Dealing with the New Years Crowd

cpayagen

The New Year is just around the corner and it's about "that time" where hundreds of people storm the gym to finally "change their life"...for the 5th time in 5 years. Now that doesn't bother the common gym rat, who's been at that gym for years. What bothers us is that these noobs come in and take up all of the equipment that you never had a problem finding available. Here are my 5 tips to getting around these people!

1) 5AM is the start of the cardio bunnies and after 3PM are the weightlifting jocks. Between 5AM-6:30AM, you will not find an open treadmill, elliptical, bike, or any other cardio equipment available without waiting at least 30 minutes. The solution would be to run/jog at home or go to a well-lit outdoor track and do sprints there!

2) When this list of equipment is available, stop what you're doing and use it because that will not be available in under 3 minutes at most. Ranked in order of popularity starting with the least popular (popular) machine. 5) Leg/Knee extension machine, 4) The preacher curl machine, 3) Dumbbells that you'll eventually need, 2) The barbell bench press, 1) The weighted crunch machine. Just trust me when I say that these are the most popular pieces of equipment at most gyms, especially 2 & 1.

3) Get to the gym 15 minutes before it opens and wait in your car until the doors unlock. The new years crowd is too intimidated to do this, so chances are that you'll be the first person in that gym. You can even have some small talk with the person who opened the gym door. Then for the first 5 minutes, you can take the most popular machine and knock out your 4-6 sets.

4) When you're going to get water, that machine is automatically assumed "available", so put your towel there, get water, and come back ASAP. But don't hog a piece of equipment if you're "circuit training" or going to the bathroom. You should never circuit train unless you're literally the only person at the gym. Once someone else walks in, clean up and stick to straight sets.

5) Be kind to everyone. The New Year's crowd may be annoying, but know that they'll be gone in february. Just be calm and kind and you'll be happy.