Even though we seem to remember this article from Vanity Fair a year or two ago, we've walked by the 24-hour Crunch on Lafayette St. enough times to know that gym culture reaches the height of gym cult at the die hard fitness center.

But who are the people in the window working out vigorously for all to see from the sidewalk? How can they be most easily stereotyped by the New York Times?

To call the place communal would be overreaching. Yet in the cycles and the confines of a gym are found predictable and reassuring rhythms, familiar faces and also recognizable habits of being. One can set clocks by some of the Type A performers of early morning, the driven, the compulsive, the competitive bodybuilders, 10-egg-white-omelets-for-breakfast types for whom this slot is an opportunity to hoist massive hunks of iron without causing bystanders to huddle in corners, whimpering in fear. One can recognize, too, in the late-night warriors, the hospital workers, taxi drivers or junior lawyers who show up past midnight, elements of one's own need to carve out room in which to pace the miles of a psychic marathon.

While this article focuses on American obesity, we don't think making gym goers look psycho is the best approach. All the non-gym people just validated their sedentary lifestyles by saying, "normal people spend mornings ordering in French toast, and watching the Today show … and they drink margaritas (not vitamin water) during happy hour."

We are now convinced this is the Styles section's secret plan to stay thinner than everyone else in New York.

24-Hour Sweaty People [Guy Trebay, New York Times]