Annoying Gym Behaviour - Mk2(?)

GreeBo

Zyzzin wrote: »

When groups of untrained people 2 or more, come in and interfere in anyway with your workout when you know they're not sticking around long term. They talk, treat the gym like a meeting place, usually fat, will feel no shame taking up equipment.

This has happened countless times over the years, typically happens when there are both guys and girls in the group.

In my current set up I'm not joking 7 Indian students take up the tiny gym we have to:
1. Perform traditional dance
2. Do "yoga"
3. **** around constantly moving from machine to machine with zero purpose
4. Judge me because I'm not one of them
5. Have the cheek to tell me I'm not allowed in because of the 3 person limit but they're OK because they're from "the same household", all 7 of them!

I've devoted myself to this for years, I treat the gym like a temple! To me its the equivalent of their Taj Mahal, and I'm sure in whatever Bollywood culture they've observed, telling me to get out somehow makes them the hero which is a painful thought to bare. If I were to enter some place of worship and was asked to remove my shoes, I would do so immediately due to it being disrespectful not to. They of all people I would have assumed would understand.

(And yes I feel the gym is a sacred place, constant devotion to a higher purpose)

But deep down I find a calmness in the fact that I know they won't train seriously and will continue to be fat ****s all their lives. Most likely never understanding why and growing upset with the world for being the way they are. And if they changed, actually committed themselves to train seriously over years, I'd be equally as happy.

Oh my god that is horrendous!
I cant believe those poor people are forced to workout alongside racist bigots.

Alf Veedersane

Part of the annoying behaviour being "judging me for not being one of them" which was then followed by racist commentary on said people.

Either a troll or moron or (most likely) both.

Brian?

Zyzzin wrote: »

When groups of untrained people 2 or more, come in and interfere in anyway with your workout when you know they're not sticking around long term. They talk, treat the gym like a meeting place, usually fat, will feel no shame taking up equipment.

This has happened countless times over the years, typically happens when there are both guys and girls in the group.

In my current set up I'm not joking 7 Indian students take up the tiny gym we have to:
1. Perform traditional dance
2. Do "yoga"
3. **** around constantly moving from machine to machine with zero purpose
4. Judge me because I'm not one of them
5. Have the cheek to tell me I'm not allowed in because of the 3 person limit but they're OK because they're from "the same household", all 7 of them!

I've devoted myself to this for years, I treat the gym like a temple! To me its the equivalent of their Taj Mahal, and I'm sure in whatever Bollywood culture they've observed, telling me to get out somehow makes them the hero which is a painful thought to bare. If I were to enter some place of worship and was asked to remove my shoes, I would do so immediately due to it being disrespectful not to. They of all people I would have assumed would understand.

(And yes I feel the gym is a sacred place, constant devotion to a higher purpose)

But deep down I find a calmness in the fact that I know they won't train seriously and will continue to be fat ****s all their lives. Most likely never understanding why and growing upset with the world for being the way they are. And if they changed, actually committed themselves to train seriously over years, I'd be equally as happy.

This is a thread for light hearted banter, not this nonsense. Anymore and you'll be thread banned.

MajorDon

Zyzzin wrote: »

... I treat the gym like a temple! To me its the equivalent of their Taj Mahal....

It's a mausoleum, not a temple. And it's 'bear', not 'bare'.

Strumms

When your session is about to get started your trainer is 'there'...with you.... obviously.... and two older pox bottles approach him and start asking stuff and pointing to various body parts... he is wearing a 'personal trainer' shirt... he advises them that he has to start with a client but writes down a website. Says good luck then they apologise to me and yet continue asking incessant questions....

TALKERS with little interest in whats be said just TALKING. ..

ButtersSuki

Geebag this morning going Bulgarian Squats, tricep dips, and numerous abs exercises on the bench of the bench press station.

Had I needed it I would have asked her to move to one of the 10+ benches available in the gym but I didn’t so just let it slide but completely inconsiderate.

ButtersSuki

Conor McGregor-wannabe “baitin’ de shoyte” out of the punch bag this morning. Was actually funny watching it out if the corner of my eye. He was making so much noise and such an eejit out of himself one of the staff asked him to stop. I’d be willing to bet he thinks it was for fear he was going to damage the bag with his sheer awesomeness, brute strength, and raw power.

silverharp

People who leave a bunch of 25kg plates in front of the small weights, what are they thinking? I will find you.....

Kamu

silverharp wrote: »

People who leave a bunch of 25kg plates in front of the small weights, what are they thinking? I will find you.....

Always when I'm looking for the 5kg plate, it's behind a 25 and a 10.

el Fenomeno

I was the annoying ballbag yesterday.

Knocked my intra-workout shake all over the floor of the bench area - well over a litre of it went everywhere.

Actually surprised a litre of fluid can spread out over such a large area. Impressive really.

Strumms

its super warm in the gym this evening, the aircon is either not working or not set accurately to reflect the required temperature…but my guess is that it’s inoperative. It’s always on….and very cool.

a young client comes in, chooses a treadmill quite adjacent to three 3ft x 3ft large open windows, despite there being about 20 other free treadmills. she then proceeds to close all windows without consulting staff or fellow clients … 😒 if the ‘draft’ is bothering her, she can literally walk to the far end of the room about 60 feet away where there are copious numbers of free machines including treadmills and….no windows, no draft, just pure amazon warmth.

im thinking about roaring over but my mind is not diplomatically attuned at that moment so I stay silent, and she is wearing headphones , anyway..” hi, selfish ***** , there are others here who while exercising may appreciate the ability to remain on the cooler side of sweating to death “.. sounded reasonable in my head at the time so just as well for the headphones …. But seriously, what do people be thinking ? 🤨

I don’t walk into businesses as a client opening or closing windows …..and I’ve enough self awareness to know that on a day like this in a hot fitness environment it’s going to make things uncomfortable for people… and it DID. 😐

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120655488#Comment_120655488

FWIW aircon requires the windows and doors to be closed to work. Most modern systems will literal switch off if you open the windows.

Gym are particular hard to cool from a design point of view.

Strumms

that’s why I think the aircon was inoperative…. I was there for a good 30 minutes after the windows were closed, and there wasn’t a breath of a breeze or coolness coming from them… so I’m presuming that’s why those windows which are otherwise never open, we’re open.

I’ve seen all be it not for a while, patrons fiddling with the remote and small touch screen , as it’s accessible to everyone….. they even put up a sign saying something like ‘staff use only’…..but on occasion it fails to deter.

I literally walked out of the place like I’d fallen into a shower with my clothes on… and was fit for feck all, all evening…

it was simply yer wan not appreciating whatever draft was from the windows beside her and fûck anyone and everyone else in the room. 🤬

swededmonkey

A recent event peeved me off no end. I had just finished doing some front squats in one of the racks and had gone to get another piece of equipment for my next exercise. The other 2 racks beside me were also free. A young enough guy came over and started setting up. When I explained that I was still using the rack, showed him my towel, phone and water bottle on the floor, he then asked me to move. When i refused he asked what exercise I was doing. My response was a quick "It's none of your **** business what I'm doing" 😅

I get there can be a misunderstanding if you think someone has finished, but to follow up with an explanation and then be asked to move is taking the piss

Black Sheep

That is unusual behaviour from them alright.

Dtp1979

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120662131#Comment_120662131

And did you win in the end?

swededmonkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120664086#Comment_120664086

I'm incredibly stubborn. I wasn't letting him away with it 😁

Cill94

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120662131#Comment_120662131

I really think there's a need for gyms to enforce a basic intro to gym etiquette when newbies sign up. I see stuff like your example all the time, and these people really seem to think they are somehow in the right when they are behaving like a child.

I'd not trained in a public gym for years and started in Westwood recently. Was baffled by the general lack of self awareness amongst people.

Common things I see are people not putting stuff back, trying to use multiple equipment stations at once, giving attitude when you ask to work in with them, sitting on equipment for 20 minutes plus while spending most of that browsing on their phone.

Oh, and the old guys drying their nutsacks with the hair dryers..

Black Sheep

I am back in a commercial gym setting, even though I have a home gym, because it suits my work hours at the moment. The behaviour is generally OK, but I must admit my default expectation is that people are going to be irritating. I think it's rarely out of malice, it's a kind of childlike ignorance of how to behave in a gym, and maybe the answer is the intro session Cilian proposed.

The only times I have actually barked at someone a bit were occasions when someone walks over a platform me or my wife is lifting on, mid lift. In that circumstance, I don't feel bad about it because it's very clear what they're doing is potentially dangerous - to them and us, if someone loses a lift and gets hurt bailing out, trying to control it down or whatever.

Another time I did get a bit irritated was a guy who had collected two barbells and a mountain of dumbbells and was doing a kind of circuit. The problem was one of the barbells was the only 15kg barbell in the gym, and while my wife can (and did) use a men's bar, I asked politely if he would swap the ladies bar for a men's bar so she could use the narrower diameter of the ladies bar. He didn't believe me that it was a ladies bar at first, and then basically said 'no, get lost'. I think it was the irrationality of it that bothered me, I had literally brought him a men's bar to swap out for it.

I suppose people leaving loaded bars on the ground and in racks is another peeve, but that doesn't seem to happen in the current gym.

Cill94

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120666745#Comment_120666745

Yes I think it mostly is just blissful ignorance on their part. The real issue is that gym doesn't want to police any of these shenanigans. In any gym I've worked in that holds high standards for what is and isn't acceptable, members learn and get on board pretty quickly.

Cake Man

Not annoying behaviour per se but joined a new gym recently. Having been at my old one for over 8 years, I was always going to notice anything different with the new gym. Two things kind of bug me:

1. They have 4 racks in that 2x2 formation. So if you're squatting, you're staring straight at the person in the rack right in front of you (insert here that meme of the monkey/puppet thing side-eye awkwardly looking away). No big deal but I'm just so used to having a mirror in front of me I find it so weird squatting without being able to look at my reflection to check form, see how much depth I'm getting, ensuring the bar is level across the back etc. It's a strange experience having to work off other cues to know if I've gone down far enough and/or if my form looks ok. I'm half tempted to email them to ask if there's any chance they'd install a mirror in front of each rack but I'd very much doubt it would go anywhere. Anyone else at a gym where there are no mirrors in front of racks and what you do to ensure form seems ok?
2. With those 4 racks, they obviously each have one barbell but mounted on the side of the rack is a connection/attachment point where one can stick in a barbell to do landmine rows. It's a bit redundant if all four racks are being used as there's no spare barbell to use on the connection device. Or alternatively, if someone has a barbell in the connection doing rows then it means one rack is a bit useless without a barbell so it's basically out of use until the barbell is freed up. Again, half tempted to ask if they'd get a spare barbell to solve this issue.

j@utis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120766043#Comment_120766043

We have this funny set up where you have to walk around or cross the deadlift platform to get to one of the squat racks. Deadlift platform is parallel to the squat rack, so if you deadlifting and someone is using the squat rack for benching (there's no dedicated bench press stations), it's either you turn your back to them and they be sitting on their bench admiring your rear in between their sets, or if you're facing them, then you're looking into their crotch, normally quite far into their shorts when they're doing their sets 🤣

The other day there was nobody in the squat rack, so when I finished my deadlifts and went onto the glute bridges on the same platform because it's saves me time not to set up again somewhere else, but soon later this older gentleman comes over to use the squat rack and I ended up doing my glute bridges, laying on the floor almost under him swaying above with barbell on his back (he was kinda wobbly with his squats)...

I asked management if they deadlift platform could be turned sideways to be perpendicular to the squat rack which would solves all those issues but no... He's not budging and not buying into my perfect logic but that's what management is about - full of BS.

Cill94

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120766043#Comment_120766043

That rack setup sounds awkward af.

But as for the mirrors, they're actually a hinderance when it comes to learning technique - hence why you won't find them in the racks for weightlifting or powerlifting gyms. Best to just video yourself and compare that to a technical model. You won't need a mirror after a while. If anything, they throw me off now.

Black Sheep

Agree... lots of reps and film your sets until correct depth is ingrained. You could also touch off (but not rest on) a low box or med ball, but this can become a crutch in itself.

I've been squatting for 20 odd years now but I'll still film a set every few workouts and it's one of the only ways to keep yourself honest in terms of form standards.

I was going to say that squat rack set up sounds like flye fit drumcondra. And perhaps others.

Although you're right that people should squat in - facing each other - what I saw was that less experienced folk started squatting backwards I.e unracking by walking forwards and racking by walking backwards. To avoid that precise thing of facing people. Not ideal.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120766043#Comment_120766043

You don't really want to rely on a mirror to hit depth of have good form. It should be based a pre-learned movement pattern, and proprioception rather than reactively adjust to to a reflection. Those kind of racks are pretty much the preference for weightlifting or powerlifting gyms.

The no additional barbell thing is weird though. What about bench press, rows, deadlifts. Landmine attachment aside, I'd expect a gym with 4 racks to have ~8 barbells.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120772547#Comment_120772547

That rack setup is pretty standard. Double half rack, or double rig. Most high end gyms I've seen utilise some version of it. Either that or wall mounted half racks. There are more elaborate single sided set ups, but they are less efficient.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120774222#Comment_120774222

You can squat facing out. You just have to move the J-Hooks to the inside and stand inside the rack. This is where you stand if using bands, safety straps etc. In a true double half rack, two people can stand inside. But I think the double side rig is more common in chain gyms.

Black Sheep

Ah, yes, you can definitely do it that way, and be facing out, but what I was talking about is when people have the hooks set up to squat facing in, and they get under the bar and walk it forwards out onto the platform... Do their set, and then walk backwards and re-rack.

In fairness, this is also how Rocky did it in his training montage in Rocky Balboa ;) Although I suspect he had the excuse of doing it for a better camera shot.

fatbhoy

The worst one I can think of, and this happens a lot, is dumbass cúnts stripping weight off a racked barbell from one end, causing the bar to flip over violently towards the other end. This will kill someone eventually. In my gym, I've witnessed this happening about 4 or 5 times in the last 6 months. The worst one was some girl noob taking about 70KG off one side, bar flips with huge force. Luckily nobody was walking past in the bar's path.

This is the thing that annoys me the most. When I suggested to staff that they try to do something to prevent it, like perhaps putting up visual-only signs (like a stickman stripping weight off one side in one picture, then the bar flipping over in the next picture...cartoon style), their manager supposedly said "no, because no other gyms have these signs". Facepalm.

Strumms

There is a BIG fûck off aerobic studio next to the cardio room, but this goon who I’ve just noticed recently, when they are finished on the rowing machine, get off it, put a mat down beside it, lie on it and start doing stretches, there are 5 rowing machines and when they are doing this the one machine they just got off is not accessible, they are inches from it and they’ll be down there doing aerobic stretches for the guts of 10 minutes before they feck off…..The huge aerobic studio is literally 30 seconds walk, from the rowing machines so……😵‍💫🤌🏻

Not AS bad but I also dislike when a person finishes on the bike or other piece of equipment, pull out their phone and bury their head, messaging, feet up grinning away…..few months ago im waiting for the lat pull-down gizmo and yer wan just sitting there, on it, after using it, having her drink, phone out for about 5 minutes, fûck knows why….

Finished exercising ? get off, wipe / sanitise and think of other people, their time, goals and what not….

billyhead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121043533#Comment_121043533

Just tell your man to move it as your using the rower. That's what I would do. Same for the user sitting looking at her mobile. Just tell her you want to use the machine.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121043743#Comment_121043743

Seems kinda obvious right.

Yer man blocking the rower would surely understand if the others are all full and somebodys waiting to use it. Of course if the other 4 are also free, its not really an issue. Most things like that in the gym are situational.