How am I percieved at the gym?

spicy618
spicy618 Posts: 2,114 Member
edited September 21 in Fitness and Exercise
I really enjoyed the "People Watching at the Gym" thread. :bigsmile:

This came to mind and might bring up some interesting/funny stories. It's kinda weird :laugh:

How am I percieved at the gym?

What do YOU conciously (sp) do or wear at the gym, that you think is viewed as "Different" (gross, funny, OCD, annoying, etc.) by People Watchers at the gym? BE honest :bigsmile:

I'm:

The 60-minute Elliptical girl @ 3:30, who never wipes off the machine... :embarassed: However, in my defense. I don't touch the machine except to punch in "Quick Start & Level 10", I don't hold the handles or sweat on it. :ohwell: :flowerforyou:
«13

Replies

  • TropicalKitty
    TropicalKitty Posts: 2,298 Member
    I'm the fat girl that complains about the teenagers banging the weights around and infiltrating the gym with their obnoxiousness.

    Don't they have a playground of their own to go to?

    :mad:
  • spicy618
    spicy618 Posts: 2,114 Member
    Well think of this (even if u touch the machine) ... People are so "gross that person didn't clean the machine they used" BUT when u r done grocery shopping do u clean the cart u touched?? I always use my sleeve or arm to push the cart! Think of that!! GROSS

    Good point. Never thought of that. :laugh:
  • chrissyh
    chrissyh Posts: 8,235 Member
    During the winter months I was training for a half marathon and YES I was that witch who wouldn't get off the treadmill in the 20 minute cap.
  • mishiny
    mishiny Posts: 6
    I caught a nasty stomach bug one day after working out the night before. It may not have come from the gym but I'm so paranoid I sterilize the elliptical before and after I use it! LOL I'm not really that OCD about germs... just at the gym because in my mind someone gave me that bug on an elliptical machine!
  • etarre
    etarre Posts: 147 Member
    Some grocery stores have started installing cart wipe dispensers because of that...

    I got pinkeye once, and ever since have been careful about washing my hands after each workout. I figure that everything at the gym is going to be sweaty, and if I can't control my environment, at least I can make sure my hands are clean!
  • jenlhugg
    jenlhugg Posts: 141 Member
    I am the girl who is on the eliptical for 45 minutes, acting like I am DYING, dripping with sweat, pants so big I have to hike them up like granny panties, then goes down to lift weights while showing off my hairy armpits. And you know what, i don't care!!! but I do make fun of the old muscle heads who drag around an OXYGEN TANK for "faster recovery" and the guy who really isn't that buff, but still hikes up his shorts and does bodybuilder "poses" in front of the mirror. I LOVE THE GYM!!! It really is my second home.
  • Schula03
    Schula03 Posts: 171 Member
    During the winter months I was training for a half marathon and YES I was that witch who wouldn't get off the treadmill in the 20 minute cap.

    ONLY 20 MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!! What gym is that?
  • Schula03
    Schula03 Posts: 171 Member
    I am the one dripping in sweat at the gym and am on the treadmill anywhere from 45-70 minutes. I wash it off after. But the cloths that they have to wipe are disgusting most of the time anyway!!!
  • BrattyLori
    BrattyLori Posts: 101 Member
    I'm DEFINITELY perceived accurately as a mom at the gym! Just some lady on the machines. Failing to look cool or impress anyone! LOL I DO peek now and again at the big, muscly weight lifters. Everyone else just seems like parents or kids to me.

    I clean the machine both b4 and after I use it. Honestly, I think people who just walk away and DONT wipe their machines seem dirty - like they're the kind of people who don't wash their hands after they go to the bathroom. They just walk out. Ewwww.
  • BrattyLori
    BrattyLori Posts: 101 Member
    ...if I were single and looking for romance I wouldn't meet anyone there - I would go a place where everyone was't sweaty and gross!
  • corndog05
    corndog05 Posts: 53
    I'm the fat girl who walk/jogs on the treadmill doing a C25K training program. I'm the one who breathes really hard during and after interval jogs but can't hear how hard I'm breathing, because I have my ipod up loud enough to drown myself out. Yes, I'm the one with the tomato-red face whose butt jiggles just a bit too much when jogging.

    And I don't give a rat's *kitten* what everyone at the gym thinks of that, because I am TRULY doing it for me. :)
  • jenlhugg
    jenlhugg Posts: 141 Member
    OK, I am not a "girl", I am a thirty-three year old woman, but at the gym, no one knows me and I would like to be a "girl" there. Just as long as they don't see me pick up my 3 kids at the nursey, I think I can pull it off.
  • jenlhugg
    jenlhugg Posts: 141 Member
    Screw what everyone else thinks, we are here for ourselves, and no one else, if I can provide some comic relief to someone who has nothing else better to do that judge me, then I really don't care.
  • etarre
    etarre Posts: 147 Member
    On Saturdays, I'm the tired girl...I go to a weight-lifting class that afternoon, and weight-lifting always makes me yawn, even if I'm really well rested. I think the instructor is used to me by now but I wonder what everyone else in class is thinking...
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
    but I do make fun of the old muscle heads who drag around an OXYGEN TANK for "faster recovery"

    I haven't been in a gym in 6 years, but people do this? I would laugh at them too.

    Anyway, When I did go to the gym I pretty much ignored everyone else. Got my work in, cleaned any equipment I used, and left. I think that's what people should do at a gym.
  • cln714
    cln714 Posts: 174 Member
    I really enjoyed the "People Watching at the Gym" thread. :bigsmile:

    This came to mind and might bring up some interesting/funny stories. It's kinda weird :laugh:

    How am I percieved at the gym?

    What do YOU conciously (sp) do or wear at the gym, that you think is viewed as "Different" (gross, funny, OCD, annoying, etc.) by People Watchers at the gym? BE honest :bigsmile:

    I'm:

    The 60-minute Elliptical girl @ 3:30, who never wipes off the machine... :embarassed: However, in my defense. I don't touch the machine except to punch in "Quick Start & Level 10", I don't hold the handles or sweat on it. :ohwell: :flowerforyou:

    I started that "people watching" thread and I was gonna do this one next. You beat me to it!!! LOL

    I'm the lady who starts groovin' to the music - when I'm having an intense workout I have to do whatever it takes to stay pumped!!!... even if it means looking like an idiot. :)
  • curiouscat19
    curiouscat19 Posts: 8
    I am the one who is on the treadmill next to you looking at you thinking "whats that skinny woman doing running faster that Usain Bolt on the treadmill for??" when I am barely walking and yet I'm panting like a dog there. .........I dont go to the gym anymore (health reasons and self issues lol).........
  • TropicalKitty
    TropicalKitty Posts: 2,298 Member

    I'm the lady who starts groovin' to the music - when I'm having an intense workout I have to do whatever it takes to stay pumped!!!... even if it means looking like an idiot. :)

    I have that problem as well...luckily I haven't been able to bust out singing yet. Guess that's another plus for cardio!
  • redbedhead
    redbedhead Posts: 53
    I am the "BRIGHT" girl. Everyone at my gym wears black or grey, but I wear Neon Yellow or Lime Green :happy:, because I LOVE color and don't really care what people think of how I look anymore . I have pants and shirts in both colors, and plain black shorts. Sometimes I wear one of the bright shirts with the black shorts, sometimes I match the pants and the shirt, and most of the time, just to be crazy, I pair the yellow shirt with the green pants (Or visa versa). Oh I also have bright red hair, and wear neon headbands, sometimes they match the shirts, but more often they are bright orange, or hot pink. I figure If they want to talk about how I look they are more than welcome to, at least now at 162 pounds lost (i have about 70 more to go), I know they are talking about my clothing choices rather than my weight :wink: .

    My trainer told me he loved it because he could always find me when It was time to work out, unlike some of his other clients, that he has to search for 10 minutes for.
  • redbedhead
    redbedhead Posts: 53
    I'm the lady who starts groovin' to the music - when I'm having an intense workout I have to do whatever it takes to stay pumped!!!... even if it means looking like an idiot. :)

    I do that too!! I h ave a lot of heavy metal, headbanging music on my IPOD. I will often be found walking on the treadmill headbanging. As far as I know I am not singing out loud, but I do mouth the words as I bang my head. It gets the heart rate up, while at the same time making it fun to walk!
  • Opera_Bound
    Opera_Bound Posts: 291 Member
    I'm guilty of being the dorky music kid who 'rocks out' to CLASSICAL music! haha. Sometimes I use my cardio as practice time and mouth along to opera arias. I get some funny looks when they hear whispered Italian, French, and German.

    Sometimes, I also do my best attempt at an 'air drum set'...:blushing: yep - I pound it out when I listen to rock music (Lately it's been Paramore, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and Relient K).

    Also, I'm always the girl who sweats like the men - it's just insane sometimes, but I :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: IT! :drinker:
  • antiadipose
    antiadipose Posts: 447
    at my old gym, they used to provide us with towels at the door.... so now i am THE SWEATY GIRL at my gym lol i never bring a towel.. and sweat is dripping from my chin, nose, elbows...etc. (very attractive i know hahaha!::happy: ) i feel gross but im not gonna bring my beautiful towel to the gym and wash it daily!

    and like redbeadhead, i am the bright girl at my gym. i always wear crazy colors lol like lime green top with my maroon running shorts. or purple and pink or yellow and black lol

    and last but not least, at my new gym theres a tv attached to every treadmill. so i usually catch america's funniest videos or the dr.oz show. and every once in a while as im running ill laugh hysterically out loud looll :laugh: and realize that everyone around me is staring at me lol
  • FitJoani
    FitJoani Posts: 2,173 Member
    I think as posted by a few during winter we had an awful incapacitating blizzard and the treadmill was my friend...i was on it for hours at clip
  • rcatr
    rcatr Posts: 374 Member
    The girl with the angry face and the soaked shirt...hair awry
  • dj_stevie_c
    dj_stevie_c Posts: 270
    I'm the angry looking guy who comes in, stays an hour and a half, works out like a maniac then leaves in a soaked shirt.

    The time I go there's about 3 or 4 people there, I generally don't care about what people think and I try not to look at anyone else. I get very focused :)
  • redbedhead
    redbedhead Posts: 53
    and like redbeadhead, i am the bright girl at my gym. i always wear crazy colors lol like lime green top with my maroon running shorts. or purple and pink or yellow and black lol

    Being the bright girl is fun! everyone shold strive for the craziest color combo they can come up with! Black is so boreing IMHO.
  • havingitall
    havingitall Posts: 3,728 Member
    Anyway, When I did go to the gym I pretty much ignored everyone else. Got my work in, cleaned any equipment I used, and left. I think that's what people should do at a gym.

    I have to agree with this. I turn on my ipod and don't worry about anybody else.
  • havingitall
    havingitall Posts: 3,728 Member
    I'm the angry looking guy who comes in, stays an hour and a half, works out like a maniac then leaves in a soaked shirt.

    The time I go there's about 3 or 4 people there, I generally don't care about what people think and I try not to look at anyone else. I get very focused :)

    That's me other than angry looking and guy :laugh: :laugh:
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    I am definitely Serious Guy. When I work out I have my game face on and I am pretty much in my own world. I usually know what I want to do and what I am trying to accomplish that day, so I don't dawdle between exercises and I move like I have a purpose. I also work out pretty hard, despite my advanced years. I am sure I have a look on my face like "don't mess with me", but that's just me being in my "zone".

    I like to think I am perceived as someone who, while I approach my workouts in a business like manner, is also perceived as a "good neighbor" as well. I always clean machines, always rerack my weights, drape towels all over the strength machines when I am using them, try to be aware of what other people are doing so I don't inadvertently "hog" a machine, etc.

    For clothing, I am black or gray. Especially now-- I have to wear a black workout shirt at work, so it's just easier to keep things simple. So it's either black shorts/gray top or vice versa.
  • FrankyOsage
    FrankyOsage Posts: 275
    Heavy girl with bright red face, huffing away on a machine for an hour. Yep, that's me! Also, I can lay claim to flashing lots cleavage despite having a $50 sports bra... You try holding in 36Fs!!!

    I'm sure despite that people don't think I'm taking it seriously. Pink or red tops, shoes, water bottles, towels, etc. I dance to my music and laugh at the my little tv on my elliptical tuned to Comedy Central. But I am! I take it very seriously!
This discussion has been closed.

Categories