When I work out at the gym, I try to be as quiet as mice. I take care not to make too much noise and try to carry on with my affairs as quietly as possible.
On the other extreme, there are others who grunt and puff while exerting at a machine, and when they are done with their reps, will just abruptly stop and so all the weights will slam down. You can hear them half way across the gym.
How much noise do you make?
In general, I am as quiet as possible, but there are the few occasional noises. Also, in general, I am the only one in the gym at the time, so it wouldn’t matter if I was loud, but I’m not…
Brendon Small
Hard breath out on heavy lifts but I try not to let the noise carry. Full control of the weights up and down.
Besides the fact that good form and control promotes progress and prevents injuries, I think that noise that can be heard over the whole gym is either showing off or total cluelessness.
The most noise I make is some heavy breathing. That one guy who always grunts and pants loudly on the elliptical, and his ilk, should get a BoFlex and stay home.
Making noise helps me to control my breathing. I’m not talking so much about the 15 rep exercises, but if I’m going to failure on squats, then yeah, you’ll probably hear me when I push off the ground.
Yep. I make as much noise as I need to make.
I’ve just never found grunting useful. But I guess you can probably hear my breathing. I wasn’t sure if I should pic option 1 or 2, but I went with 1.
I don’t try to be quiet, as I do breathe heavily when I’m lifting and I want to focus on the weights, not on how I sound to other people in the gym. When I’m lifting something particularly heavy, I vocalise a little “hrrrrrrrrr” as I exhale, but it’s usually under my breath and definitely not for show. I think it’s what other people in the thread are describing. I clicked the second option because the first seemed to imply making a special effort to keep quiet, which I don’t do.
I checked “Other”. I use a Cardio Cruiser at home, and generally I don’t make much noise, unless I’m talking to the game I’m playing.
I chose the second option, because it’s hard to use resistence equipment without making some noise. But there are a small number of men at my Gym who take the noise to ridiculous levels.
UGHH! UGHHH! UGHHHHHHHH!
I marked option two, though I don’t think that I ever grunt. A hard exhale is good form as you lift, but I try not to be obnoxious.
Vocalizations aside, letting weights slam, especially on machines, is dangerous. Plates can shatter, damaging the machines and conceivably injuring someone, though it’s a little unlikely.
Most of the time I’m fairly silent. Maybe some heavy breathing. Occasionally I’ll let a grunt or two out, if I’m doing ME on the holy trinity. Also, if I’m doing ME or week 3 of 5/3/1, my dead lifts will tend to drop a bit louder the usual. I don’t slam them down or drop them, but they do make some noise.
Does whining count? Because I whine a lot at the gym.
It’s a fucking gym, not a library. While I agree that the lifters who sound like they are about to suffer an explosive aneurysm are indeed going a bit overboard, everyone should have the right to make as much noise as they feel appropriate. Weights are damn heavy and making a decent amount of noise can help to focus on proper breathing and form, not to mention the crucial psychological aspect. Personally I’m somewhere between option two and three.
I just started working on the weight machines today for the first time since I joined the Y, and I notice I make slight sounds when I lift, though not so other people can hear me. Everyone else I see in that exercise room is fairly quiet also. I don’t know how it is in the upstairs weight room with the large free weights, however.
not alot of grunting, but sometimes I break out in song…
While I agree it’s not a library, there’s a level of manners that do need to be adhered to. I don’t wanna hear the screaming especially when I’m benching or squating or deadlifting a heavy weight and would prefer to concentrate on my own shit. I also don’t want to feel the ground shimmy and quake because an idiot doesn’t have good enough form to lift a proper weight for them to put it back down.
On a side note, there were two guys that would work out every day together at my gym. They would LOUDLY grunt after every rep and then would literally chest bump and scream at the end of the set. I saw them for two weeks and then they were gone for good. I talked with a trainer and he was surprised that management gave 'em an ultimatum to STFU and they decided to just leave the club.
I’m sure they would be really annoying in real life but this just made me laugh. Performative masculinity is so cheerily ridiculous sometimes. 
Bikram yoga is a different twist on this phenomenon:
on one hand, it’s yoga - you’re supposed to be all centered and focused on breathing in a relaxed, steady way throughout postures. Drama of any form is NOT part of the practice; act like you’ve been there before, you know? 
on the other hand, it’s freakin’ Bikram - you’re in a 105-degree, humid-as-hell room and the poses really, really push your stamina, strength and mental commitment. If you are doing it right, your ass is totally kicked at the end (heck by 1/3 of the way in!)
So you end up with a funny tension - folks are straining like there’s no tomorrow while trying to maintain their yoga cool. You hear strangled grunts that sound like George from Seinfeld when one of his lies gets called out. Every now and then someone breaks loose with a grunt at the apex of a pose and then tries to call it back…same with the occasional fart ;):D:eek:
I’m one of the quiet ones. I don’t mind if you need to grunt or pant when you are doing a lift with some serious weight. Really, though, I can do without your spotter bellowing “One more strong one baby! It’s all you!” at the top of his voice. I can do without you doing it when it’s your turn to spot, as well.