Incident at the gym

bludurango2 wrote: »

Okay I'll try to make this short. I was in the gym today for 2 hours. My workout was great. Usually when I'm at the gym I keep my headphones on so I can focus on my work out. It's also because I want people to leave me alone lol. So today as I'm leaving, this one lady who annoys the crap out of me (for another post) walks up to me in the locker room. She says "oh I saw you lifting weights. If you want to lose weight then you should do cardio. It's more important." Now, people I was in this gym for 2 hours!!! The first 60 minutes of it was spent doing very intense cardio, like I usually do. Furthermore, this is not my first time attempting to lose weight. I may not look like I'm educated in weight loss but I do know that cardio is important for someone of my size to lose significant weight. I think what bothers me is that she has the audacity to come up to me and say something. I wasn't asking for advice. What would you have done in my situation?

minizebu wrote: »

People almost always have good intentions. Responding in a negative way just creates an unpleasant situation.

Unless you sense that the person was actually trying to be rude or insulting, then the best response to this sort of comment is to smile politely and say, "Thanks. I'll keep that in mind." You can have the internal monologue of your choosing going on on the inside, but in the interest of social decorum just grin and bear it when receiving unsolicited advice and then go about your business in your own way.

If you sense that the person was trying to be rude or insulting, then...you should still be polite. Again, something along the lines of "You're right. That's a great strategy. Thanks for sharing it." is best. It's better to take the high road than to respond to rude comments with rude comments.

mozart444 wrote: »

I had a similar situation in the past. I was talking to a few friends after my workout and I was stretching my back. A woman (I'm a 60 year old guy) who I had never met informed me that after observing me lift weights she could tell why I had so many back problems - I have none - and have been lifting regularly for 10 years. She went to tell me that she deals with people "like me" everyday in her physical therapy practice and went on and on about how her advice could remedy my current issues and prevent further injury. I finally stopped her with "can I ask you a question?" and at that point I think she believed I was going to go for her advice. I said to her, "How's your sex life? I'm an expert in reproduction (I'm a reproductive biology professor) and I know more about your reproduction than you do. If you'd like any advice as to improve the functioning of your system I'd be glad to help you out."

With a huff she stormed away. Over the course of the next month we crossed paths in the gym several times and she never made eye contact. One day she stopped me and told me in no uncertain terms "my sex life is fine."