I go to the gym almost every day so this is more of a rant post. When you go to the gym often, you will begin to see various types of folks at the gym, especially if you go in the evening. I think I have gone enough to break it down to a few simple types:
Happy Hour People
Seriously, there are some people that seem like they go to the gym purely to socialize. They will sit on benches or machines and chit-chat with others as if no one else is going to use the piece of equipment they are on. We have had to ask people numerous times if they are using the machine but what we really want to say is, "stop talking and move!"
I'm Too Pretty to Sweat
When you go to the gym at peak hours, getting a cardio machine is like playing musical chairs. One person gets off and there is someone waiting to swipe the next treadmill. What I can't stand are people (sorry to say, it's mainly women) that hop on a treadmill with their buddy next to them, walk really slow (seriously not breaking a sweat) and watch as the guys go back and forth from the basketball court. They yell out to some of them, they stop and talk, and they continue to hog a machine, not really working out.
Machine Hogs
These people will hog one machine and won't let you work in with them. I can understand if you're using a machine and you leave your towel on it to show it's in use. However, if you are doing lunges up and down the room and the machine is sitting there, you can at least let someone work in while you are lunging. Yes, this goes out to the woman who hogged the leg press machine today - you could have shared. Other people have work outs they need to do too.
I think that about covers it for me. I have read about other gym jerk stories such as the ones that don't have good hygiene. I haven't yet to experience someone who is particularly foul smelling. I know we are all sweating in the gym but some people do have really bad hygiene before they get there.
What are some of your gym jerk experiences? I'm done ranting now. 
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Being an ex health club operator-owner for almost a decade I could tell you stories that would make your skin crawl, I have lots of passion around this subject as I ran a very clean, tight ship…(the sensitive stomach folk should not read on…)
…The basketball players that would come off the court…get a drink in the nice, shiney, expensive fountain (next to the treadmills) and then hawk a green loogey that does not go down the drain…the floater was always found by the most innocent little old lady just trying to wet her whistle
…The sweaty guy that sweats so much on the bike (don’t get me wrong, I sweat like a pig but I bring my own towl and cover equipment) that his sweat fills up all of the grout in the tile below him and then it travels to the machines next to him…when he is done he kindly wipes off the screen and nothing else.
…Can’t forget grandpa…that never wore underwear…and loved to get on the recumbent bikes.
…What about the lady that loved to shave in the coed hottub and sauna….and yes she brought her own shaving cream.
…The individual that lost control of their bowels (they didn’t know it though) and left skid marks on the entire weight circuit.
I could go on and on and on….and yes management (me) took care of the above.
Moral of the story…you are not alone in a health club…it is shared by it’s members…so, do onto others as you would have done onto you.
oh, I cannot stand the chatters! They are barely exercising as they chat away and reveal way too many personal details about their life!
I cracked up at the grandpa comment above! ick!
yes, I know what you are trying to say…some people have to learn that a machine can be used by more (2) people doing the same workout. They visit the gym, stay there for 3 hours and excersise maybe just for one hour. But using the gym for social gathering, is also important
you NAILED IT.
although since Ive become a mama and my lifting time is a TODDLER FREE ZONE Im just happy to be there—–far less ickedout or irritated by it all (even after owning my own place and having all the UH OHS jump out at me since Im used to looking for them
)
M.
Hello People,
I got on this thing and figured that someone could answer a question. I don’t even know what a blog is. But I do know people out there have a lot of knowledge. I am looking for answers regarding a workout program that would involve lifting and cardio that would compliment my job. I paint interiors in the day time and stain decks and powerwash houses 3 times a week in the evening. I am looking for something that I can still do and not be worn out for work the next day. Having a fatigued feeling while paining means I am losing money. I am having a hard time losing extra weight and need to start eating better. Any suggestions would help.
Thanks,
Steve
At the moment, at my particular gym… it has to be the stealing and fighting.
People deflate the swiss balls and steal them all the time. Try to deflate cushions and BOSUs and just end up ruining them.
The worst: they steal weight equipment. There haven’t been single handles at the cable station in over a month. Some levels of hand weights are completely gone.
Then the rumbles on the basketball court that lead to violence and bloodshed. Totally inappropriate. Yeah, this is a poorer part of town, but folks.. have some class!
i guess i’m pretty fortunate that i work out off-peak. if i’m faced with the same predicament i’l try to talk to the owner bout it. Impose some new rules on equipment use.
I couldn’t agree with this post more. Nothing irritates me as bad as someone on their cell phone at the gym, only half paying attention and preventing those of us who are there to work out from doing our thing.
I have actually started a blog of my own and I am trying to generate some constructive criticism from readers, so if anyone gets a chance, please check out http://www.bostonbodyfit.wordpress.com. Thanks and keep up the good work.
Totally agree with you about the chatting Eartha. Fair enough if you go to the gym with someone else you will end up talking BUT there’s a limit. Plus, the volume is another factor that really irritates me. Yes by all means talk but don’t shout your conversation out to the whole gym.
P.S. 3rd Chance Fitness – that sounds awful. I cannot imagine someone actually leaving skidmarks in the gym. Ewww.
I totally agree with what has been said here. I hate when I’m at the gym trying to concentrate and you have a couple of people around you talking or fooling around next to you. The gym is not meant to be a social hour place, it is meant to be a place where you can go and workout, and then leave. This is why I bought some weights and other equipment and I workout at my house. That way I can really concentrate on what I’m doing and don’t have to worry about machine hogs, social hours people, or the people that leave machines in a mess.
I have three pet peeves that I seem to be running into more and more at the gym:
Cell Phone Junkies: Although it seems like this is a problem that’s more widespread than just at the gym, there is nothing more annoying than someone blabbering away on a cell phone about their pap smear or talking loudly about the great stock tip they just recieved. Add a Bluetooth earpiece in while strolling on the treadmill at 1.2 mph and you have probably one of the most obnoxious creatures at the gym (and probably everywhere else.)
Also, what with the pacing on a cell phone? Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon (it’s not just at the gym.)
A few days ago I watched a guy in the freeweight room pace in circles — oblivious to all around him — while he yammered away on his Nokia for at least 15 minutes.
Packs of Teens: My gym allows kids from the high school (as young as 16) to come in and train, which, in itself, I have no issues with. However, once you have four to five teenagers (often on cell phones) hanging out with each other, you’ve turned what should be a solo or duo activity into a scene from American Pie. In most cases, it seems like only one or two of them are ever actually even lifting a weight. The rest, I guess, are there for moral support or to help consume oxygen. God, do I sound like an old fogey or what?
Machine Readers: I have one guy at my gym who like to sit on the machine between sets and … get ready for this … read the Wall Street Journal. Nuff said.
Great post.
You can expect the same thing in a public Gym as you would in a public restroom ,you`ll find PIGS as well as neat freaks any place you go live with it !!!!if your not part of the solution you are part of the problem!
These machine hoggers and socializers many times seem to be the same people who are saying that they don’t see any results no matter what they do at the gym… I wonder why..
Main gym pet peeve: Clueless people. So many people “think” they are working out, when actually they are just spinning their wheels. What the f?? They jump from machine to machine, often with bad posture and the potential to hurt themselves. Yo clueless people, pick up a fitness mag, Men’s Fitness or Women’s Fitness. It’s not rocket science! Read to succeed fatties.
So funny! We are including this in our “best fitness blogs” weekend tour.
I’m a personal trainer. I so get it!
-Jamie
OP is absolutely correct. Another gym type that kills me is advice guy: the guy who thinks he needs to tell every person he sees that they’re exercising wrong. I am aware that many novices in the gym work out with poor form, but that is why they are novices: most people are intelligent enough, I believe, to improve their posture over time. Advice guy doesn’t help, because he’s a meathead who likes to intimidate people. Plus, no one ever asks for advice guy’s help. He just rams it down your throat, and not out of altruism, but out of his desire to try to assert his superiority on the floor. Frequent victims of advice guy include pretty girls (macho factor) and smallish men (my nuts are bigger than yours factor).
I’ve been lifting for almost ten years and I am in a comfortable space- I’m not a powerlifter or a hardgainer. I don’t want your f@#$ing advice about how to do lifts I’ve been comfortably and properly doing since you were probably in eighth grade.
Last advice guy I ran into was actually an employee at the gym. After I caught him harassing my wife (he was literally standing behind her, uninvited, and criticizing her squats) and telling him to STFU, I had a word with his manager. Now he cleans toilets all day.
In no particular order of importance:
The talkers who want to waste your time even when you tell them you are busy and pressed for time. They all want attention.
People who steal your weights or machine when your back is turned.
People who want to use the machine you are on, don’t want to work in, but stand there and stare while you are trying to finish up.
Women who wonder around the locker room butt naked. They sit butt naked on the benches instead of putting a towel down first. They spoil my appetite.
Women who clip their toenails, shave their legs, exfoliate in the locker area in front of everybody and where we are walking. Their crap flies all over the place and on the floor.
Women who use the hair dryers to dry their private parts.
Women who don’t want to sit on the toilet seat-it’s not clean enough for them, so they squat and leave pee splattered all over the seat for the next person. Cute. Women who never flush the toilet. Women who never wash their hands after going to the bathroom. Then they contaminate everything.
Men who see you in a position where your legs are spread or your butt is out, walk over, pretend they are using the machine next to you, then sit there doing nothing buy staring nonstop at your crotch. You get so uncomfortable you walk away.
Cell phone people full of their own self-importance. They get on the treadmill next to you and start yapping. They are loud and obnoxious.
People that never put anything back, so you waste time looking for equipment. Men are mor guilty of this, way more than women who usually return weights back to the racks.
I could go on and on but I need to get to the gym!