My Gym Nemesis Became My Boyfriend

Let me tell you about the man I absolutely HATED for four months straight.

Every Tuesday and Thursday at 6 AM, this guy — let's call him Rack Thief — would be on MY squat rack. The one in the corner. The one with the good mirror angle. MY rack.

At first I just seethed silently. Then I started getting there at 5:50. He started getting there at 5:45. I showed up at 5:40. He showed up at 5:35. At some point we were both arriving in the dark like absolute psychopaths, just to claim a squat rack.

One morning we literally arrived at the same second. Stood there staring at each other like it was a Western. I could feel the tumbleweed energy.

"We could share," he said.

"I don't share," I said.

Reader, we shared.

Turns out when you're resting between sets, you have to… talk to someone. And when that someone is funny and has opinions about proper squat depth and brings you water without being asked? Yeah. Things shift.

It went like this: sharing the rack → spotting each other → grabbing smoothies after → "is this a date?" → it was absolutely a date.

We've been together seven months now. We still fight over the rack. It's foreplay at this point.

The enemies-to-lovers pipeline is REAL and it starts at the squat rack at 5:35 AM.

For what it's worth, I used to think gym romance was cringe until I read this piece about whether the gym is actually a good place to meet people. Spoiler: it absolutely is, even if it starts with mutual loathing.

Got a gym love story (or hate story that became a love story)? Submit it anonymously. We live for this.