Negative gym experiences

- i've had dudebros joke and tell me that the weight machines are in a different part of the gym than where i was.

- i've had a dudebro tell me he was using the bench I was setting up on. on and there was no towel there, no weights on the bar.

- i was once told after a yoga class by some old busy body who wasnt the instructor that i didnt do a certain position right.

- one time in the weight room i think some girl doing floor exercises between the power cages. i warned her that she might want to move. she didnt listen and ended up hitting her head on the barbell and expected me to apologize to her :laugh: and went storming ovr to her boyfriend when i didnt apologize and just put my headphones back on

for the record, none of these things dissuaded me. like any good Cer i welcome any and every opportunity i can tel someone to suck it :laugh:


in over 20 years as a regular gym goer, i've only had 4 negative experiences which makes it a non-issue for me but i could see how others might be dissuaded.

in addition, i purposely choose gyms with good weight rooms so i'm not going to the average meat market type gym. i tried one of those out for a week and never again, it's like mofos thought it was OK to interrupt your workout with some BS pickup line

I dunno if it's just because of the area I lived in, but I've had a ton of bad experiences at gyms. Everything from someone actually saying "EW" out loud in the locker room when I was changing my shirt, to being told I was too big/not advanced enough to take a zumba class I had been taking for over a month already.

Again maybe it was just the area. I moved further south now most the people I run into - gym and otherwise - are overly friendly.

None so far. In my current gym they either say hi or are busy with their own stuff. Before joining a gym id say definitely go and have a few visits to make your mind up about the atmosphere and so you pick the right gym for you. They are not all the same.

I've never had a bad experience at a gym, and I was over 400 pounds when I joined my first gym. I don't think anyone at a gym looks down at anyone obese who is taking the initiative to get healthier...on the contrary, I think seeing my big butt sweating buckets on the elliptical probably inspired them!

As someone else said though, the only read bad experience at a gym is waiting for equipmen! I know Planet Fitness has built their entire business model around the "no lunkhead" concept, but personally I'd MUCH prefer working out with an entire gym full of 'lunkheads'. Guys who stick to the mirrors and freeweights grunting away makes it much easier for me to do my workouts than all the 'friendly' people hogging the treadmills just so they can talk to each other at 2mph!

It seems like a lot of people fear going to the gym, fear standing out, being stared at or criticized.
I wondered, has this *ever* actually happened to someone?

Other than my workout partner not liking how I wipe down the machines, no, I've never had any people problems at the gym.
(Well, there are the guys who grunt, and the guys who slam weights, and the people who don't wipe their equipment, but nothing directed at me.)

But there was a guy who objected to my workout partner wiping down the machine he'd just used (the guy had used it & not wiped it down), and the guy took the bottle of cleaner & sprayed it in my friend's face. He wasn't apparently hurt, but I did tell him to go wash his eyes out, & I called the police to report the assault. Unfortunately, the officers did not arrest the jerk, but did explain that he could have been arrested, jailed, etc. The jerk has pretty much behaved acceptably since then.

Oh, and I've surprised my workout partner a couple times (he really should know me better by now!) with how much I'm lifting. His surprise surprises me, because I've always thought of him as being much stronger than I am.

(ETA: in fact, one of those times a gym staff member, female, was nearby. She heard me ask him to bring me a 45 lb plate, him saying, "you can't lift that much", then had a satsified smirk when I walked over & got the damn plate myself, went back to doing the back extensions I'd been working on.) :bigsmile:

I've had a couple of girls laughing about how that "that fat ***** is going to break the treadmill." I think they were irked because there were only two treadmills left, one on either side of me. They wanted to be next to each other, but there I was in the middle. If they had asked I would have moved, but instead they were trying to mean girl me away.

I had taken a beginner's yoga class. I had some minor mobility issues with my shoulder, and talked to the instructor before hand. She said to modify as I needed to. At the very end, we were basically laying down in the dark for a few moments. We were supposed to have our arms in a certain position. I had my arms a different way, but was comfortable and not interfering with anyone else. Without warning or permission, she physically forced my arm into the position she wanted. Hurt like mad, I kinda half screamed. I was told later that I "ruined" the class, and not to come back until I can either "handle" yoga or not be dramatic.

I had a man tell me to get my "fat ***" out of HIS lane in the pool for lap swim. He had been staring at me for a few minutes, standing at the end of the pool, checking his watch and glaring at me. There were three other lanes available. Another situation where a simple, polite request and I would have been happy to move. Sadly, the staff backed him up and told me to move.

That doesn't count the things that might be my imagination, like someone giggling when I get on an elliptical or things like that. Those were also at 3 different gyms in my area.

My gym is on my university campus, so there is a lot of testosterone and not enough estrogen, so I would often get gawked at. Which is awkward. I took it as a compliment but it did make me really uncomfortable. Now I couldn't care less though...I plan on joining again and being in my own zone instead of being worried about the guys. There would also be the occasional, perfect-butt girl, who would look me up and down with a majorly judgy face, but whatever. You've got to do what you've got to do.

I go to a university rec center. There are straight out of high school aged people on up to the Silver Sneakers older folks. I've never had a bad experience there. I was self conscious when I first went but that was my own thing and had nothing to do with the other gym goers.

I'm just there for the racks.

In for Cranq's rack...

You think more estrogen would solve the gawking?

you're sorely mistaken.


I'd say a good 90% of the fears and insecurity's people have are self driven and come from not knowing what they need to be doing.

Once you know what you need to be doing- going in and doing it is easy. No matter you are- or what gym you go to- if you can find the squat rack and the pull up bar- that's all you'll ever need.

No, I don't think that would solve it :P
And you're right - if you don't know what's what, you're a lot more conscious about other people and what they might be thinking about you. Gym should be all about you, doing what you need to do, and whoever has time to stand around and judge you doesn't deserve to be on your radar.

I've been going to my gym for 5 years, and except for the occasional injury caused by my own spasticity (like hitting myself in the head doing skull crushers) I've never had a bad experience. Everyone just does their own thing.

Nope! I don't think so.. Well once there were a small group of people laughing at some guy exercising because he was really banging the plates loudly. But that's all. Our gym is very nice

You really should start on free weights. Strength machines do not mimic real life, and in my experience they don't really transfer over all that much to progress in the weight room.

I think starting with machines is more to make sure that your form is correct before switching to free weights (if you're new to lifting) so that you don't do an exercise wrong or hurt yourself...but free weights are definitely better.

i overheard 2 guys discussing how the hell anyone could have sex with me. they eventually decided they would have to do me from behind so they wouldnt have to look at me. i wouldnt have touched either of them with a barge pole

Wow, how ridiculous! Some people, ugh...