Things people do that annoys you in the gym.

junior-high-school boys (who huddle and giggle and move in a crowd just like girls) who don't understand yet horseplay is dangerous when weights are involved. i get all huffy and puffy and feel myself trampling the ground and wanting to trumpet pompous and grandiose something like "RESPECT THE IRON" at them; it's bizarre. but in real life i just go to the front desk and tell on them to the staff if i think someone's seriously going to get hurt.

i also hated this little mini-gang of super-spoiled, overexcitable 20'somethings who spent all their time in there negging women of their acquaintance at the top of their lungs and trying to top each other on sheer offensiveness. and btw, they were men. the most detestable part was how overexcited they got from their own unpleasantness.

hated the selfish crossfit random who never got that in an ordinary weightroom nobody gives a damn for your workout, and your membership price doesn't include a guarantee of endless high-fives and attention from everyone else.

Re: Personal space and "gym etiquette".

I, too, have seen this "rule" being followed but I don't think you can really call it that. I think it's just because that most people have a personal space that ranges further than the usual distance between the equipment at most gyms, so it's an automatic thing not to use one next to someone else. But like others have said, there may be reasons why that need for space is overwritten. And I also think that culture and upbringing comes into play here. Because it's the same with, say, public transport. Here in Germany, I have noticed that most people don't like taking the seat next to someone else, if they can help it. In other countries I've visited, especially further down south in Europe, people didn't seem to mind so much. Or people from really big cities also often have a different sense of personal space, since they're used to squeezing in anyway. So I think it's just something the majority does but nothing you can rely on.

At my gym, there's this row of stationary bikes and the last one is notorious for being really noisy. It just makes this squeaking "I'm listening to my parents having sex in the next room in a cheap hotel" noise. Last time I was there only that one and the one next to some guy was free, so I picked the one next to the guy and got the stinky eye for that. I was just like "Dude, I guarantee you'd hate me so much more if I'd chosen the other bike!"

One thing that annoys me and that's happened a lot recently is groups of women hanging out in the locker room to chat. It's bad enough when they're occupying equipment for ages but there's only so much space in the locker room, too. I'm trying to get changed there and they're just hanging out on the benches sipping their protein water and exchanging recipes. Fully dressed and ready to go.

This week's annoyance... A lady who leaves two massive bags on the bench in the locker room while she's in the gym.
There are LOADS of lockers available, but not much bench space, so we all try and only use the benches when we're actually there. She does this every time she's in the gym - drives me mad. Although thankfully doesn't seem to overlap with me very often.

(She was also in the gym having a PT session where she basically seemed to be refusing to do any exercise, and spent the whole time I was in the gym ranting at her trainer, along with a 5 min jog on the treadmill and one set of lat pull downs. So confused. PT is expensive. If you feel crummy, why not defer the session until another time?!)

1. When people talk to me despite the earphones. I wear earphones because they are my protection from the world.
2. When I've set the cable up for my triceps work so I can go from one exercise to the other and someone comes over and takes the rope off one side, replaces it with another accessory then proceeds to use it in a super set despite the other cable machine being empty.
3. I guess this leads from number 2, but when someone that doesn't know me comes in the gym and assumes that the short older woman isn't that serious about her lifting and doesn't need the heavier dumbbells/ squat rack/ cable machine just because she takes a break halfway through and takes a zumba class.

When someone intentionally walks in your path just so you have to move. I'm sure it's just to remember their glory days in high school.

Monday Warriors.... always crowded on Monday with people I never see the other 6 days of the week. They mostly jump machine to machine doing one quick set with light weights in some godawful circuit that encompasses every bench and machine in the gym. Then they get all butt-hurt when I take over a bench for 15 minutes so I can do 5 sets. I'd be willing to let them work in but they never ask - just glare. lol

JeepHair77 wrote: »

@jseams1234 - Monday Warrior - ha! I always make sure to go to the gym late on Mondays - after the "crowd" leaves.

Mondays in January are the worst.

This week's annoyance: Leaving weights sitting on the floor instead of re-racking them. Almost tripped over one some idiot left on the floor yesterday.

stanmann571 wrote: »

Mondays in January are the worst.

Which is why I usually skip gym days in January anyway (aside from bad weather)...things are usually a bit calmer by the second week of February.

I'm not a big fan of the dudes that come in together as a gang and think they own the place.... sitting around on equipment, leaving their belongings everywhere, usurping equipment for hours on end, extreme cursing and throwing of weights.... no one is impressed boys.

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BlackJackG wrote: »

HardcoreP0rk wrote: »

DasItMan91 wrote: »

Anyone who wants to sit or work out next to someone and there are empty seats or treadmills and other machines out there, he or she is probably interested in you.

Nope.

Yes, why else would they wanna sit next to you if they are other empty machines available. Try to give me a good reason why not.....

Not all equipment are created equal. At a gym I used to belong to, there was one elliptical that was worse than the others, very stiff, avoided it at all cost, didn't care if that meant I chose one next to someone else. I'm not going to have a bad workout so that someone else doesn't think I'm "into" them.