Proper Gym Etiquette

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Replies

  • Huffdogg
    Huffdogg Posts: 1,934 Member
    Don't curl in the squat rack
    Don't attempt to tie up 4 different stations for a circuit workout when the gym is busy and you are 5+ minutes between sets on a specific exercise
    Put your weights away when you are done with them.
    Don't curl in the squat rack


    Anything else I can live with.
  • GetSoda
    GetSoda Posts: 1,267 Member
    Do not fart while doing squats.

    At least say "excuse me"

    Agreed. Sometimes you just can't help it.

    If you ain't fartin, you ain't squattin' enough.
  • ay1978pa
    ay1978pa Posts: 142 Member
    In addition to all of the above, don't come by with your unsolicited advice!

    You may think of yourself as the next Mr Universe (as evidenced by your extreme case of the invisible lat syndrome) but you don't have the faintest idea about what I am doing, why I am doing it and what my goals are.
  • Inshape13
    Inshape13 Posts: 680 Member
    A little strange to walk by the mirror and do maybe 1 or 2 pull ups or whatever he is passing then flex and keep moving and then repeat again and again circling from one machine to the next. Basically wasting time taking up machines because he wants to appear to be using them while checking the phone and talking with muscle buddy.

    Seriously though-If you take a shower pick your strands of hair off of the drain. AND if you are having a lady day wipe off the damn seat no one wants to see that. If this is what people do at the gym how do they live at home?
  • cleotherio
    cleotherio Posts: 712 Member
    the putting weights back bothers me. im guessing i am a little OCD but on the squat rack there are 8 pegs. two bottom outside pegs hold the 45s, the upper two pegs hold 25s. the two top pegs on the inside hold the 5s and the lower two pegs hold the 10s

    i get so freaking annoyed when the 10s and 5s get mixed and matched and a 45 is between two 25s. i am very aware i am not normal

    If you are not normal, than neither am I. This was always my biggest pet peeve when I worked out a gym.
  • Absonthebrain
    Absonthebrain Posts: 587 Member
    On a serious note, be courteous of others first and foremost.

    Also -
    when you are finished using something put it away
    if you sweat all over equipment, wipe it down
    use equipment for what it is meant for, if what you are doing can be done somewhere else then don't use specialized equipment (aka don't curl in the squat rack)
    if you have questions/need help then ask someone
    don't slam stuff around or be extra dramatic
    if you check someone out, be discreet not creepy
    blow dryers in the locker room are not meant for your entire body
    seriously, don't take my spot in class.

    ^^^This exactly!! :wink:
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    What is proper gym etiquette in the weight room, classes or the cardio area?

    Don't grab an *kitten* that is not yours.
    Don't puke on another person.
    Clean the **** up after yourself.
    Don't be a piker that's doing some stupid isolation routine that includes 20 seconds of "lifting" and 15 minutes of jawing off and posing per set.
    Don't respond politely to anyone who asks you to lift less.
    Don't drop your weights, it's cool if they make noise when they hit the ground, but don't drop them like you're some drummer on a drum line who is trying to serve some other drummer for some badass "wub wub dubstep" drumming.
    Don't put your stuff on a machine and then not use it.
    Just remember: There are some for whom the gym is a place to hang out, so they can get their steroids, and engage in homoeroticism. For others the gym is a place to go to after you put on make up and your lululemon yoga pants so you can spend 40 minutes looking around while moseying along on a step machine. Then there are the people who come to the gym to work. Be one of them.
  • For the love of god do not wear perfume or smelly body sprays to the gym.

    You are there to sweat and workout, not smell like james bond swam in axe.

    Jus sayin.

    It drives me crazy when I am in cycle class and can't breathe due to b**tches perfume.

    I agree 100%! At my gym, there is this older man that I'm pretty sure showers in cologne before he comes to the gym. I ccn usually smell him 20 feet away-- no exaggeration! And I kept smelling him throughout the whole time I was there, even as he moved to different machines around me. Barf! You are supposed to smell like sweat. All other smells are just annoying.
  • sleepingtodream
    sleepingtodream Posts: 304 Member
    When you get off the machine next to me (as I am still running) please don't go crazy with the disinfectant spray. I appreciate you cleaning off the machine, but I don't appreciate being hit with a billowing cloud of bleach water. Or maybe turn off your flipping wind machine so the spray stays localized...Every.single. time:P
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    seriously, don't take my spot in class.

    That one reminds me:
    Don't come in late to class and then ask someone who is in "your spot" to move. Unless there's a name plate, you got there late and need to be earlier next time.
  • power2lift
    power2lift Posts: 1 Member
    Posting my version of Gym Etiquette

    1) Put your weights back in their proper location when you are finished with them.

    2) Do not drop or throw the weights.

    3) Do not exercise in front of the dumbbell racks.

    4) If you are on equipment or using something that someone else is waiting to use, Let them work in between your sets if they ask you politely.

    5) Wipe your sweat off the equipment.

    6) At busy times do not use Cardio equipment more than 30 minutes.

    7) Do not place Dumbbell, Barbell or Weights on the benches.

    8) Practice proper hygiene.

    9) No Grunting.

    10) Keep gym bags out of the way - Do not carry them with you
  • Huffdogg
    Huffdogg Posts: 1,934 Member
    9) No Grunting.

    =don't work hard
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    9) No Grunting.

    =don't work hard

    true.dat

    Only people I've met who are "intimidated" or "offended" by normal grunting, are the treadmill walkers.
  • Susieout
    Susieout Posts: 102 Member
    I hate it when people shove their property eg drink bottle, towel or shoes etc onto the spin bikes to reserve them & then walk off for 20mins or so! They think they own the bikes!!!!
  • calivandewoestyne
    calivandewoestyne Posts: 9 Member
    Biggest Pet Peeve EVER - People who curl in the squat rack.
  • amybg1
    amybg1 Posts: 631 Member
    At the location I go now have had less issues but the one I went to before (I use the city fitness centres; my membership allows me access to every one of 'em)

    It's fine to ask the staff for help; and it's cool if your son used to go to school with him too. But don't think he's your personal trainer every time you go there; he's there to help/supervise everyone - not to socialize for hours on end with you.

    Don't give me advice if you don't know it yourself all and aren't there to REALLY work. This being the same lady in above-mentioned friend of gym staff, skinny as all hell NO muscle whatsoever, I could probably bench this person...Takes five-minute breaks and a few times used to give me advice when I was working with free weights.

    Grunting is fine if you're doing 1RMs and what have you but really loud grunting and panting by the same person every time I go there? Are you using heavy weights to help you relieve chronic constipation or something and trying to work one out?

    Slamming down your weights: I understand you're using heavy weights which is fine but please don't drop them. The last thing I want to feel is as though an earthquake happened when you slam you weights down so hard the whole floor shakes.

    If you're taking long breaks, don't hold up a station. If i ask nicely do the both of us a favor and allow me to work in with you. this particular incident happened last week. Older gent had a younger lady who was his workout partner/trainer, using the landmine press station. His rests were at LEAST two minutes long and he spent them all talking to the young lady beside him. I would have had time to set up my weight, do my set, unload the weight and allow him to put his back on WY before he was done his between-set chat.

    Tone it down or eliminate perfumes...Smelling sweaty means you're working hard and every gym-goer will be sweaty to some degree so please don't suffocate me with the half can of Axe you spray on daily.
  • Mustang_Susie
    Mustang_Susie Posts: 7,045 Member
    Everything that has been posted is 100% accurate and you will see all of these offenses repeatably and may end up being guilty of them eventually at some point in time. The point is to be courteous and respectful of the fact that this is not your home or personal gym.

    The one I'll add is directed more for the "meat head" men who insist on loading up a weight rack machine with as much weight as possible and then leaving the weights on the machine for the next person to somehow figure out how to remove them. I would love to be able to use the Smith machine but when there are always 200+ lbs loaded on the machine, I can't safely remove all those weights to a more reasonable amount for me to work out with. So if you're a "meat head," please take the weights off the machine when you're done & wipe it down, so that those of us who want a tone physique rather than a beef physique can use the machine after you :)

    Same said "meat heads" probably don't think you should be using "their" machine "just" to tone...:grumble:
  • Mustang_Susie
    Mustang_Susie Posts: 7,045 Member
    im guessing i am a little OCD

    pick up after yourself. the people employed at the gym should not have to go pick up paper towels off the floor cause you missed the garbage can or all the water that accumulates on the sink.

    Me too.
    HATE that!
  • bonitacash08
    bonitacash08 Posts: 378 Member
    :glasses: double post
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
    Don't talk to someone who's working out while you are using your 20 minute rest period between sets. UGH - I am WORKING here!!!
  • bonitacash08
    bonitacash08 Posts: 378 Member
    1. Use machines properly.
    Bicep Curls in the Squat Rack
    Shoulder Shrugs in the Squat Rack
    Bench Press in the Squat Rack
    Calf Raises in the Squat Rack

    Anything that isn't a SQUAT in the Squat Rack irritates me. There are machines for all of those moves. I know you want to look cool and use a bar but it really isn't helping you.

    2. Don't (openly) make fun of someone's effort.
    To the guy who snickered at me when I bench pressed last week only using the Oly bar: Eff you! My legs are bigger than yours ya jerk! I JUST started SL 5x5.

    3. Do your reps. Finish your sets. Move on in a timely fashion.
    People who hog machines/equipment during their 10 minute "rests" and text or chat with their partner while people are waiting.
  • akindc
    akindc Posts: 84 Member
    9) No Grunting.

    =don't work hard

    true.dat

    Only people I've met who are "intimidated" or "offended" by normal grunting, are the treadmill walkers.

    There's an older man who ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS has to literally drop down and do pushups right behind me every.morning. and grunts loudly. It's gross. You don't need to be grunting that hard for pushups.
  • marz42
    marz42 Posts: 223 Member
    Don't come in late to a class with a several friends all being loud, and then crowd out the people who got there on time and picked their spot before the class started, particularly when there is plenty of room on the other side of the room. We all ended up having to re-arrange part way through.

    I used to go to a zumba class where I did end up coming in late a lot..it was the only one of that type in a reasonable distance, but the time between getting off work and the class start was pretty tight so if the traffic was bad I'd end up slightly late. But I was always already dressed, ready to set my stuff down and go, and slipped into the back of the class as unobtrusively as possible. It was a big big room with plenty of room and the door by the back of the room.
  • Renee4joy
    Renee4joy Posts: 36 Member
    I notice that people still don't wipe the machines down... the very ones that complain that they should be wiped down..Thats what should be a rule...Dont be a hypocrite .....I have seen it in action..
  • ncahill77
    ncahill77 Posts: 501 Member
    What is proper ettiquite on doing heavy shrugs in the squat rack when there really isn't any open space to do them on the floor?
  • ncahill77
    ncahill77 Posts: 501 Member
    Oh and doing DB curls right in front of the DB rack, take 2 steps back you dumb@ss.
  • jesindc
    jesindc Posts: 724 Member
    Don't sit in the sauna naked.

    What are you supposed to wear in the sauna? I don't think I go to particularly racy gyms, but I've never seen anyone enter a sauna with anything more than a towel.
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    9) No Grunting.

    =don't work hard

    true.dat

    Only people I've met who are "intimidated" or "offended" by normal grunting, are the treadmill walkers.

    There's an older man who ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS has to literally drop down and do pushups right behind me every.morning. and grunts loudly. It's gross. You don't need to be grunting that hard for pushups.

    Next time.
    Turn around, and yell at him, "Faster! Faster you grunting maniac! Your weakness displeases me! That's no pushup, are you trying to mate with the floor? Push like you have a set you neutered goat!"
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    What is proper ettiquite on doing heavy shrugs in the squat rack when there really isn't any open space to do them on the floor?

    What's a shrug bro? You gotta deadlift bro. Rock back and make that back work bro.

    What's this shrugging I see bro? You confused bro? Here, let me take that bro. I'm all confused now too bro.
  • Huffdogg
    Huffdogg Posts: 1,934 Member
    What is proper ettiquite on doing heavy shrugs in the squat rack when there really isn't any open space to do them on the floor?

    Does your gym really have no intermediate racks of any kind? Just a full squat rack or nothing?