This Gym Is Giving Cable News The Axe Because It’s Horrible For Your Health

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Honestly, working out is hard enough without the stress of the evening news giving you heart palpitations. That’s why Minnesota-based gym chain Life Time is removing access to all cable news channels from the large screen televisions throughout its various locations.

That’s right — no matter the political slant, it’s all gotta go.

Spokeswoman Natalie Bushaw told The New York Times in an email that the company’s cable news ban, which is now in effect, “was based on many member requests received over time across the country, and in keeping with our overall healthy way of life philosophy and commitment to provide family-oriented environments free of polarizing or politically charged content.”

This decision will affect the gym-going experiences of quite a lot of people, considering that Life Time has 130 gyms spread across 27 states.

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Some Life Time patrons love the new rule and others are irate, seeing this change as a clear act of censorship. While we can definitely understand both sides here, we have to admit that watching the news has been nothing but stressful and upsetting for quite some time now. And when we want to get our fitness on, we want to take advantage of those endorphins our bodies are pumping rather than negate them with the serious struggle that is our country’s current political climate.

Not to mention, for people who want to disengage with the evening news during their workout hour, it’s awfully difficult to just look away from a dozen glaring flatscreens in front of your face. Hell, it gives us a headache just having each of them tuned into a different channel, let alone displaying talking heads bickering over the latest Donald Trump tweet.

So we’re taking this change in stride and tuning into our favorite Spotify playlists for fitness inspo instead. New Year, New You, right?

[h/t The New York Times]