Not really a vent, but curious. I’m probably just being nosy.
I was in spin class yesterday. There are about 25 bikes, and the instructor is tough and it’s a great work out. Sometimes the class is full, sometimes it’s not.
There was a woman next to me who spent about half the class texting. Now, it could have been some emergency from home or work (but if it were, wouldn’t she have left the class?) that required her immediate response. We’re doing mountain rides with higher resistance and tabata sprints, and she’s just moseying along, texting.
I think what bothers me is that I think it’s rude to the instructor, who is a great guy. I got my work out in, so I don’t frankly care that she didn’t, but why bother taking up a bike in a spin class if you’re not going to do the work out? Fortunately today the class was not full, so she didn’t take the space of someone who was serious about the exercise.
I just don’t understand going to the gym to take a class and not participating. Strange creatures.
Specifically with regards to group classes, I do find it distracting if someone is off doing their own thing. As long as everyone is going in sync, I can just concentrate on the workout. But when there’s variation, I notice that person and it makes me wonder if I missed a cue from the instructor. I understand that everyone has their own goals, but I do wish that people who want to do their own thing would be out of most people’s line of sight. When they are towards the front of the room, obviously they are more noticeable and can throw off the other participants.
Ha, I thought this thread was going to be about how YOU went to the gym just to keep up your momentum in some way while you healed from your latest surgery.
So, good to see that you are already back to kicking ass
Something like a prepaid class, I can see going because you’ve already paid but don’t feel well so you just show up and do something to get moving but not make yourself feel worse.
But texting while doing it is, at the very least, an oblivious move. Why be THAT person??
Most people are well-behaved, but there’s always one, you know? Keep an eye out to see if she does it again. She might have had an emergency like you say, or she might be a clueless weirdo.
My gym’s resident weirdo is a young woman with exhibitionist tendencies. She has a complicated treadmill routine that involves jumps, running sideways, running backward, waving her arms in the air, skipping, and doing kicks. Sometimes she does floor exercises instead–waving her bum in the air–right in the gym’s front window. And all her exercise clothes are exquisitely draped, torn, lacy, flowing, and revealing.
Thanks! Not quite back to where I was in Body Pump, but I’m getting there.
Sattua, she sounds like a treat. I wouldn’t dare wear flowing exercise clothes (do they even make such a thing?) They might get caught up in something.
The thing is, this woman was, from what I could tell, quite fit. We were on bikes next to each other in the front of the class and she kept looking over at me. So I got a wee bit paranoid I was the one she was texting about. Then I realized that was nonsense and biked harder.
Well, I don’t do any classes at the gym, so I haven’t run into a situation quite like what you describe. But I do use the weight machines, and the people who drive me crazy are the ones who do 30 seconds of exercise on the machine, then continue to sit on the machine seat as they text for 10 minutes before doing a second set. If I’m waiting for the machine, I’ll work around them and do some other machines, and then come back. But when I do 2, 3 or 4 other machines, and I come back to find them still sitting there texting, my head wants to explode.
Well, I have only run into this sort of behavior a couple of times but both times I said, excuse me, are you using this machine? And the person got up and left. So maybe you could try drawing their attention to their rudeness rather than letting your head explode.
We go to the pool to do lap swimming. Same problem. Some people just “socialize” a lot. Rarely, if ever, do they actual swim laps. Esp. a big problem in the summer when lanes are at a premium.
If you see people waiting for a lane, swim or get out. No talking in the pool.
Maybe if they invented a chemical that detected when someone was talking and turned the water green around them.
You ask them politely if you can work in with them, and they say they just have two more sets. Which it takes them 20 minutes to complete.
My all time favorite: the small gym I go to has two bench press stations, and one idiot actually took up one of them while placing his phone on the other. I couldn’t resist asking him whether I could work in with his phone.
I’m a cyclist. Occasionally I’ll take a spin class; however, if the instructor sucks*, I’ll quietly do my own thing so as to get a decent workout.
That won’t happen twice as I won’t go back to that class again. I prefer to be in the back if possible though most rooms that I’ve been in are setup wide & not deep.
I can’t stand that up for three seconds/down for three seconds shit. It’s hard on the joints & not something one would ever do on a real bike ride.
This or the people who want to walk their laps. If you’re freaking walking, then SHARE A FREAKING LANE! There is absolutely no reason why the walkers each need a lane, especially when the swimmers have doubled up in the lanes.
My YMCA has a two-lane running track mounted about 12 feet above the ground in the basketball gym. It’s the whole reason why I am a member. I can go there and run 180 laps in fresh air conditioning and get in a 10-mile run on a sweltering summer day.
The rules are posted and clear: don’t loiter, slower walkers or runners keep on the inside lane, don’t block the track.
But I regularly have to deal with pairs of women who want to chat as they stroll along. I give them about three laps of “Excuse me” and “watch your back” before I give up and simply squeeze past them, in my not-so-fresh sweaty state.
Fortunately, it’s only about once a year that I run into people who really insist on blocking both lanes and cause me to invoke the sweat defense.
Yes. Those are who this thread is about. It’s a shitty thing to do. Maybe if they stay off to the side and don’t use up the actual equipment or exercise spaces it would be okay, but the people we are talking about are not so kind.
I socialize too. A group of people at my gym even started a Facebook page called Fitness Buddies. We chat, we dish about the instructors, we support each other.
BEFORE AND AFTER CLASS.
During class we’re all business. By all means, chat with your friends. Just don’t take up workout space while you’re doing it.
Yes, these people are the worst. If you’re going to do four sets in a row of the same exercise, that’s your prerogative, but in the minute or so between each set, please get the hell up and let someone else use it.
I don’t really have a problem if they want to do four sets in a row or whatever. It’s the ones who sit interminably and play with their cell phones or talk to their friends in between those sets. Do a set that takes a minute, then rest a minute and start the next set, I’m fine with that. It’s when they use the machine seat as a park bench that I get highly irritated.
