How to handle a messy weight room...
LiveLoveFitFab
Posts: 302 Member
So I've joined a new gym. They have every piece of equipment a girl could want BUT...
The weight room is a disaster. For example, the last time I wanted to do squats someone left one of those HUGE bars that look like a barrel with handles in the middle on the squat rack. Loaded with weight.
So, this tiny woman right here had to unrack 200+lbs of weight, remove the bar from the rack (which was really difficult) and carry it back to where it belonged. Okay, I have no idea where it belonged since it probably hasn't seen it's home ever. The damn thing must have weighed 70lbs. I curl 20lbs per arm, so I really could have hurt myself.
So I struggled for ten minutes to move all this weight, and carry this huge bar away, all while the juice heads watched. No one offered to help. I'm old enough to be these guys mother, and not one offered to help...smh
Dumbells are left everywhere. No one unracks the machines when they are done. Plates are stacked randomly in random places. When people do put their plates back on the racks they do it stupidly, and often the fives and tens are under the forty fives, meaning you have to dig through five forty five plates just to get a smaller plate.
They have bumper plates. They even have racks for them. They are never on the racks. If you want to use the bumper plates you have to find the bar they are living on and re-assemble the bar to your liking. I don't lift 200+lbs, so that means I must take a bunch of really heavy weights off just to get at the ones I might need.
People use the benches as a rest area. So good luck using one of those. The squat racks are used for everything and anything. So I come in on a Saturday early in the morning just to be able to squat.
People take five minute breaks between sets, or they use five pieces of equipment at a time. So for me and half hour work out takes about twice as long, if I even get to do everything. A lot of the time I just skip exercises so I don't have to hang out for an hour waiting. It isn't a lack of equipment, its just that the equipment they do have is being hogged or used for things it isn't meant for.
It would help if I could do cardio while I wait, but then I'd come back and someone else would be on the equipment. So my workout when I lift takes 90 minutes, and I spend only maybe 25 minutes lifting. I'm serious.
The mess makes me anxious. And angry. And even though I've lifted weights for ten years, I just don't want to be in there. I stick to the womens side mostly, but they don't have the equipment there that I need to do the program I want to do.
What do I do? Do I start telling the young men in there to pick up after themselves like I'm their mom? Do I talk to management? Or should I just find another gym? There really isn't that many gyms in my area and this one has the best equipment. I just wish I could use the equipment.
What would you do?
The weight room is a disaster. For example, the last time I wanted to do squats someone left one of those HUGE bars that look like a barrel with handles in the middle on the squat rack. Loaded with weight.
So, this tiny woman right here had to unrack 200+lbs of weight, remove the bar from the rack (which was really difficult) and carry it back to where it belonged. Okay, I have no idea where it belonged since it probably hasn't seen it's home ever. The damn thing must have weighed 70lbs. I curl 20lbs per arm, so I really could have hurt myself.
So I struggled for ten minutes to move all this weight, and carry this huge bar away, all while the juice heads watched. No one offered to help. I'm old enough to be these guys mother, and not one offered to help...smh
Dumbells are left everywhere. No one unracks the machines when they are done. Plates are stacked randomly in random places. When people do put their plates back on the racks they do it stupidly, and often the fives and tens are under the forty fives, meaning you have to dig through five forty five plates just to get a smaller plate.
They have bumper plates. They even have racks for them. They are never on the racks. If you want to use the bumper plates you have to find the bar they are living on and re-assemble the bar to your liking. I don't lift 200+lbs, so that means I must take a bunch of really heavy weights off just to get at the ones I might need.
People use the benches as a rest area. So good luck using one of those. The squat racks are used for everything and anything. So I come in on a Saturday early in the morning just to be able to squat.
People take five minute breaks between sets, or they use five pieces of equipment at a time. So for me and half hour work out takes about twice as long, if I even get to do everything. A lot of the time I just skip exercises so I don't have to hang out for an hour waiting. It isn't a lack of equipment, its just that the equipment they do have is being hogged or used for things it isn't meant for.
It would help if I could do cardio while I wait, but then I'd come back and someone else would be on the equipment. So my workout when I lift takes 90 minutes, and I spend only maybe 25 minutes lifting. I'm serious.
The mess makes me anxious. And angry. And even though I've lifted weights for ten years, I just don't want to be in there. I stick to the womens side mostly, but they don't have the equipment there that I need to do the program I want to do.
What do I do? Do I start telling the young men in there to pick up after themselves like I'm their mom? Do I talk to management? Or should I just find another gym? There really isn't that many gyms in my area and this one has the best equipment. I just wish I could use the equipment.
What would you do?
2
Replies
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Talk to management. Point out that you're not getting your money's worth.9
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Either deal with it or find another gym. Just think, all that work unracking weights and such is just an extra warmup!
My old gym was exactly as you described, no one cared. When I was bored in between sets I'd often re-rack stuff and put bars back where they belonged. It helped pass the time.1 -
Either deal with it or find another gym. Just think, all that work unracking weights and such is just an extra warmup!
My old gym was exactly as you described, no one cared. When I was bored in between sets I'd often re-rack stuff and put bars back where they belonged. It helped pass the time.
The problem with that is, you're a guy and probably can unrack those weights no problem. I'm not that strong and I could hurt myself or in the least, use up whatever strength I have cleaning up after others so I can't lift my own weights as well.
I think I'm going to ask management to either deal with the problem or give me my money back. I'm tired of literally tripping over equipment. It isn't safe or good.4 -
Do they have a "clean up" rule at this gym? If so, you could bring it to management's attention. If not, go get those benches from the cardio room to do your deadlifts. No one will care.1
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I would complain to management. I've belonged to a few gyms, and all of them were really strict about putting weights back and keeping the gym orderly. I would quit if they don't do anything about it.2
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Definitely go to one of the workers about it. My gym ended up posting signs asking lifters to see one of the girls up front if they couldn't deload/rerack. That sure got to them!9
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i'd second the talk-to-management thing. basically, i guess any given space can set or allow any cultural style that they want, so if this particular gym doesn't prioritize things like that it might just be the wrong place for you - as it would be for me. but the point is that if you don't tell them you'll never find out.
on 'handling' it personally, eh; i wouldn't, most probably. either that's just not the culture they have and that the owners impose, and in that case you'll be wasting your time. or it is the culture they have and that the owners impose . . . and in that case it's no more your job to make other users do it than it's your job to clean up after them.0 -
Thanks guys. I wish I had a camera when I hauled that bar out of the squat rack and put it away...
I felt embarrassed for the mothers of all the guys that watched me struggle to move that thing while they did jack *kitten*.
I am waay too shy to mention it to the staff. So, I wrote the gym a four and half star review on their FB page, and wrote the gym would be absolute perfection if the guys were strong enough to put their weights back after using them...I know it's a little passive aggressive, but I hate talking to people, and I hate complaining to management even more...I'm a little wimp that way. I'm so afraid that no matter how I say it or whatever that they are just going to think I'm a complainer
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LiveLoveFitFab wrote: »Thanks guys. I wish I had a camera when I hauled that bar out of the squat rack and put it away...
I felt embarrassed for the mothers of all the guys that watched me struggle to move that thing while they did jack *kitten*.
I am waay too shy to mention it to the staff. So, I wrote the gym a four and half star review on their FB page, and wrote the gym would be absolute perfection if the guys were strong enough to put their weights back after using them...I know it's a little passive aggressive, but I hate talking to people, and I hate complaining to management even more...I'm a little wimp that way. I'm so afraid that no matter how I say it or whatever that they are just going to think I'm a complainer
I just think it's a mistake for a woman to clean up after grown *kitten* men (disclaimers, exceptions, consensual, yada, yada). It's sets a bad precedent.2 -
LiveLoveFitFab wrote: »I felt embarrassed for the mothers of all the guys that watched me struggle to move that thing while they did jack *kitten*
well, just for clarity on this - i'm 51 and not especially big. and if some guy nicely offered to help me every time he saw me struggling with something, what would the point be of me being in the weight room in the first place?
iyou're still right that it's not your effing job to clean up after them. but as far as i'm concerned it ought to be about that, end of story. manners always belong everywhere but imo chivalry is a little ridiculous to expect in a gym.3 -
Assuming that you're going to a gym that's available to members 24/7 (latch key gym) and with no one on staff to watch, people are lazy and don't take care of racking weights or putting stuff back where they belong.
Unfortunately, that's one of the drawbacks of some gyms. It's also one of the things that people should look at on a tour of the gym itself. I really pride myself on how neat and clean our gym is kept throughout the day. I'm THE gym NAZI and will always approach anyone who may have inadvertently left plates or weights out and ask them to return them. Nowadays, that's not very often since the culture there is to be considerate of others like the OP. And let's face it, it's just good gym etiquette.
Sorry OP. You're the person I defend when I ask others who may have left a stack on the leg press or in the cage. Good luck.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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What's the link? I'd like to see what it looks like.LiveLoveFitFab wrote: »Thanks guys. I wish I had a camera when I hauled that bar out of the squat rack and put it away...
I felt embarrassed for the mothers of all the guys that watched me struggle to move that thing while they did jack *kitten*.
I am waay too shy to mention it to the staff. So, I wrote the gym a four and half star review on their FB page, and wrote the gym would be absolute perfection if the guys were strong enough to put their weights back after using them...I know it's a little passive aggressive, but I hate talking to people, and I hate complaining to management even more...I'm a little wimp that way. I'm so afraid that no matter how I say it or whatever that they are just going to think I'm a complainer
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
1 -
Only works that way if you can safely lift the weights. The OP has made the point already, but I kind of wanted to make it again.Either deal with it or find another gym. Just think, all that work unracking weights and such is just an extra warmup!
My old gym was exactly as you described, no one cared. When I was bored in between sets I'd often re-rack stuff and put bars back where they belonged. It helped pass the time.
Some of us are smaller than others, or recovering from injury, or simply Not There yet. A gym where you have to move heavy weights to get at a lighter set is an accident waiting to happen.
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HeliumIsNoble wrote: »
Only works that way if you can safely lift the weights. The OP has made the point already, but I kind of wanted to make it again.Either deal with it or find another gym. Just think, all that work unracking weights and such is just an extra warmup!
My old gym was exactly as you described, no one cared. When I was bored in between sets I'd often re-rack stuff and put bars back where they belonged. It helped pass the time.
Some of us are smaller than others, or recovering from injury, or simply Not There yet. A gym where you have to move heavy weights to get at a lighter set is an accident waiting to happen.
The op can squat 150. If she can load the cage with the bar ( 45 or 55 lbs), at the correct height, then load approx 50lbs x2 on a shoulder height bar I would suspect she can de-load bars for her purpose safetly. (I do realise there is a physical problem with the DL)
I have sympathy for dealing with a messy gym. I have never walked in my gym, a relatively tidy one, and found all weights racked on their staging bars. I nearly always have to farmers walk weights around the gym to get any lift I want to do set up. I view it as part of being a member of a public gym.
One can either play the victim and get upset, or put ones big girl pant on and address the problem- if the stress and anxiety of interacting with the management and other clients in the gym is too much one has to choose to walk away and find another gym,or suck it up and make the situation work.
I am not saying this as some big,strong, lifting for years, assertive woman, I am saying it as an older, petite woman who weighs 100 lbs and has worked hard over the past year to find her own niche in the gym.
I could easily fall back on my 'weaknesses' and into my comfort zone- it is the easy way.
Actually asking the guy twice ones weight, one third ones age, and head and shoulders taller, or a much younger well developed woman (who lifts weights I could only dream of) to please deload the equipment they have just used takes balls the first time, and maybe even the sixth time, but civil interaction eventually makes one an accepted working part of the community.
I have found once one has made that connection the community help one achieve ones goals.
Heck the day they brought in a lighter bar for me so I could transfer from dumb bells to bar bell I had one of the biggest guys in the gym, a complete stranger but working close by, take pics of me benching 27 lbs with it- he was as thrilled for me as I was.
Op stop looking at yourself as a victim and start working with the established community, including management.
Cheers, h.9 -
The OP may be able to squat 150, but that doesn't mean everyone else who ever visits the gym can!
For the record, the sets of gyms I used to use? Were pretty well staffed, with labelled weight racks everywhere, and notices asking people to put stuff back. I won't say the weights were always put back in the right order- mainly because they weren't!- , but as they were shelved beside each other rather than piled, it wasn't an accident risk. Never was there a dumbbell on the floor!
I think the whole mess at this gym is mostly a management problem, to be honest.
That said, however, it's quite likely the standard of equipment didn't measure up to the gym OP uses.1 -
My pet peve is people who don't re-rack or put equipment up. To me, it's just laziness. The problem is, if management does not enforce it, then they will continue to do it.2
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HeliumIsNoble wrote: »For the record, the sets of gyms I used to use? Were pretty well staffed, with labelled weight racks everywhere, and notices asking people to put stuff back. I won't say the weights were always put back in the right order- mainly because they weren't!- , but as they were shelved beside each other rather than piled, it wasn't an accident risk. Never was there a dumbbell on the floor!
Same. At my last gym, employees would make a pass-through every couple of hours and re-rack any weights that were out of order or on the floor, but for the most part people just didn't leave them lying around. If your gym is clean, it will pretty much stay clean. If it's a hot mess with misracked weights everywhere, people will treat it like picking up after themselves doesn't matter.
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