What are your pet peeves about the gym?

[Room101]

I changed my training location from 24hour fitness to a hardcore gym six months ago. I maintain the 24hour membership because I have met allot of friends their and the arsenal of (eye candy) females.

I recently visited 24hour fitness and was quickly reminded why I switched.

Pet peeves

People walking in front of me (mirror) during mid rep. They can easily walk around.

Loose free weights.

Teenagers spending more attention and energy on their cell phone then training.

People who apply deodorant between sets

People who put on so much perfume or colon that it literally affect my breathing.

People who use horrible lifting form.

Men who are way too comfortable being nude in the locker room.

I know I'm forgetting something.

[flvegan]

1. Mine:

1. Cell phones, period. If it's an emergency, understood, but don't take up a bench or machine while you have a conversation with your "homie" or "dawg"

2. Not re-racking plates. I'm not terribly impressed with your 450-lb leg press, and I'm less impressed with you as I see a 110 lb woman now stripping all 10 of your plates off so she can use it

3. Yelling across the gym to someone. A small 1,000 square foot gym, and it'd be okay. 20,000 square feet? Hell no.

4. Loose dumbells, curl bars, etc. Put stuff back.

5. Don't use a bench or piece of equipment to hold your keys and water bottle.

6. Back AWAY from the dumbell rack when you are doing your reps. Others might want to use some of them too.

7. Load/unload bars evenly. You may actually hurt someone else.

8. If you sweat, bring a towel and wipe the equipment down.

9. Why in the hell are you singing? I note your headphones, but keep it inside.

10. Dont throw the weights. Put them down. Making a bunch of noise doesn't grow muscle any faster.

[Room101]

2. I forgot " Not re-racking plates" that kills me

Great list

[Longhorn]

3. I only have five:

1. Sometimes the sun shines in the window and casts a glare on the television.
2. When I use my husband's bathroom, I usually have to change the toilet paper roll (he just leaves the roll on the floor!)
3. When I look out the window, I keep thinking how I should trim the crepe myrtles while it's still winter.
4. I have to get off the elliptical to change the DVD.
5. When I get down on the floor to stretch, my dogs try to lick my face.

Oh, my gym is in the spare bedroom/husband's dressing room. :)

[WolverineDG]

4. here's mine

yakking during the early morning spinning class. :grr: we're here to exercise not socialize & besides, if you can still yak your head off during class, you don't have enough resistance on your bike!!

dg

[Longhorn]

5. I thought the test of whether you're exercising too hard

is if you can still carry on a conversation while you do it. If you can't, you're outside of the aerobic zone.

Take the Talk Test

You should be able to carry on a conversation during your workout. If you are breathless, or can't talk, you're working too hard. Also, keep in mind that dizziness and lightheadedness is not a good sign. If you experience this, you are overexerting yourself and should stop. One easy way to monitor yourself is by using a Perceived Exertion Scale. This is a scale of 1-10 for describing how hard you're working, 1 being extremely easy and 10 being extremely hard. You typically want to be at at least 5 during your workouts. You can also use the more official Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion which assigns level of intensity from 6 (no exertion) to 20 (maximal exertion).

http://exercise.about.com/cs/cardioworkouts/a/ex_intensity.htm

I suppose being able to talk and actually doing it are two different things. Another reason for me to exercise at home -- I can talk all I want! :)

[WolverineDG]

9. maybe so

but it's ruder than rude in the early morning spin class. Folks for this class have to get up around 4:30 a.m. to make the 5:15a class. There is a later class that the instructor says is full of chatty Cathys & Charlies, but the 5:15 class is full of "hard core" spinners who just want to get on the bikes on time & ride because our time is limited. Besides, it's hard to hear the instructor when a couple of chatty Cathys are yakking their heads off. It's fine that they don't want to concentrate on what they're doing, but I do. It's not like running/walking/lifting with pals where you can use this test. It's a class.

:)

Anyway, the Chatty Cathys haven't been back to the 5:15 class, thank heavens.

dg

[mopinko]

14. bit o' trivia

my sister is the original chatty cathy. the doll was named after her. seriously.

[Hello_Kitty]

11. People take that too far

You should be able to talk, but it should be an effort. I'm just saying this because I do pretty rigorous cardio at the gym and I can't stand it when acquaintances come up to me when I'm on the stairmaster or elliptical and want to carry on a fullblown conversation. What is it about my sweating and labored breathing that leads people to think, "She wants to talk!" Talking interrupts my breathing and distracts my focus. When my best friend, who's not nearly the fitness enthusiast I am works out with me and starts jawing away, I reach over and increase the resistance level on her machine.

[Longhorn]

13. I wouldn't like that, either.

Occasionally, my husband will come by when I'm working out and I find myself slowing down in order to make it more comfortable to talk to him -- so I usually make him scoot! :)

[midnight armadillo]

15. I never agreed with that

When I'm working hard with my kettlebells, my main concern is trying not to puke out my spleen, much less hold on a conversation!

[MemphisTiger]

6. I have a few

1. People that do circuit training when the gym is crowded
2. The old guys in the locker room that are walking around naked the whole time and not working out, but get their junk on the sink when they shave
3. People that don't wipe their sweat from a machine
4. People that attempt to talk over the crappy music in the gym and I have to turn up my mp3 player to drown it out
5. People that come to the gym sick thinking it's hardcore. It's not it's stupid and inconsiderate. You spread germs to the equipment and need this energy to fight the cold or flu that you are spreading.
6. People that don't want to work in with you
7. People doing curls in the squat rack
8. People drinking coffee in the gym, WTF?
9. People that come to the gym to socialize and not work. A short chat if fine but don't make it the hang out for your friend.

[emulatorloo]

18. "7. People doing curls in the squat rack"

This has become bizarrely fashionable. Do you have any idea why??????????

[MemphisTiger]

7. Lifting form can be wierd

some people do cheat sets for shocks. On major lifts like squats, it can be very dangerous. You just never know what someone elses goals are. Arnold was a big fan of cheat reps on certain exercises like barbell curls.

I've never seen anybody put deoderant on between sets. that would be funny to see.

[seemunkee]

8. Climbing gym only

Don't belong to a regular gym, although the new climbing gym has a small room with ellipticals, bikes, smith machine and treadmills.

Music is too loud. You need to be able to communicate between the belayer and climber.
All the boulder problems are power moves. No balancy moves that require finesse and skill.
Lack of foot jibs. I'm shorter than most and need to use intermediate holds sometimes not the ones the 6' route setters use.
Mats have beveled edges. Looks like a good way to roll an ankle if you land on the angled part of the mat.
As for the home gym. It's too small. Treadmill, squat rack, climbing wall and area for kettlebells all in an 8X11' space.

[MissMillie]

10. "saving" equipment or shower stalls with stuff

If you're not using something, get your stuff out of everyone else's way. Something not currently in use should be available, not "saved" with your towel, or your locker key, or your jogging jacket.

[Obamanaut]

12. I'm not a member of a gym, but when I was a prison guard I used

the staff weight room (very well equipped) and I was always well received by the younger staff members who seemed to delight in taking "Pops" under their wings - spotting, offering advice, etc. The only problem was an item that has already been mentioned - plates and dumbbells spread about.

At the house now I have bench press bench, two flat benches, assorted bars (ez curl, tricep, etc), several prs of dumbbell handles to facilitate moving between exercises, and a whole bunch of weight plates. All this under a 20x21 shed with two sides closed in.

Wife asked me several years ago why I keep doing all this, because one or muscle group is always hurting. Explained that I'm getting older - don't want a red sports car or a younger woman - this is what I'm doing. I received the now-familiar eye-roll.

[GOPisEvil]

16. People whose form is so bad it's distracting.

There was a woman on a treadmill yesterday who looked like she was having some sort of attack. She was right in my line of sight as I did seated curls too. Bah!

[emulatorloo]

17. 1. "I love President Bush" T-shirts

I'm glad you love President Bush, I guess. But I don't want to think about him right now.

2. Excessive and Loud Flirting
3. Loud Conversations in the Cardio Room (from one corner to the other, esp after you just saw each other for an hour in Yoga class)
4. Exasperated Sighs when I ask to work in on the leg extension machine (there's only one) -- while you are just sitting on it reading the paper
5. Fox News.
6. Dramatically dropped dumbbells at the end of a set
7. Cel Phones -- unless you are a brain surgeon, no one needs to talk to you now. And even if, why not get a pager instead?
8. Plates that are racked willy-nilly -- i.e. a stack with a five on the bottom then a 45 then a 10 then a 35, etc

really though, I'm not as much of a Crank in real life as the list makes me sound.

Thanks for the thread, always fun!

[MemphisTiger]

19. Number 5 is unfair

It may be annoying, but it may be because they actually went to failure and couldn't ease them down. I can't even express in words how upset number 7 the cell phone one gets to me. The talking isn't so bad since I have an mp3 player to cover it up, but the person talking for 10 minutes while occupying a piece of equipment or blocking the dumbell rack kills me.