Side Hustles

hustle (n.)– a: to make strenuous efforts to obtain especially money or business   b: to obtain money by fraud or deception   c: to play a game or sport in an alert aggressive manner.

Even though the word ‘hustle’ tends to carry a negative connotation, I’d say that the majority of people would agree with definition ‘a’.  If you think about it, everyone’s a hustler. And if you’re not hustling, then you’re probably living a really comfortable life where money is not an issue.

Spanish Harlem is one of those neighborhoods where hustles are highly observable on the streets and often very blatant. It’s not just the street food vendors, or the jewelry stands, or the Newport cigarette guys. Even gym trainers are hustling! On my way to the neighborhood NYSC one day, a trainer whom I call Rasta-man (for very obvious reasons) caught up with me and started chatting me up. He’s like, “You know, the gym has its rates and all, but I’ve got mine. If you’re interested in sessions, we can work something out that fits into your budget.” I laughed and said “okay”, thinking he’s just throwing an idea out. Boy was I wrong.

Every time I’ve seen him at the gym thereafter, he tells me how much I can ‘improve’ with personal training and even offered to give me a free session. I figured if the guy is hustling so hard, I’ll give it a shot and try one of his ’sessions’ for free (which led to one of the most hilarious times I’ve ever had at a gym).

I showed up at the gym this past weekend for the free session. Rasta-man must assume that all girls like aerobics, because that’s how we warmed up. If you can only imagine how funny it is to watch a huge 6″2, ripped man do aerobics up and down one of those exercise blocks, arms flailing and all (I could not stop laughing during the entire warm up). And then we did that stomach exercise where you lie on your back and pretend like you’re riding an imaginary bicycle in the air. Enough said, right?  It was so ridiculous.

I might add that Rasta-man is the drill sergeant type of trainer who likes to yell a lot. And the words that come outta his mouth are words of a true hustler. He doesn’t ask you to do 20 reps of something, he says “gimme 20 dollas.”  And if you do something well, he’ll say “now that’s money.”

Granted, a lot of it is just colloquial talk for him, but it’s still pretty funny. My favorite instance? The man called me a nigga!  He got so carried away with his pep talking, he said “c’mon nigga, C’MON” while I was doing reps of this one exercise. I almost stopped what I was doing– just thought it was so funny almost lost my breath.

Anyway, that’s gym training in Spanish Harlem for ya! And the moral of the story: everyone’s a hustler ;)