That awkward moment in the gym...

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Alia_R
Alia_R Posts: 410 Member
in Motivation and Support
So lately I’ve been having these awkward moments in the gym while I’m working out. Sometimes I get people watching me while I’m weighty lifting. I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or they just haven’t seen a woman lift heavy weights lol but it’s so DAMN WEIRD borderline ANNOYING. I try not to pay too much attention though.

What’s the most awkward thing thing that’s happened to you in the gym?
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  • Scareah
    Scareah Posts: 40 Member
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    A guy kept following me around the pool and sauna. Lol
  • Cahgetsfit
    Cahgetsfit Posts: 1,912 Member
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    The gym I go to is super chill - as in - it's a university gym so either students or old people like me are there (the workers). There isn't really any awkwardness as people tend to mind their own business.

    I think I probably make people feel awkward tho. Like when these young student guys were trying to change the bar height on the bench press and couldn't get the little pin back into place and were struggling with it I just walked up and said "here you go" and clipped it back in in 1 second.

    THEY looked embarrassed and awkward.

    I didn't though. :)

  • tracybear86
    tracybear86 Posts: 163 Member
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    An older guy walking up and down the pool deck watching me swim laps. We were the only ones in the pool/hot tub/sauna area at the time. :o Maybe he was just looking at my form but it was definitely an "I need an adult!" moment!
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
    edited June 2019
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    sardelsa wrote: »
    Once I sprained my ankle dancing to "Uptown Funk". I was alone in my gym but still pretty awkward and embarrassing :D

    You can't not dance to Uptown Funk.


    My gym is very bodybuilding/powerlifting focused. There are bikini competitors walking around in their tiny suits, powerlifters grunting and lifting ridiculous weight, etc. So, the first time I peed on the deadlift platform was pretty awkward. But once you realize it happens to most older female powerlifters, it becomes no big deal.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    Alia_R wrote: »
    So lately I’ve been having these awkward moments in the gym while I’m working out. Sometimes I get people watching me while I’m weighty lifting. I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or they just haven’t seen a woman lift heavy weights lol but it’s so DAMN WEIRD borderline ANNOYING. I try not to pay too much attention though.

    What’s the most awkward thing thing that’s happened to you in the gym?

    In reference to people watching you:

    I find myself zoning out between lifts. Lots of times, I am looking in someone's direction when I zone out. So it probably looks like I'm watching them, and I really am not.

    Other times, they are doing something interesting and I'm watching to see if I want to incorporate it into my workout.

    Once in a great while, they are doing something really ridiculous and it's like a trainwreck. You can't look away. But I'm talking standing on a bosu ball with weight on your back trying to do squats ridiculous. If you aren't doing anything like that, @Alia_R, don't sweat it!
  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,070 Member
    edited June 2019
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    JeBeBu wrote: »
    I was teaching a morning water aerobics class and had my back to the pool wall (facing out toward the deep end & the students). I had the music playing and I was really focused when, all of a sudden, someone pulled my ponytail & swatted my butt!! I am not sure if I was more shocked or the man was more embarrassed to remember that I was subbing his wife's class whilst she enrolled their little one in kindergarten! In all fairness, she & I have been mistaken for one another multiple times, but generally just from a distance! LOL!

    Hahaha! I bet he was mortified. I did something similiar as a teenager in a store. My dad was buying boots and I had been spacing staring at the floor. I grab his arm and hug it to my side, only to look up and it was a total stranger! :D
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
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    My iPad fell off the elliptical once and banged against the side of it on the way down. It was super duper loud. Amazingly, the frame dented but the screen did not crack. The guy I took it to to get it fixed said it was a miracle.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    showjefb wrote: »
    I think we have all overestimated our strength on the bench press, had no spot, and got pinned?

    Amirite?

    Nobody? Just me? mmmk lol

    Not just you. I call that the "roll of shame".

    And it hurts a lot when it hits your hip bones.
  • Alia_R
    Alia_R Posts: 410 Member
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    showjefb wrote: »
    I think we have all overestimated our strength on the bench press, had no spot, and got pinned?

    Amirite?

    Nobody? Just me? mmmk lol

    Nope. I’ve done that too lol.
  • steveko89
    steveko89 Posts: 2,216 Member
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    Homegym user for this, among many other reasons. My cats do like to spectate though, sometimes creepily from a shadowy area across the basement. Otherwise they just want bellyrubs between sets.
  • showjefb
    showjefb Posts: 109 Member
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    Alia_R wrote: »
    showjefb wrote: »
    I think we have all overestimated our strength on the bench press, had no spot, and got pinned?

    Amirite?

    Nobody? Just me? mmmk lol

    Nope. I’ve done that too lol.

    LOL. I was young and dumb... Like 44
  • Motorsheen
    Motorsheen Posts: 20,492 Member
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    showjefb wrote: »
    I think we have all overestimated our strength on the bench press, had no spot, and got pinned?

    Amirite?

    Nobody? Just me? mmmk lol

    Only once... when I was 14 years old, at home.... alone.

    The people I see get pinned at the gym are usually high school age boys. Even then, it's pretty rare.

    awkward or embarrassing at the gym as an adult ? for me?

    nothing really, maybe the occasional orthostatic hypotension after a big lift.... but nobody has ever noticed.

    Last year, I was talking to a friend at the gym and he just dropped like a sack of potatoes being dropped off the back of a truck. Remember to Hydrate.

  • jguldi11
    jguldi11 Posts: 201 Member
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    bestrongbefit1 wrote: »
    I closed my eyes once while on the treadmill and was dancing. I slid off the side, i jumped back on and kept going like nothing was wrong. The guy next to me ended up stopping his run and walked away cause he was laughing so hard. :# OOPS lol

    Other then that, not to many awkward moments. Maybe I just don't pay attention to my surroundings. lol. probably should work on that. :D

    I did the same thing years ago lol I was dancing on the treadmill and decided to do a spin (why?!) and of course fell off haha. I was too embarrassed to look at anyone to see their reactions. I just hopped back on and kept doing my thing, sans spin lol
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,742 Member
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    I went to a women-only "gym" with a friend one time and it kind of scarred me for life. I thought we would all sort of mind our own business and exercise. Wrong. Most of the women were just standing around talking about essential oils and their kids and asking me and my friend a bunch of personal questions. Hated everything about it and definitely one of my most awkward social encounters ever.
  • QuinntessentiallyMe
    QuinntessentiallyMe Posts: 88 Member
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    Another woman and I were on the leg abductor and adductor machines. Both of us were in shorts, no big deal. There was a chain link wall separating our section from the weight room. We were right by the wall. A middle-aged man just stood right at the wall, fingers poking through the links, grasping them tightly, intensely watching us open and close our legs. I asked him nicely to give us privacy, and he had the nerve to act affronted. Don't be this creepy, guys!! LOL

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