I returned to my usual gym after a very long two-month hiatus to discover that they not only renovated the group fitness studio floor, but also the women’s locker room. All the floors have been redone, the sinks and makeup stations have sparkling granite counter tops, and the showers have been modernized. And in an effort to make the locker rooms more modern and chic, somehow Crunch also decided to remove every single full length mirror, make the locker room benches about half the length they used to be, and replace the old lockers, which had plenty of hooks for hanging jackets and purse, with new lockers that have a very inefficient swivel hook right in the center. And the little changing stations we used to have outside the showers are now gone. Now, I am forced to dry off and be naked amongst all my fellow female morning gym go-ers.

Is this what it means to be modernized in today’s gym — to aesthetically appear pleasing but from a utility perspective be useless?