Note, I’m not doing this to shame anyone or make broader comments, just to show that interesting things can be found everywhere :).

Thankfully, my gym is not very expensive, and during this "semi-enforced woodshedding period" I am getting to experience, I can still go to my local gym and get some much-needed body and mind adjustment. In any event, there's a lot of equipment in the gym with a mix of free weights, machines, cardio, and other apparatus to take advantage of.

With that, here’s my gym’s kettlebell rack:

My Gym's kettlebell rack, with medicine balls and slam balls as well

And over here is a bigger apparatus with a number of pulleys and a heavy bag. 

Separate equipment rack with pulleys, rope, and heavy bag

What it also has on it are these QR codes. 

QR codes on the heavy bag rack

These are used for a variety of functions, including bringing up tracking and exercise routines to use. One of them is for the heavy bag… which makes sense, as there is a heavy bag here.

But here’s something interesting. What other code is here?

Connect Kettlebell QR Code

Huh. A kettlebell code. Okay, so let me scan that and pick up… oh, wait!

Turning from the kettlebell QR code to see the kettlebell rack, on the other side of the gym

That’s quite a distance between the kettlebell code and the actual kettlebells. Is there a problem here?

Again, I’m approaching this as a “what if” and trying to think why this would be arranged this way and it’s not as ridiculous as it looks on the surface. This gym has a sister facility in the East Bay (actually, several) and the one I attend from time to time has both of these pieces of equipment. There, these pieces are facing each other and in that case, having the QR code on the pole and turning around to grab the kettlebell makes perfect sense. However, my resident gym layout doesn’t allow for that, so they had to split these pieces of equipment up.

My point is, there may be perfectly good reasons why something is set up the way it is. Whether or not something is an issue is up to interpretation. I definitely don’t think the distance between the two is a feature. Still, the fix could be easy and inexpensive (heck, next to free). Merely taking a picture of the QR code, printing it, and taping it to the kettlebell rack would be a huge benefit. Ordering a more permanent sticker I could not imagine costing more than a couple of dollars.

So there you go, weird and random quality and testing musings on a Saturday morning. You’re welcome :).