The Gym is great for people watching!!

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  • toots99
    toots99 Posts: 3,794 Member
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    Do you guys ever have those days where you're particularly clumsy? That was me the other day. I was on the stairmaster, and I missed a step 9while going pretty fast, mind you) and almost lost it. Luckily, only one person was watching.

    About 30 minutes later, I was on the treadlmill, walking fast on an incline. The gym manager was testing a machine I had reported as not working, about three machines away from me. I started to tell him something, and I must have gotten too close to the rails, because the outer half of my left foot landed on the non-moving part of the floor of the machine, while the inner half of the foot was on the fast-moving belt. Almost lost it then too, midsentence. I gave a big "Whoa!" and caught myself. :laugh:
  • mrb_9110
    mrb_9110 Posts: 189 Member
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    There's a girl that's always on the stair-stepper, except she locks out her arms to support all her weight and just moves her feet up and down. Doesn't she know if it makes it easier, you're not getting a good workout?
  • msbanana
    msbanana Posts: 793 Member
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    The best this I've seen yet is the girl that wraps herself in seranwrap before getting in the sauna. I could never do it. I don't like saunas to begin with but she is in there regularly so it seems to work for her.

    I've seen people do that before too...wrapping up in saran wrap or garbage bags under their clothes. :huh:

    This is standard practice in the world of wrestling (not the fake kind) and It's quite dangerous. For wrestlers there's no confusion, it's not about "burning fat", it's about immediate weight loss through dehydration. Weight loss like up to three or so points in the next few hours. You make weight then you rehydrate. Google sauna suit.

    We totally did this when I wrestled. If you weighed "heavy" the morning before a tournament You'd probably also find this person eating skittles and spitting all day, wearing trash bags under 27 layers on a lunch time run, avoiding food all together and then again in a trash bag and 27 layers laying on the floor in front of the heater on the bus on the way to the tourney. Not even remotely healthy BUT if you have to drop a pound or so to make weight you do what you have to...
  • PamDW
    PamDW Posts: 246
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    there was a woman easily in her 70's anorexic thin but biking away on the recumbant... hats off to her for trying to stay healthy. The guy that wears the space suit actually went without it the other morning and he is looking good... can tell where he is starting to lose weight... maybe I need to get one of those.
  • Aylilth
    Aylilth Posts: 125
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    While I was on the treadmill the other day this lady mabye late 40's hops on the one beside me and then puts her old school walkman on the treadmill.

    You know a tape cassette one lol.

    I was think where do ya get tapes anymore I had to have a little chuckle
  • Lisa__Michelle
    Lisa__Michelle Posts: 845 Member
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    The other day I walked into the locker room and my partner said she saw this lady in her nightgown who had just taken a shower walking around BAREFOOT (yes, can we say she is asking for warts, fungus, or athlete's foot?). Well, we worked out for an hour and went back to the locker room and this time I saw her. She was STILL there an hour later and she was in her nightgown still, had her makup and hair supplies taking up a whole counter, still barefoot (ew), and looked like she was at home lol. I wonder how long it was until she finally put clothes on and left? Does it really take hours to get ready to leave from the gym?
  • JoyousRen
    JoyousRen Posts: 3,823 Member
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    Do you guys ever have those days where you're particularly clumsy? That was me the other day. I was on the stairmaster, and I missed a step 9while going pretty fast, mind you) and almost lost it. Luckily, only one person was watching.

    About 30 minutes later, I was on the treadlmill, walking fast on an incline. The gym manager was testing a machine I had reported as not working, about three machines away from me. I started to tell him something, and I must have gotten too close to the rails, because the outer half of my left foot landed on the non-moving part of the floor of the machine, while the inner half of the foot was on the fast-moving belt. Almost lost it then too, midsentence. I gave a big "Whoa!" and caught myself. :laugh:

    When I was about 16, I was at the gym with my mom and completely biffed it on the treadmill. I'm talking a full on fall. It was SO embaressing and being a chunky 16 yr old girl didn't exactly help matters.
  • LarryPGH
    LarryPGH Posts: 349 Member
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    You'd probably also find this person eating skittles and spitting all day

    skittles? why skittles?
  • juldga
    juldga Posts: 119
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    1. The Leaping Lady: There’s one lady who gets on the treadmill starts walking and then does a little leap every once in awhile. There’s no rhyme or reason to it either. I watched her for a while to see if I could pick up on the pattern and, I’m telling ya, there was none. Also, she’s quite overweight so it can’t be good for her knees to be doing that.

    Hmm... I do that when I run on the treadmill, but it's because my thighs are huge, which makes my shorts ride up on my inner thighs. When I go a little jump, it makes them go back down.
    ... That would be really creepy if you were seeing me at the gym. =O Just kidding...

    I was going to say the same thing. I bet her shorts or pants are bothering her. I used to do the same thing.
  • 1113cw
    1113cw Posts: 830 Member
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    Bump.. these are hysterical.. must read them all later!
  • wrn1979
    wrn1979 Posts: 27
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    The high school showoffs- Two kids who come in every night about the same time and do the same three exercises: bench press, barbell curls, military press. I wouldn't care except they monopolize the only squat rack in the gym for an hour doing it. Last night they loaded a big 185 on the bar for sets of 2 on bench presses. The smaller one didn't get a single clean rep in. So what do they do? Add ten pounds and try again, of course!!!!

    The contortionist- Some people will do absolutely insane things trying to get another "angle" in while working their abs, arms, legs, glutes, whatever....I'm sorry but hanging upside down from the smith machine, holding a dumbbell, and curling up to the ceiling will not improve your abs only your chances of a c-spine fracture...

    The clueless know-it-all- Ever have someone that wants to help you out? "yea I do close grip bench presses to really squeeze out my inner chest." Really????? The only time I've squeezed an inner chest is while performing CPR at work. Oh!!!! now that I've seen you do close grip bench presses I see why they squeeze your inner chest, it's because you bounce the bar off your chest in order to catapult it back to the top.

    The "I can lift 'em but I can't lower 'em" *kitten*- This is the guy that no matter how much weight he's lifting he drops it from waist high to the ground to hear it CLANG!!! on the floor. If you can't lower them safely, you can't lift them with proper form. The exception to this rule would be heavy olympic lifts like the clean or snatch. Even then, if you're not using bumper plates take it easy on the floor, jerk! What really drives me crazy is when this guy is dropping 50 pound barbell after doing curls. I know for a fact that if he can curl that weight, his legs can lower it to the ground...if not he needs to take a lesson from the squat-master...see below

    The squat master- This einstein came in the other day and loaded 135 onto the bar in the squat rack and knocked out about 10 reps with good form. Then sweet piece of female came in to run on the treadmill. Now, never mind that she was watching television while she was running and listening to God-only-knows what Justin Bieber song on her 800 dollar ipod, but the squat master was NOT to go unnoticed. He proudly added another 45 on each end of the bar and did about 4 half-squats. When young, teen female didn't show him enough attention, he added yet ANOTHER 45 on each end of the bar, unracked it, did a half-squat, tried to rerack it, missed on side, and crashed into the side of the rack.....I'm NOT making this up.

    The hot piece of *kitten*- There's really NO reason for you to wear less clothing to the gym than you would to say....working at the strip club...Well, there's one reason, but trust me, I'm WAY too tired and sweaty for any of that in the tanning booth.
  • Lisa__Michelle
    Lisa__Michelle Posts: 845 Member
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    bump.. these are HILARIOUS!
  • hroush
    hroush Posts: 2,073 Member
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    I found one!

    The purple curler - He was sitting in the middle of the room so that he could watch either arm on the wall mirrors and would turn and watch each arm curl. I think he did about 10 reps per arm, but would only breath in the slight moment between switching arms. By the end, he was completely purple! He then upped to 35 lb dumbbells, which only made the reps longer and him even more purple.
  • toots99
    toots99 Posts: 3,794 Member
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    The hot piece of *kitten*- There's really NO reason for you to wear less clothing to the gym than you would to say....working at the strip club...Well, there's one reason, but trust me, I'm WAY too tired and sweaty for any of that in the tanning booth.

    :laugh: :laugh:
  • ChauncyMac
    ChauncyMac Posts: 10
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    I am definitely a Treadmill Addict!I I run for an hour a day, 5 days a week , on the same treadmill and i am drenched in sweat after every run but it's the greatest feeling when you accomplish your run for that day!!:wink::wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:
  • Levedi
    Levedi Posts: 290 Member
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    Everyone that I'm friends with on MFP have reassured me that nobody is really interested in what I would be doing and how I would look because they'd too busy taking care of their own business, and if they do happen to take notice they will only be supportive!

    :heart: :heart: :heart: :flowerforyou: :heart: :heart: :heart:
    I

    Joy- you know, as funny as these stories are (and I love people watching at the gym!) I don't think you need to worry about anything! Keep in mind, that even if someone does think something you do/wear, etc is funny, they don't know you and you don't know them! lol Just go in that gym with confidence and enjoy your workout! :) You will find that once you are working out, you will be focused on what you're doing more than what people are thinking.

    What he said! When I started working out I was so self conscious. I felt like everyone was wondering what a fat chick like me was doing in a gym - gyms are for fit people who love to work out. But when I started looking around I realized people of all sizes and ages came to the gym. And the gym regulars weren't mean or condescending. They were either just focused on their own work out or they were friendly and encouraging. So don't worry about looking foolish. You're among friends.

    Here - I'll tell a silly story about myself too. When I lived in another city my best friend and I would work out together. We are both writers, so we'd walk on treadmills and do weights and talk while we had breath. And we would talk about the contents of the novels we were writing and critique each other's ideas. One day we got to debating a plot point and I burst out "Look! A goblin just wouldn't do that! They don't think that way." This man on the machine next to us almost dropped his weight on his foot he was so startled. Turns out he'd been hearing our increasingly weird conversations for a week and could not for the life of him figure out if we we just had rich fantasy lives or were both sharing the same schizo delusions.
  • deeharley
    deeharley Posts: 1,208 Member
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    1. The Leaping Lady: There’s one lady who gets on the treadmill starts walking and then does a little leap every once in awhile. There’s no rhyme or reason to it either. I watched her for a while to see if I could pick up on the pattern and, I’m telling ya, there was none. Also, she’s quite overweight so it can’t be good for her knees to be doing that.

    Hmm... I do that when I run on the treadmill, but it's because my thighs are huge, which makes my shorts ride up on my inner thighs. When I go a little jump, it makes them go back down.
    ... That would be really creepy if you were seeing me at the gym. =O Just kidding...

    This was my first thought too. I only walk, but I do take an occasional "odd step" for lack of a better term, for the same reason.
  • Lauren_Whitney
    Lauren_Whitney Posts: 26 Member
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    I go to my college's gym, and it is remarkable. I sit along the back wall of the gym on the Expresso bike, sometimes I listen to music and sometimes I just watch the screen on the bike. The same kids come in every single day, and it seems like no matter what time I go, they will be there. The cardio room I am in has a lot of Nautilus machines, but these guys (they are likely on steroids by the way) just mill around and hit on the girls. The heavy free weights are down the hall in another room, so these guys (they all weight at least 220 of muscle) just lurk by the cardio equipment. Ugh, don't get me going on the girls! They come in in their Victoria's Secret "Pink" sweatpants and proceed to lay on the matts and spread it for all to see. Downward dog, you name it. Then after they feel like they have received enough attention, they hop on an elliptical for literally ten minutes, put their UGG boots back on and go back to their dorms. Do they realllllly think that counted as exercise? They burned more calories walking to the gym than they burned at the gym.
    Back to the meatheads...they stare at me hardcore while I peddle away on my bike. The wall behind me is a mirror and I catch them pretending to look at themselves in the mirror when they are really looking at me. I hate it! I feel sweaty and tired and the last thing I want to do is be noticed. I live in constant fear of one of them approaching me, but my boyfriend goes to the gym with me so they know better I think.
    There are some older men who come to the gym (this is a gym for the students...) and leer at the 19 year old girls on the treadmills. One girl who works at the gym bent over to plug in a cord and this one old man bent over and leaned down to get a look at her butt, and she had no idea! It is repulsive and I wish they would go somewhere more age appropriate, rather than sweating all over the treadmill and then not wiping it off! EW!
  • marianne_s
    marianne_s Posts: 986 Member
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    My last gym trip was pretty embarrassing. While I was on the treadmill I see this girl jump roping, and she makes it look so cool and easy with all her little tricks, double jumps, triple jumps, swinging the rope from side to side etc. etc.

    So I decided I was gonna go be cool, there I was with my earphones in ready to jump rope, I went to throw the rope back to start, apparently someone was standing behind me and when I tried to throw the rope forward it was stuck, so as the poor guy is being strangled to death by me, I'm tugging away at it, until I turned around and noticed what it was caught on.

    Oh and it doesn't stop there, after that little episode I continued complete with red embarrassed face, as I tried to swing the rope from side to side I not only hit myself in the face but I let go of the rope because it hurt so bad and it flew off and hit someone else in the back.

    It was then they took the jump rope from me.

    I only wish I knew what other people who were watching me were thinking


    Sorry... but this really made me LOL....!

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