Unfortunately, at least at my gym, no matter where you stand you’re potentially in someone’s way. Grab the weights and curl, you’re in the way of people getting weights. Take 3 steps back, you’re in the way of the people on the benches. Go all the way behind the benches, you’re in the way of the cross traffic… etc etc.
I’ll chime in about grunters and how ridiculous they are. I just got back from the gym and there was one guy grunting during deadlifts, bench press, dumbell press etc. He was doing pretty much the same weights in his routine as I do, but the dumbass thought he needed chalk and excessive grunting to do it. The same goes for the guy doing 20lb lateral raises and grunting merrily away.
People who don’t wipe their sweat off the machines should learn to work out at home in their own filth.
Men never seem bring their daughters into the men’s lockerroom. I have seen a woman flip out over her son seeing naked men in gasp a men’s changing room. :smack: I was 16. It was at a mom & pop campground in upstate NY. The men’s bathhouse had open group showers (just like HS except people actually used them). No big deal. So I was in the camp store in the main building when this woman came running up to the front-desk with her son in tow. He looked about 9/10 yrs old and was carrying a bag with shower suff. She started ranting about “perverts exposing themselves” to her son. :dubious:. It was hilarious. The girl behing the counter tried to calm her down and got an older woman out of the office, but she kept saying how it was disgusting and she’d “report” them (the campground). Finally the older woman just told her she was sorry she didn’t like the facilities and if it bothers her that much to use the shower in her camper. Her response? We have a pop-up and I’m never coming back here again. Sorry for the hijack.
If you are one of those people who struggles with keeping left and right separate in an aerobics routine, and distracts and confuses others in the class, all I ask is please, please, please, please, for the love of God …
See this is what I don’t get. It would take literally 2 minutes to do this, why not do something that is courteous and cost you nothing but 2 minutes of your life?
Agreed. Our local YMCA has a very nice Family Changing Room that’s hardly ever used and I wish it was. Taking a shower and seeing a 6 year old staring at my naked body…:eek:
1, it’s a gym, I’m there to sweat, I don’t find it discourteous to sweat.
2, I wear a sports bra under my tshirt, and if I sweat enough to soak through my shirt, I typically soak through my bra as well. So I change my shirt and the wet bra ends up soaking through the new shirt. What about my shorts? They get sweaty too. Or my socks? Should I change into a new outfit halfway through every gym session because somebody is scared of sweat and yet still goes to a gym???
3, to get toward the root of the problem, if I wipe off my machine/equipment after every use, how is it discourteous to be sweaty anyway?
Because it’s ridiculous? Why on earth would you change out of a sweaty shirt to sweat some more? Honestly, this is the first time I’ve heard anybody suggest changing shirts in the middle of a workout.
Gyms are supposed to be full of sweaty people - they’re the ones who are doing it right. As long as they wipe things down when they’re done with them, I just can’t see it being a problem.
Remember how I said that people will misrepresent such complaints no matter what one does? I’m pretty sure that you know that your statement does not reflect what people have been saying in this thread.
NOBODY said that no there should be no talking in the gym. Various people have complained about loud talking, loud grunting, and loud music, but that’s obviously not the same thing as saying that there should be no talking whatsoever.
Nor did anyone say that there should be no laughter at all. I did say that people should suppress the urge to giggle during class, but that’s not the same as saying that there should be no laughter whatsoever anywhere in the gym. As with so many things, it’s simply a matter of exercising restraint and avoiding excessive distractions.
And NOBODY said that music should not be allowed. Somebody did complain about loud music, and it stands to reason that one should not inflict one’s personal choice of music upon the rest of the gym attendees. That’s not the same as saying that music should be prohibited; indeed, most cardio classes incorporate music, and many gyms – perhaps most – do try to provide some reasonably non-intrusive background music for their clientele.
Nor did anyone say that no sweating should be allowed. Several have urged people to wipe down the equipment after they have sweated into it, but that’s clearly not the same thing as saying that perspiration is prohibited.
And finally, NOT A SINGLE PERSON HERE has said that unfit people should not be allowed in the gym. Nobody has even remotely hinted at it, so why do you insist on bringing this point up?
Look, I can understand if people want to take issue with certain items in this discussion. Such is the nature of reasoned discourse. Your statement is overflowing with strawman misrepresentations though, and I think you know it. When someone insists on such blatant and over-the-top misrepresentations though, it’s because he want to offer an angry retort wihtout any regard for accuracy of his opponent’s viewpoints.
Oh, and just for the record, I don’t agree with Markxxx. I happen to side with the folks who take issue with his remark. Nevertheless, I know better than to misrepresent his statement as “NO SWEATING.” That’s simply a childish way to respond.
I see. So I guess it’s acceptable to post blatant, over-the-top distortions of what people have been saying, and then defend this tactic by saying “I was being sarcastic!”
I see. So in your view, deliberately misrepresenting what other people say is perfectly acceptable behavior. It’s a perfectly acceptable method of argumentation.
“But I didn’t say that!” Jeff might object.
Sorry, fella. Maybe I was being sarcastic. It’s not my fault if you’re humor-impaired.
In response to the OP, it drives me nuts to watch people on stair masters who ramp up the setting, then lock their arms and practically dangle while their feet move. Not only is it bad form, you’re getting a really limited work out if you’re just hanging - your feet get little resistance that way.
I also don’t like it when people increase the speed and/or incline on their treadmills so much they have to hold on to it to prevent flying off the back.
Competitive equipment users bother me, too. You know, the people who overtly or covertly lean over, see what your setting is and set theirs one level higher or .1 mile faster, then have to hold on for dear life. When I work out, the only person I’m competing with is myself and it irritates me to feel like someone I’ve never met in my life is trying to one-up me for no reason. Granted, for all I know, they may be just trying to challenge themselves, but when that happens, it feels more like an ego thing on their part. I’ve actually moved to a different treadmill because some beefcake kept ogling my readout and, every time I’d move up, he’s inch up, too. It was distracting because he kept almost falling over every time he’d glance at my screen.
Well, it costs me another shirt that I have to stuff in my panniers since I ride to the gym and then to work, but that’s not a big deal. The locker room is fairly far from the weight room at my gym, so it would probably take me more than 2 minutes but that’s not a big deal either.
I don’t see lifting in a sweaty shirt as being discourteous. It’s a gym, I expect to see sweaty people, and I expect to sweat. As a result, I wipe down the machines I use, thus not inconveniencing or being discourteous to others. I can’t see how me simply being there in a sweaty shirt would be a problem.
Besides, even if I did change my shirt it would be very sweaty in a short time and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Nope. Unless post-wiping is enforced, you have to pre-wipe anyway just to be sure, rendering the post-wipe (if it was in fact done) superfluous. So forget the post-wipe and just pre-wipe. And stop looking askance at non-post-wipers. We are right and will be proven right over time.
I got no beef with most of the gripes in here, but the clueless about the moves in aerobics class really just sounds assy. I mean, I know you’ve made all these exceptions for getting tired and not being perfect and all, but it really does seem like everybody is going to be clueless about the moves at some point. After all, how in the name of all reason is a person supposed to already know and follow the moves if they’ve never seen the routine before? Osmosis? Telepathy? Coming in to sit and watch the class a few times beforehand? C’mon.