I was grunting during my weighted burpees. Oops.

spartan_d

I was doing some heavy slam ball burpees during one of my workouts. The ball was pretty heavy, and at one point, I decided I should pick up the pace. So I found myself grunting a bit in order to make it quickly through a few reps.

Then I felt chagrined. "I sure hope the people here don't think that I'm doing this for attention," I said to myself. I was especially considered that some NY resolutioners might think that.

Ironically, if our gym had a lunk alarm, I would have taken a certain amount of pleasure in setting it off.

allother94

Better than burping during your weighted grunts, I always say.

lorrpb

We have a few grunters. I font enjoy listening to it but I don’t think they do it just to get attention. Some people are taught to grunt as part of their workout breathing management.

georgieamber2

It’s super obvious when people do it for attention and it’s quite rare in my gym. Most grunters are so involved in their workouts and focused and you can totally see that in the way they workout. I find that quite motivational🤷🏻‍♀️ as long as you’re not screaming🤣

SnifterPug

If I need to make a noise, then I do. I don't try to be loud, but equally I don't try to hold it in. I can be a bit sweary, too, but I do make an effort to control my language if anyone is within earshot.

spartan_d

The thing is, a lot of people think that grunting is absolutely unnecessary. Heck, a lot of people in this forum have said so. And there's a certain purple-and-yellow fitness chain that absolutely it altogether.

These people, of course, are utterly misinformed.

jflongo

I never grunt, but usually when I'm doing Deadlifts, and the weight gets really heavy, usually I'm make a little noise when I do the first lift. If people look at me when doing that, oh well.

Azdak

To me, it's more of a subjective decision. It's one that I had to deal with all the time in my working days and as a staff we would discuss the best approaches. We had the additional complication in that the free weight area was built directly over physical therapy, so banging weights could be quite a shock.

So we tried to make the best choices to make everyone at least be tolerant of others.

Example 1: If a guy was deadlifting 400-500 pounds, there would usually be some grunting and banging of weights. If someone complained to me, I tried to explain that setting the weights down gently could lead to injury; I would also point out that they were only doing 5 or 6 reps.

Example 2: We had another guy who didn't have to grunt or slam weights because he wasn't working out that hard, but that was just his thing. He always wore headphones so he didn't realize how loud he was. Not only could you hear him all over the gym, he would not just drop weights when doing barbell rows or deadlifts, he would actively slam the bar into the floor. In that case, I spoke to him and requested that he tone it down.

Example 3: we had a number of guys, esp in the dumbbell area, who would just drop the dumbbells because they were to lazy to put them down or thought it was bro-cool to drop them from waist high after doing a shoulder press. Not a lot of gray area there.

Example 4: we had an ultrabro who was not a member but a guest. He also wore headphones cranked up so loud you could hear the music all over the gym as well. He grunted during a set like he was having sex, then banged the weights as hard as possible (machines or free weights), then shouted out a string of curses.
We asked him to tone it down, but he gave us a bunch of crap so we just kicked him out and banned him from the gym.

So I always tried to look at the individual, the context, and how it affected everyone else. A big fitness center is just like any other society--you try to give people their individual freedom, but no one has absolute freedom over the rest of the group.

And --just like kindergarten--everyone has to play nice. And everyone is not going to agree 100% of the time, so you try to make the best judgments.

spzjlb

Everyone has earphones on - don’t worry and keep working hard!

runnermom419

Oh my lanta...grunt or don't grunt. Re-rack your weights and wipe down your machines. Seriously, why are people so wrapped up in what others do? I wonder what kind of workout they'd get if they focused on themselves vs. everyone else.

hesn92

I've never been bothered by anyone grunting at the gym lol. I do find it annoying when people unnecessarily drop heavy weights though.

spartan_d

runnermom419 wrote: »

Oh my lanta...grunt or don't grunt. Re-rack your weights and wipe down your machines. Seriously, why are people so wrapped up in what others do? I wonder what kind of workout they'd get if they focused on themselves vs. everyone else.

It's the weak-minded, insecure, uninformed people who say, "There's no reason to grunt when you're working out!"

Unfortunately, there are a lot of such people. And a certain fitness chain likes to reinforce that way of thinking.

Lobsterboxtops

Oh dear.. to grunt or not to grunt.

Honestly i’m Sure people would prefer grunting over my tendency to swear like a sailor while exercising. This may be why I prefer to exercise at home (my husband and the cats are used to it by now). To be fair, it took years before I could knit in public, since there was a lot of swearing there too. So maybe there is hope for me yet.