PSA!!! Gym Etiquette!!

Squidgeypaws007

Although I totally agree with the notion of what you're saying, a lot of these points are plain and simple common sense and courtesy. I didn't know before this thread what the "big three" are, so maybe I should stop going to the gym BUT I do know to not stand in the middle of a walkway talking, I know how annoying it is when some big dude leaves 100+ kilos on the leg press, or a barbell fully loaded on the only free rack and if people just took a moment to think about how THEY would like to find the gym a lot of these silly little peeves and threads wouldn't exist. Saying that, I learnt a lot from threads like this before I entered the gym 3 weeks ago

Yes it would go a long way if everyone exercised golden rule ethics when they went to the gym. I think an interesting article to read would be one covering what to do when someone violated these rules. That can be quite the mine field. Confronting someone too strongly can put them on the defensive and escalate and otherwise small nuisance to a higher level. If you are too timid it could result in being ignored.

While it can easily be called common sense I do think there is value in posting things like this. Obviously I did not agree with all of it but I did agree with a lot of it. Perhaps a third person would have different points of objection and agreement. From the dialogue a common ground can be found and progress can be made.

Mmm, you're quite right - how do you pitch it? I guess it's a case of being firm but polite, much like you'd deal with any hassle in daily life. But you're going to come back and say what is "firm"? right? That again is subjective to a degree. Yes, as I said, I learnt a lot from these kinds of posts - some of it I had figured out, but other things I'd never considered so it's always interesting to read these!

And we wouldn't be human if we all agreed on every point, variety is the spice of life after all :bigsmile:

allifantastical

*starts the slow clap*

Beastx10

finally a good post.

lacurandera1

"This experiment may take you several hours—or even days—but you’ll eventually see someone trying to squat at your local Planet Fitness."

:laugh:

ZoeLifts

P.P.S. I feel I should come clean here and that my profile picture is not what I actually look like.

That would be cool though, whatever that is (it's hard to tell from the size of the pic). It looks pretty ferocious, but I am not familiar with the character, LOL!

alyssamiller77

"This experiment may take you several hours—or even days—but you’ll eventually see someone trying to squat at your local Planet Fitness."

:laugh:

Yeah like me, I do squats at PF so what of it? Oh and I do use the "Tampon pad" as the author referred to it, although with much higher weights than he suggested (a few 45's per side to be sure)

Squidgeypaws007

P.P.S. I feel I should come clean here and that my profile picture is not what I actually look like.

But it's your goal body right? :P

soldier4242

P.P.S. I feel I should come clean here and that my profile picture is not what I actually look like.

That would be cool though, whatever that is (it's hard to tell from the size of the pic). It looks pretty ferocious, but I am not familiar with the character, LOL!

Yeah you have to click on it and go in to my profile to see a bigger version of the picture. I am a part of a challenge where I am on team zombie and my profile pick of our mascot for team zombie. He is Yurick from League of Legends.

danimalkeys

"This experiment may take you several hours—or even days—but you’ll eventually see someone trying to squat at your local Planet Fitness."

:laugh:

Yeah like me, I do squats at PF so what of it? Oh and I do use the "Tampon pad" as the author referred to it, although with much higher weights than he suggested (a few 45's per side to be sure)

You gotta build up that callous across your lower traps/rear delts. Let those bar knurls draw blood! Then you are squattin!

SweetSailor

and for the love of all things holy, if you leave a sweat puddle on it, wipe it off!

soldier4242

cbcbrass98: I did not quote you to prevent obliterating the screen space.

You did address everything I said point by point and you actually addressed my arguments without making any logical fallacies so right off the bat I am impressed. Especially given the vitriol in our original exchanges I did not expect such a pointed response. Most people on the internet would have simply said something derogatory and.

Your first point that the article was actually directed at an esoteric group but has rules which can apply on a large level. That is a pretty strong argument which we do apply in our daily lives all the time. I doubt any of us are Olympic athletes but you see people all the time trying to learn from their training routines. So point for you there but I do maintain that not all points are necessarily applicable on a universal level.

I have always had a problem with the error on the side of caution mentality. If you really want to call me a hypocrite now is your chance because I do still do it. The reason I do it is for the reason you might expect. It is just easier. If I behave in a manner that is acceptable to the most easily offended then I am less likely to offend anyone. I do take issue with this in some respects because it gives the most easily offended too much power and it can be difficult to gauge in some situations. Trust me on this army uses this policy for sexual harassment and it can get pretty dicey.

I have already conceded that you did not write the article and that I was wrong for proceeding with that assumption.

The movie theater seats make for a much better analogy than the urinals. That said I think the seats put you a lot closer than a couple of elliptical machines. Perhaps they are closer at other gyms. I just think a person can be too cavalier in claiming personal space. There comes a point where I am far enough away. How big of a bubble should we give the most easily offended before we just tell them to deal with it?(rhetorical question)

My *kitten* is not as toned as I would like it either. I too am working on it. I will be sure to let you know when I get there.

I did type "no hard feelings" followed by "chill out a bit" but I don't think "chill out a bit" a is that bad of a thing to say. But there are other parts of what I was typing that came off far more harshly that I had intended. I guess I was off on a bit of rant there.

As a side note I was not actually trying to be derogatory about your *kitten*. You are legitimately in far better shape and I do look forward to having some real muscle tone of my own. Perhaps when that day comes my profile picture will be of me.

I did sense the snarky sarcasm behind your "no hard feelings" at the end of your post but truth be told I don't have any hard feelings and I did deserve it.

lcuconley

When someone is sitting on one of the resistance machines, resting, and you need to use it what would you do or say? There's someone at my gym who uses the vertical row machine, he has the weight set at near maximum so granted I'm sure he needs to rest before he uses it again but he sits there the whole time and in all can be hogging it for about 20 mins without getting off (his rest periods last around 3-5 minutes). I'm quite new at the gym and as the weights I have it set at are a miserably light compared to him I'm reluctant to say anything. I'm tempted to ask if I can hop on for a minute (it only takes me about a minute to do my 12 reps) but not sure if he would think I'm being rude interrupting like that.

You can totally ask him if you can work in! Most people are pretty good about that. He would be rude to not let you, especially if it's just a matter of moving a pin for a few minutes. It gets more difficult to work in when there are a lot of weights to have to shift back and forth, but most people I have noticed are pretty easy going about it.

So, just to be clear, you wait until the person is done with their set and then you say, "Can I work in?" You take note of the weight they were at so that you can replace the pin when you are done with your set. Then you wipe the equipment off with your towel before stepping aside.

soldier4242

Although I totally agree with the notion of what you're saying, a lot of these points are plain and simple common sense and courtesy. I didn't know before this thread what the "big three" are, so maybe I should stop going to the gym BUT I do know to not stand in the middle of a walkway talking, I know how annoying it is when some big dude leaves 100+ kilos on the leg press, or a barbell fully loaded on the only free rack and if people just took a moment to think about how THEY would like to find the gym a lot of these silly little peeves and threads wouldn't exist. Saying that, I learnt a lot from threads like this before I entered the gym 3 weeks ago

Yes it would go a long way if everyone exercised golden rule ethics when they went to the gym. I think an interesting article to read would be one covering what to do when someone violated these rules. That can be quite the mine field. Confronting someone too strongly can put them on the defensive and escalate and otherwise small nuisance to a higher level. If you are too timid it could result in being ignored.

While it can easily be called common sense I do think there is value in posting things like this. Obviously I did not agree with all of it but I did agree with a lot of it. Perhaps a third person would have different points of objection and agreement. From the dialogue a common ground can be found and progress can be made.

Mmm, you're quite right - how do you pitch it? I guess it's a case of being firm but polite, much like you'd deal with any hassle in daily life. But you're going to come back and say what is "firm"? right? That again is subjective to a degree. Yes, as I said, I learnt a lot from these kinds of posts - some of it I had figured out, but other things I'd never considered so it's always interesting to read these!

And we wouldn't be human if we all agreed on every point, variety is the spice of life after all :bigsmile:

I guess many of our innovations are born from those disagreements so long as the conversation remains at a productive level. That is the key thing. It is ever so easy for a dialogue to devolve. It is an even bigger deal if it is with one of those people that is in the gym at the same time you every day. You will more than likely see them again.

FancySplash

First, I LOVE the Dangerously Hardcore website, AWESOME stuff there, thanks for sharing!! My big thing at the gym is "To clean the extremely gross sweaty puddle you left on the seat after your done" "Or just leave it for the next person to clean up"? I find it disgusting to leave sweat all over the equipment but I see the trainers do it all the time when they are training, and thus people think it is OK because staff do it. Granted I always clean the equipment before I use it anyways, but is it not just courteous to clean up after yourself? Just like putting away the barbell when your done, no one wants to clean up after those people.

ZoeLifts

cbcbrass98: I did not quote you to prevent obliterating the screen space.

You did address everything I said point by point and you actually addressed my arguments without making any logical fallacies so right off the bat I am impressed. Especially given the vitriol in our original exchanges I did not expect such a pointed response. Most people on the internet would have simply said something derogatory and.

Your first point that the article was actually directed at an esoteric group but has rules which can apply on a large level. That is a pretty strong argument which we do apply in our daily lives all the time. I doubt any of us are Olympic athletes but you see people all the time trying to learn from their training routines. So point for you there but I do maintain that not all points are necessarily applicable on a universal level.

I have always had a problem with the error on the side of caution mentality. If you really want to call me a hypocrite now is your chance because I do still do it. The reason I do it is for the reason you might expect. It is just easier. If I behave in a manner that is acceptable to the most easily offended then I am less likely to offend anyone. I do take issue with this in some respects because it gives the most easily offended too much power and it can be difficult to gauge in some situations. Trust me on this army uses this policy for sexual harassment and it can get pretty dicey.

I have already conceded that you did not write the article and that I was wrong for proceeding with that assumption.

The movie theater seats make for a much better analogy than the urinals. That said I think the seats put you a lot closer than a couple of elliptical machines. Perhaps they are closer at other gyms. I just think a person can be too cavalier in claiming personal space. There comes a point where I am far enough away. How big of a bubble should we give the most easily offended before we just tell them to deal with it?(rhetorical question)

My *kitten* is not as toned as I would like it either. I too am working on it. I will be sure to let you know when I get there.

I did type "no hard feelings" followed by "chill out a bit" but I don't think "chill out a bit" a is that bad of a thing to say. But there are other parts of what I was typing that came off far more harshly that I had intended. I guess I was off on a bit of rant there.

As a side note I was not actually trying to be derogatory about your *kitten*. You are legitimately in far better shape and I do look forward to having some real muscle tone of my own. Perhaps when that day comes my profile picture will be of me.

I did sense the snarky sarcasm behind your "no hard feelings" at the end of your post but truth be told I don't have any hard feelings and I did deserve it.

We are all good, I appreciated the exchange of thoughts and insights to the article. I appreciate your rebuttal to my points, and you and I are on the same page, especially regarding giving the easily offended too much power (as a former teacher, I have lived this). I think we can part on good terms and call this a good discussion, overall!

ZoeLifts

It was more an observation of you bringing a humerous article and then quite clearly not having any sense of humour or language but more a real sense of entitlement and a wanting for people to obey social mores that are not clearly defined by society. And just mentioning the word Nazi is not an invocation of Godwin's Law that is just to satisfy your desire to seem incredibly brilliant enough to reference it.

Ex-school teacher, says a lot. Good look in your crusade, because you have obviously taken a humerous piece and decided it is a manifesto for your petty bourgeois nature.

You seem tense, hangry even, and to be quite honest, you are coming off as having much less of a sense of "humor or language" than myself (I'm not sure exactly the point you have regarding language, perhaps the problem is on your end in that regard).

Thanks for, what I assume, is meant to be a personal attack in regards to me being an ex-school teacher, though, I'm not sure how it is supposed to insult me. I find that most people that use the phrase "petty bourgeois nature" are only doing it to satisfy their own desire to seem incredibly brilliant in their own right. You have clearly taken my contribution to the forums way too seriously and I seem to have struck a nerve with you.

Admiral_Derp

BurtHuttz

LMFAO

ZoeLifts

LMFAO

ROFL!!!! This made my morning!!

T1mH

Nearly all of this is the fault of gym management. For not creating or enforcing these policies. Most gyms have rules that cover most of this behavior. The normal gym is to large to effectively enforce anything and management doesn't even try. If there is enough clients coming in odds are that you'll get a few who are OCD enough to clean up and re-rack the weights in the proper order. Why waste time on paying a staff member to do it? Gyms are in it for the money not for the fitness of their members. I understand they need to make money but free pizza and bagels at planet fitness has to be about the most counter productive thing I've ever heard of.