gym etiquette

[newmus]

yesterday was chest day and i decide to start with the isolateral bench press. but before i start i realize that i really have to go to the restroom, so i neatly place my towel on the bench back and set my jug of water and keys on the floor, to the side and head to the locker rooms. i made sure that i didn't take too long in there and return to the free weight area. as i approached my machine i see somebody sitting in it and my towel carelessly tossed on the ground. i'm already annoyed a bit but i calmly pick up the towel walk around to the front and quietly tell the guy that i was using it. he then stands up and has the nerve to tell me that i was gone for five minutes. now i'm so pissed that i can barely get out the words that my towel was there. fortunately, he left before i could say or do anything else, but it took me a good 10-15 minutes to calm down especially seeing how now he conveniently was able to use the other machine which he should have done in the first place.

what stories do you all have?

[Ragetiger]

I had the joy 6 months ago of having three high schoolers trying to bully me into leaving the squat cage so they could do curls. Yeah, they wanted me out of a sqaut area so they could do curls. Went as far as getting a manager to force me out of it. Sadly, that manager knew me and knew how long I was there. I kept the cage and they had to wait till I was done with my workout.

I don't have problems sharing the workout area, but you will never bully this bull out of it. It's always good to have friends in management.

[nzbodybuilder]

Oooh, doesn't that just piss you off? That made me mad just reading it, so I know what you mean! Most people are good and will leave a machine alone of there's a towel on there (who'd want to touch someone elses sweat rag anyway? LOL).

I've just moved to a new city, and the gym I train at sadly does not enforce their #1 rule - put your weights away! A staff member will go around and put the weights back!
I asked the management about it, and they said it's easier to do that because it's a different type of "clientele" (i.e. they're lazy).

Don't get me wrong, it's a great gym, and lots of HUGE guys there. But it's sad when a big guy has been "squatting" (read, moving several inches) five plates a side, then walks away. Seriously. If you're strong enough to attempt that weight, then you're strong enough to put the bloody plates away!

And don't get me started on the guys doing "drop sets" with dumbells. You know the ones that have to have 5 or 6 pairs of dumbells around their bench, do one set every 5 mins while talking inbetween, then walk away!!!

Word of advice newmus - you just have to let it go. Those 10-15 mins of calming down wouldn't help your workout at all. Your growth is more important!
Also, maybe go to the toilet just as you get to the gym......

[WhoDunIt]

It drives me nuts when people can't put their weights back, and even when told/asked to by the the workers, they'll go back to leaving stuff laying around when the staff walks away. The new membets tend to be the worst, got back to the gym after a couple month hiatus and first night back there were weights everywhere. Lastweek, there were towels everywhere, ended up picking up at least 1/2 dozen from one spot before the staff (who were pretty busy that night I might add) even had the opportinity to get to it. Also aggrevates me when I have to restock a rack or bench before even using it. I don't always get in until 60-90 minutes before they close and that is a waste of time that could be used lifting instead.


The only other thing that bothers me is that they have been forced to play dance and pop music and videos on their av equipment. There are some videos that are distracting, sometimes really annoying, and at times flat out demotivational. Seriously, I fail to see how Mitchell Musso, the iCarly girl, and such are tied to the demographic that show up at that time of night (almost all male, mostly 20+ years of age, and a mixture of caucasian and hispanic) is beyond me.

[Eager Muscle]

People using dual pulley machines for single pulley exercises, usually one arm at a time, when there are plenty of single pulley machines available.

[newmus]

Originally Posted by Eager Muscle

People using dual pulley machines for single pulley exercises, usually one arm at a time, when there are plenty of single pulley machines available.

i have never seen a single pulley machine before

here's a similar (and worse) story to my original post: the other day i'm at one of the assisted racks minding my business when i hear an argument going on right next to me. what i figured out was some guy leaves his stuff (water, towel, bag, etc.) at the adjustable incline bench and goes somewhere else. when he comes back a couple of skinny young punks have cooped his bench and refuse to give it up. the guy was big enough to probably take them both on but he didn't let the situation escalate much further. i spent the next ten minute fantasizing that i was some giant who steps in and threatens to kick the crap out of the both of them.

[dodoria21]

i've only been at my gym a little over a week but so far i have to say the etiquette is pretty great. most of the weights always get put back. noone butting in on other people when they're using a machine. granted, when I go it's not that crowded, but it's a locally owned gym where it seems almost everyone knows everyone so that helps a lot.

[Mdlftr]

One of my pet peeves is the way people on travel act in hotel weight rooms.

First of all, most hotel weight rooms are for sh*t, so this criteria doesn't even apply except to those few facilities that are half way decent.

Anyhow, I'm on the west coast, living on east coast time. I go to the hiotel weight room and it's pretty decent: Cybex equipment, plus free weights, pulleys and mirrors, a smith machine, and three benches! There are also bicycles, treadmills and cross trainers, as well as Bosu balls and jump ropes. Decent, well above average facility.

Problem: 2 of the 3 benches are being used by musclo-nerd-business man types to a. read the paper while doing bent over single dumbbell rows, and b. check email in between reps with a dumbbell behind the neck tricep extension!

Dudes! It's fricking 6 a.m. here! O.k., so it's 9 a.m. on the east coast! Either work out OR catch up on the day's email and news! Don't do it here! Yes, you're obviously "IMPORTANT" but, hey, guess what -- so is everyone else here!

Fortunately, I didn't need either free bench. I used the remaining bench which had uprights for barbell and did my flat bench work. Meanwhile, Poindexter and Nerd boy were still reading and texting!

I had a great workout, nonetheless!

[Aielyn]

To be fair, Mdlftr, it's possible that they were using the equipment like that specifically because there was another bench free (and after you took it, because nobody else was there to want another bench).

[newmus]

i call bull! granted this isn't really a big pet peeve of mine but still, the gym is for working out not relaxing with a paper or texting.

[Mdlftr]

Originally Posted by newmus

i call bull! granted this isn't really a big pet peeve of mine but still, the gym is for working out not relaxing with a paper or texting.

Totally! Poindexter #1 was just sitting there on the end of the bench most of the time checking his email. He'd do one pathetic rep, check email, do another pathetic rep, check email for even longer, do three reps, and so on....


I don't know whether people like that "work out" because they think they're supposed to, and it's what the "cool dudes" do, or if they're just clueless in general. These two guys had both benches set up next to each other smack in the middle of the room, and every one else had to navigate around them as they sat or knelt there, rapt in their iPhone and paper!

Too bad no one "accidentally" stumbled over their big feet and dropped a dumbell on their cell phone.....

Oops!...

[mordre_t]

A fair number of people in my gym don't put weights back. It's a University gym, so I suppose 19 year olds who are used to Mom picking up after them is the cause.

It's not ideal to leave plates on a racked bar (to me, that indicates 'someone is using this,' so I end up hovering for 2-3 minutes waiting to see if it's actually free to use or not), but leaving dumbbells and bars-with-weights on the floor is irksome in the extreme. It's a tripping hazard, it creates an artificial scarcity of equipment ("where the fuck is the other 30 lbs dumbbell? IT COULD BE ANYWHERE"), and it needlessly takes up floor space that other people might want to use.

Last week, someone had 225 lbs set up to deadlift in the middle of the floor. I went about my business and kept my eye on it. No one touched the damn bar for the entire hour. It was still there when I left. What kind of spoiled child does something like that? Did they expect elves to unrack the weights and put them away?

[inflated]

Originally Posted by mordre_t

A fair number of people in my gym don't put weights back. It's a University gym, so I suppose 19 year olds who are used to Mom picking up after them is the cause.

It's not ideal to leave plates on a racked bar (to me, that indicates 'someone is using this,' so I end up hovering for 2-3 minutes waiting to see if it's actually free to use or not), but leaving dumbbells and bars-with-weights on the floor is irksome in the extreme. It's a tripping hazard, it creates an artificial scarcity of equipment ("where the fuck is the other 30 lbs dumbbell? IT COULD BE ANYWHERE"), and it needlessly takes up floor space that other people might want to use.

Last week, someone had 225 lbs set up to deadlift in the middle of the floor. I went about my business and kept my eye on it. No one touched the damn bar for the entire hour. It was still there when I left. What kind of spoiled child does something like that? Did they expect elves to unrack the weights and put them away?

This would never happen in my gym, 5 rules---put your weights back on the right rack--45's with 45's etc, If you are a sweathog wipe down equipment after use, shut up and train, if you want music bring your own, if you feel the need to vomit after squatting-buckets are provided but you need to clean up the mess.

[dodoria21]

I got the chance to exercise some good gym etiquette today. Two hispanic ladies were there working abs, and one wanted to do crunches with the bench that has the leg holders (is there a name for that thing? LOL). anyway, it was at a decline and I could tell she wasn't a fan as I walked by, so I stopped and showed her how to adjust it and make it flat. She wasn't too good at english, but I'm used to working that english/spanish language barrier, so I got her to understand, then showed her how to put her legs in so she could do the crunches. She thanked me several times.

it felt good to know that I am getting to know this gym well enough to where I can help out someone struggling with something. and it's just good to pay it forward sometimes and help others.

[Aielyn]

Originally Posted by dodoria21

...the bench that has the leg holders (is there a name for that thing? LOL).

You mean the Decline Bench?

[dodoria21]

heh adjustable bench I suppose cuz it can either lay flat or at a decline. it's clearly meant for ab work though

[phoenix]

Was at the gym yesterday, it was very quiet, only a few people in. Went over to a free rack for chest press, put my hoody and water down. Adjusted the bench, picked the spring clips up from the floor, put them on the bench, I turned by back to collect a 20 kilo plate, less than half a metre from the bench and when I turned back around the clips were gone.
The guy on the adjacent bench, who had be warming up with an empty bar, had just taken the clips. GRRRRR. I just wanted to drop the plate straight on his foot (he was wearing flip-flops to the gym, which just proves he's a dick).
My gym is rammed with people like this.

[newmus]

if i may complain a bit more, this one involves leaving equipment; the other day i'm doing arms and the biggest guy there that night and perhaps the biggest regular was doing tris. huge calves btw, anyway i go over to the rack to do my last tricep exercise and the only side that was free was the opposite of the one he was using. so he pulls over the incline adjustable bench so he can do seated tricep extensions, and when he finished he just gets up and leaves! like the next person should move the thing back to the other side of the room! note that this particular gym is pretty crowded with it's stuff so you pretty much can't move equipment out of your way without putting it in someone else's way unless you take back to the exact area you originally got it from, hence you can see why this was a slight problem.
at least he was nice eye candy.

[manlion]

I work out at the nearby Planet Fitness (laugh all you want, but there are some pretty buff guys there, despite there being a hardcore-looking gym a quarter-mile up the road, plus, cheap and 24 hour) and because it's a 24/7 location, the difference in gym etiquette is literally night and day.

During the day (early afternoon to evening, maybe 3pm to 9pm), it's busy, packed even, with about a 40-50% chance of having to wait for a machine or bench to open up at any given time, bikes/treadmills/etc excepted. Most everyone puts stuff back, and the rare person who doesn't gets the evil eye and perhaps a polite word out of myself and many other lifters. A bench abandoned with weights is generally respected, but a 10-minute abandonment gets cannibalized for others. The gym has a pretty good wipe-down policy, though not everyone does it, and some (less experienced folk) do it out of order, maybe wiping it down before and then walking away without doing so after. (paper towel/spray stations on top of trashbins are spread around, though they've been juggling locations lately in a way that gets on my nerves, perhaps trying to cut down on number of trashbins with different patterns.) You get some rude folks, overblown egos, but the majority try to be courteous. (There's one or two guys I've seen, big muscles but fairly short, and they seriously make ridiculous noises while working out, like they're trying to attract as much attention as possible. The is one guy keeps using a squat rack's overhead bar as a pullup bar, rather than going to use the actual pull-up/dip machine across the floor. He wants to draw attention.)

At night, between about 11pm and on through the night, it's a whole different story. There's very little wait on machines, though the benches are more often full than anything. Dumbbells are left all over, plates get ransacked and concentrated on one station leaving others bare, and paper towels from wipedowns are sometimes left on the floor, assuming the station gets wiped down at all. The people are generally much better behaved, though, bad weight etiquette aside. (Maybe it's just the same % of jerks, only day-busy vs night-empty, where other, more-helpful gym-goers can't cover for them and staff can't clean up after them.)

[newmus]

oh boy you just reminded me of the screamer the other day! first i'm doing machine dips and across from me this guy is on the dip/leg lift stand with no weight, mind you, screaming his head off. after a few sets he walks over to me and asks me something about the difference between what he was doing and what i was doing. i answer him, finish my set and leave for the other room. ten minutes later he follows and does something that looked like it was supposed to be skull crushers and continues to scream. he pretty much does this for every exercise. the whole ordeal made me more self conscious about how loudly i was grunting the next day.

[THE BODYBUILDING GIANT]

icant stand people talking to me when training i hate it im focused got my connection and some guy comes up and says how do i get big or how do i use this. i dont mind if ive finnihsed training i will help anyone but whenim in there to get a job doen piss off

[Aielyn]

Originally Posted by nathan

icant stand people talking to me when training i hate it im focused got my connection and some guy comes up and says how do i get big or how do i use this. i dont mind if ive finnihsed training i will help anyone but whenim in there to get a job doen piss off

Surely there was a time when you were the beginner, and wanted to ask bigger guys for advice. Have a little more tolerance, is all I'm suggesting.

[newmus]

ok 2 stories:
1. this week on leg day i finish a set of leg extensions and get up to get a drink of water. before i go i put my towel on the seat and walk across the room about 20 steps drink my water and head back. mind you i haven't been gone for a full 2 minutes and some jerk has tossed my towel on to the middle of the floor right in the way of traffic. now here's the shocker, his response to my polite protest was and i quote "that don't mean anything (my towel being on the seat) but that's ok i'll just work in with you". i was too dumbfounded to reply but needless to say there was no way i was going to let him "work in" with me.
2. tonight i'm over by the assisted racks and the resident super curl jockey (and i do mean supper- he looks like he could be chasing a pro card if his legs matched the rest of him) is in one of them with an adjustable bench (what is it with these adjustable benches?) anyway he gets up after a set and is standing like 5 feet in front of it when this guy walks over and takes the bench! never mind that somebody was just using it, forget about the back pack right beside it, this guy is just that oblivious. meanwhile the first guy is just staring at him not believing what he's seeing finally he asks the guy to put it back where he got it because he was still using it. now remember when i said the second guy was oblivious? well instead of an "i'm sorry dude i didn't see you" or what ever, he comments on the way supper curl jockey is talking to him! not only that but supper curl jockey apologizes like 4 times and the jerk still won't shut up! it would have been nice to see the jerk get his clock cleaned but alas he eventually walked away - only to come back later and take it again before asking if supper curl jockey was done

[Mdlftr]

..the admittedly built and jacked late-20 somethings who come in wearing ***king GOLF shirts to the gym on Sunday afternoon, just to show what Tiger-Woods-studs they are, and proceed to take the flat bench immediately behind mine, making lots of noise and clattering weights. There are at least 4 other open benches in the immediate vicinity which have no one on them. I've not seen these guys recently, but they do look sort of familar.


Later, when they are doing seated db presses, they groan loudly and throw the dbs down on the floor as if they just lifted the Lusitania. They also try to start conversations with everyone in a 30 yard radius, along the lines of "Whew, that was a tough set! I'm so pumped! *flex*"

O.k., O.k, we GET it! You're so **cking studly you can't keep your legs closed! Enough, already!!


Clear winners of the "Douche of the Day Award!"

Mdlftr

[raven79]

Wow, those guys are real winners Tim. What gym is this? I am surprised that they are allowed to make such a racket.

[newmus]

if i may beat a dead horse a little bit more...
first some background: this gym hands out free towels that are always freshly washed, bright white with a blue stripe. my towel is solid white but very dingy, so it doesn't look anything like the ones that everybody just leaves all around the gym for the maid to pick up. so you can't confuse it with someone just being lazy.
tonight i start out with squats, do a couple of warm up sets and then a working set with my max and then my bladder starts singing so i, as always neatly place my towel on the bar and head upstairs to the restroom. afterward i look at the clock, the whole trip took about 3 minutes. when i get back to the squat rack some guy has not only taken off all of my plates but is in the middle of a warm-up rep (first one maybe?) at least he didn't through my towel on the floor. i'm a bit ticked so i don't even wait for him to come up before i tell him that i wasn't done. and of course his response was that no body was here and he asked around blah blah blah. when he says he'll put everything back that's when i shut up, but then he gets mad because "something, something, something... and a little politeness goes a long way". it was all i could do to keep my mouth closed! i mean you come and take someone else's equipment that is clearly staked out even though you look like you've been working out long enough to know about simple etiquette, yet i'm the one whose being impolite?!?!

[newmus]

omg, omg, omg!!! remember the two skinny punks i was talking about on the first page? i saw them again tonight! i'm standing in the smith machine doing drag curls and watching the totally hot asian guy bench 295lbs. he finishes a set then gets up and goes to the other room to get some water. now at the head of his bench on the floor is his sweatshirt and keys - its obvious that someone is still using it. ten feet away at the dead lift platform are Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb. and as soon as hot sexy guy leaves they pounce and snag his 10s. 60 seconds later hot sexy guy returns. he notices his missing weights and a look of bewilderment rolls across his face. he then spends 5 minutes looking for replacement weights, and yes he did notice Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb with his tens. he didn't say anything so neither did i, but i wanted to.

[inm]

Originally Posted by newmus

omg, omg, omg!!! remember the two skinny punks i was talking about on the first page? i saw them again tonight! i'm standing in the smith machine doing drag curls and watching the totally hot asian guy bench 295lbs. he finishes a set then gets up and goes to the other room to get some water. now at the head of his bench on the floor is his sweatshirt and keys - its obvious that someone is still using it. ten feet away at the dead lift platform are Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb. and as soon as hot sexy guy leaves they pounce and snag his 10s. 60 seconds later hot sexy guy returns. he notices his missing weights and a look of bewilderment rolls across his face. he then spends 5 minutes looking for replacement weights, and yes he did notice Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb with his tens. he didn't say anything so neither did i, but i wanted to.

LOL, at my gym, people take plates off my bar while I'm standing right next to it! I guess training leaves their brain oxygen-depleted.

[newmus]

where do you work out at?
i go to about 10 different 24 hr fitness locations in los angeles and the lack of courtesy at the main one i go to is legendary. i once had some guy who hadn't been to that location before come up to me and ask about it because someone had taken his equipment.

[inm]

Originally Posted by newmus

where do you work out at?
i go to about 10 different 24 hr fitness locations in los angeles and the lack of courtesy at the main one i go to is legendary. i once had some guy who hadn't been to that location before come up to me and ask about it because someone had taken his equipment.

Far side of the universe.. Israel. so it is universal !