Gym/Locker Room Etiquette

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  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
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    I have to agree also that people strutting around the locker room naked for longer than necessary is annoying! At this one gym I used to go to there was this one saggy baggy old lady that clearly got off hanging around the women's locker room naked...it was so gross!!!!!!
  • kit_katty
    kit_katty Posts: 994 Member
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    As a person who's gotten dirty looks and being stared at at the gym while working out, I'd like to add as Locker Room Etiquette:

    I'm here to get healthier, you giving me dirty looks will only make me want to stay home and hide. Don't be a ****, fat people are people too. I know a 385 lb woman working out might be funny to SOME people but grow up and mind your own business.

    That's my two cents on locker room etiquette. :P

    I totally agree, they're stupid for throwing you dirty looks like that. Seriously! *******
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
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    Some of these responses amaze me. You people do realize you are going to a gym, aka "weight room", where things are made of metal and make noise rather easily when hit together or on the floor. Yes it's one thing to toss weights around and be careless, but at times dropping them is the more appropriate way of putting them down. Do gyms these days not have the padded mats in the weight areas?

    Hogging machines without being willing to let others work in and not re-racking weights are my 2 rules of gym ettiquette that shouldn't be broken. Other than that, have at it.
  • cbbarge
    cbbarge Posts: 250 Member
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    My number one rule of locker room etiquette is:

    "Don't shave your private parts in the shower"

    Saw it happen once, kid you not!
  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
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    My number one rule of locker room etiquette is:

    "Don't shave your private parts in the shower"

    Saw it happen once, kid you not!


    EWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!
  • Jeff92se
    Jeff92se Posts: 3,369 Member
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    I am a member of Gold's Gym, and I haven't had very many issues with any of the members there. I am quite glad that I haven't seen any nekkid peeps in the sauna, for example...

    I don't mind dropping weights...UNLESS, you are doing it for show. And I think we all know at least 1 person that does that, where they finish their set, have no need to drop the weights, but do it anyway and grunt loudly just to show how beastly they are. Honestly, I've only seen 2 people in my gym do that...they are quite literally high school boys. The "muscle heads" don't do that. Sure, they may drop the weights, but then again, so do I sometimes. Cause after doing my deads, sometimes I don't have the energy to put the bar back on the squat rack, so I drop it cause if I bend down all the way, I pull muscles in my back cause I have tight hammies and do my deadlifts by going slightly below the knees, then raising up, repeating 10 or so times. To prevent injuries, I drop the suckers afterwards. Sorry if that bothers some people...no, not really sorry...but I'd rather drop them than hurt my back. After my final set, I drop them, wait about a minute, then re-rack and take the plates off. Maybe if I did less than 100 pounds or so I would just bend over and put them down ever so gently...but that wouldn't do anything for my hams while picking up the weight.

    Imagine that. A woman that has the same opinion as me(an apparent misogynistic no less). Clearly that backs up someone claim.
  • iuangina
    iuangina Posts: 691 Member
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    My biggest pet peeve at the gym is people who put perfume/cologne on before working out. I've since quit the gym, but I don't need to choke on someone else's perfume while I'm running on the treadmill.

    ^this

    Other things:
    I also don't understand the need to run around the locker room nude, go in the sauna nude
    Not drying off after taking a shower so as to leave a puddle on the floor throughout the locker room
    Kids - Allowing your kids to run wild on the cardio machines when people are waiting, kids playing marco polo in the lap lanes (I'm not at the gym to babysit)
    Sitting on the weight machines as a chair.
    January Joiners - (I have 4.5 more weeks until they return)
    Talking - I'm not at the gym to hear your life story. If you feel the need to talk to someone find a shrink.
    Living in oblivion - if you are done get out of my way, pay attention to the fact that others may want to use the equipment


    Dropping weights doesn't really bother me. I've done enough lifting to know that it happens when you're tired. There is a difference between the people who are doing this to show off and the people who are too tired to lower the weights to the floor. I don't really understand why this bothers people so much. I mind my own business at the gym and I never really understood why people are so concerned about others unless the behavior of others directly impedes the ability to successfully complete your workout.
  • schnugglebug
    schnugglebug Posts: 333 Member
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    SO glad I go to a small gym omgosh... reading all these issues... I make sure to go to the gym when it is next to empty usually a total of maybe 10 people in the WHOLE place and we have a seperate woman's section or a mixed section... so you have variety!

    the locker room does get a little full from time to time, during classes.
    but haven't had any problems or complaints the 3 months I have been going
  • 1WorkoutAtATime
    1WorkoutAtATime Posts: 719
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    the naked guy who can't seem to find his clothes, people who talk on cellphones and talking loudly, people who don't wiped down the machines and benches oh and my alltime fav the lady who feel teh need to sing very single word of the music she is lstening to in her headphones so the who gym van hear it....
  • hbrittingham
    hbrittingham Posts: 2,518 Member
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    My biggest pet peeve at the gym is people who put perfume/cologne on before working out. I've since quit the gym, but I don't need to choke on someone else's perfume while I'm running on the treadmill.

    This! And people who apparently don't bother washing their gym clothes but once a month. They always choose the machine next to me, too. Gross!
  • hbrittingham
    hbrittingham Posts: 2,518 Member
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    the naked guy who can't seem to find his clothes, people who talk on cellphones and talking loudly, people who don't wiped down the machines and benches oh and my alltime fav the lady who feel teh need to sing very single word of the music she is lstening to in her headphones so the who gym van hear it....

    LOL. Which is the reason I don't wear and iPod or MP3 player to the gym. I'd end up singing along (off key).
  • havingitall
    havingitall Posts: 3,728 Member
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    My gym is an Ok size and has a separate room for kickboxing, one for spinning and a basketball court. what drives me nuts is the guy practicing Hapkido ( we call him dancing dude) who does airy fairy punches and kicks while standing under the cable machine.

    Hello??? we have a room full of heavy bags and you want to kick air while you hog up a machine that several people can use at once.

    Or... the trainers that decide to so floor work under the same cable machine so nobody can use it...for an hour.

    Please....move to a place that has room, but allows of gym members to use the equipment.
  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
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    some of these are hilarious! brilliant thread! I used to have an older gentleman who for some reason or another would always wind up on the treadmill next to me.....he reeked of old people food! Like cabbage or something....yuck. Or sometimes if someone has eaten a lot of garlic they'll start to sweat it out their pores and stick up the place (lol...being a garlic lover I've probably done this myself)
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
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    Dropping weights doesn't really bother me. I've done enough lifting to know that it happens when you're tired. There is a difference between the people who are doing this to show off and the people who are too tired to lower the weights to the floor. I don't really understand why this bothers people so much. I mind my own business at the gym and I never really understood why people are so concerned about others unless the behavior of others directly impedes the ability to successfully complete your workout.

    Exactly. I could care less if you read, text, chat, air guitar, or break dance...as long as you're not holding up equipment.

    I'll occiasonally thud some weights. Especially when doing the power clean. I'll occiasonally grunt on the last set of said power clean. No one has ever addressed this issue with me despite their being a good presence of gym staff in the weight area. It is a weight room. What do you expect to hear in there?
  • LexieSweetheart
    LexieSweetheart Posts: 793 Member
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    Please realize the the soap is for everybody. DO NOT wash your va jay jay with your bare hand and then use the soap it is nasty.
  • thecrossfitter
    thecrossfitter Posts: 424 Member
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    Dropping weights doesn't really bother me. I've done enough lifting to know that it happens when you're tired. There is a difference between the people who are doing this to show off and the people who are too tired to lower the weights to the floor. I don't really understand why this bothers people so much. I mind my own business at the gym and I never really understood why people are so concerned about others unless the behavior of others directly impedes the ability to successfully complete your workout.

    Exactly. I could care less if you read, text, chat, air guitar, or break dance...as long as you're not holding up equipment.

    I'll occiasonally thud some weights. Especially when doing the power clean. I'll occiasonally grunt on the last set of said power clean. No one has ever addressed this issue with me despite their being a good presence of gym staff in the weight area. It is a weight room. What do you expect to hear in there?

    Agreed. I don't typically drop weights, but sometimes you have to for various reason. Sometimes I'll even have to bail on a lift - that isn't even close to my max - because I realize I'm too tired at that point in the workout and form would be poor and it's safer to ditch the weight. If I'm going for a 5 rep max on my deadlift, 150+lbs can feel really heavy at the end. Part of lifting is trial and error, and when pushing yourself you may fail. It's safer to stop than keep going. There are a lot more reasons that it can occasionally happen that are too boring to list. Oh, and I have been known to let out an unintentional grunt on a rare occasion (which surprised even myself haha!)

    Clean up after yourself, don't hold up equipment, be courteous. Other than that I don't care what you do - air guitaring included so long as it isn't hurting anyone else. Wanna get dressed up to work out? Well, I don't get it. I may secretly think you're silly. But I don't care. (Oh - except for what that one person said about someone shaving their private bits in the public shower. Seriously that's gross.)
  • AlsDonkBoxSquat
    AlsDonkBoxSquat Posts: 6,128 Member
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    In the locker room: as long as you aren't doing naked toe touches or taking pictures I'm cool.

    In the weight room:
    1) weight clanking because you're too lazy to properly put your weigths down. I get the too tired part, sometimes I crash out too, it's cool that's the point. BUT, if you're doing it with every set on every single exercise I am working under the assumption you are a weight clanker.
    2) not wiping down the equipment, I have to deal with my smell and sweat, I think yours is nasty.
    3) not re-racking weights. If you can put them on, you can take them off.
    4) leaving equipment out (steps or balance balls) in the middle of the exercise area when you're done with it, no one here is your momma, clean up after yourself.
  • wendyw8
    wendyw8 Posts: 86 Member
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    Wow people really have alot of complaints about stuff other people do at the gym. I think that you cant change people but if it really bothers you that bad maybe when you see someone doing you pet peeve you should ask them to stop, but on the other hand what would you say if someone walked up to you and asked you to stop doing something that you wanted to do that was not hurting anyone else (except the wiping of machines, that is just gross). That is something to think about since most people are there to improve, who really cares what they are dressed like or if they are texting or reading none of that should matter to anyone else because it is just them that is maybe cheating themselves out of a better workout, but that is really not any ones problem except their own. Letting something that someone else is doing bother you is just stupid and not worth the brain power it takes to be aggravated.
  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
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    Wow people really have alot of complaints about stuff other people do at the gym. I think that you cant change people but if it really bothers you that bad maybe when you see someone doing you pet peeve you should ask them to stop, but on the other hand what would you say if someone walked up to you and asked you to stop doing something that you wanted to do that was not hurting anyone else (except the wiping of machines, that is just gross). That is something to think about since most people are there to improve, who really cares what they are dressed like or if they are texting or reading none of that should matter to anyone else because it is just them that is maybe cheating themselves out of a better workout, but that is really not any ones problem except their own. Letting something that someone else is doing bother you is just stupid and not worth the brain power it takes to be aggravated.

    I don't think this discussion was meant to be that serious. Just some light hearted gym stories of things we encounter during our work outs. If something actually bothered me that much....I wouldn't go to the gym. It's innocent people watching
  • Toxictwist
    Toxictwist Posts: 274
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    -people need to clean the machines off after using them!
    -I cant stand when I can hear someone's music (headphone) when they are 5 treadmills down from me. Are you Deaf?!
    -Was at the gym one day & this lady was on the stair climber & she was literally moaning! It was very awkward in there...
    -Girls who plaster their faces with make up to work out. I'm sorry, but for me.. when I go tot he gym. I am NOT going there to impress anyone!

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