There have been topics like this in the past, but last night… man oh man, I wanted to knock this chick’s block off.
She was using the chest press machine, with a starbucks beverage on the floor close by. She moved to another piece of equipment, but the drink remained. I just thought someone was lazy or messy (which is annoying in itself) so I went to use the machine, and she gave me a look like I had just clubbed a baby seal.
So when I finished, she comes back, picks up the drink and puts it ON THE SEAT of the chest press machine and then wanders off to do a different exercise.
YOU CAN’T CALL DIBS ON MORE THAN ONE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT AT THE SAME TIME.
ahem
Sorry for that outburst, but I truly couldn’t believe the audacity.
I would have just picked up the cup and put it back on the floor. Or be passive aggressive and pick up the cup, chase after her, and say, “Ma’am, you forgot your coffee!” with a big cheerful, helpful smile on my face.
There’s a girl who comes in to the weight room and gets all set up with a few sets of hand weights and some medicine balls, and puts her towel down on one of the mats and spends like an hour using everything.
Now, that doesn’t seem crummy or unusual but there are only 2 mats. So if you want to do situps or anything while she’s there, you have to fight for the other mat. There’s also only one set of medicine balls so if you want one of the ones she’s using, you’re out of luck. There’s also only a few hand weights in the sizes she’s using so if you want one of those, also out of luck.
What she should do is do her mat work and get off the mat. Do her hopping around work while not set up on the mat. Get out the hand weights when she’s ready for them then put them back when she’s done. Get out the medicine ball she wants when she’s ready and put it back when she’s done.
She also could spend $10 on hand weights and do all of this work at home. I’ve had to do situps on the floor before because of her and it was not fun
Also pet peeve: people who do their dumbell work right on top of the dumbell rack. What??
Passive aggressive would be throwing the coffee away and the deadpanning “I cleaned up your refuse for you, but there is a rule against leaving trash laying around in this gym.”
That having been said, odds are she was attempting to do circuit training. Circuit training in most gyms is a huge pain in the ass because almost no one follows the timing. So your heartrate drops out of the target zone waiting for a machine. Thus the temptation to reserve multiples. Very, VERY rarely you’ll find a staff member who enforces the circuit times. I’ve gotten to the point where I just do my cardio in the pool then do a series of sets on various resistance machines(or freeweights/dumbells) and don’t even try circuits. And that’s a damn shame because circuit training is a great workout.
I don’t understand why you consider this passive aggressive. I consider it a perfectly appropriate reaction; although, because I recognize that this person is probably alternating between machines, Diosa’s suggestion of putting it back on the floor and not being deterred by attempted “frappucino-dibs” is probably the best approach.
My surmise is that you believe this woman ought to be given a chance to rectify her mistake before her drink is trashed. Or perhaps you would say “She shouldn’t be given a second chance necessarily, but one shouldn’t escalate the scenario.” But that, of course, is just a roundabout way of saying she should be given a second chance.
It is not passive-aggressive to refuse to indulge immature behavior and it is not passive-aggressive to refuse to insulate someone from the consequences of that behavior. Having your drink thrown away is not even in the top one billion of outrages visited on humankind — she’ll live and hopefully learn a valuable lesson (at the very least: don’t behave like an entitled brat if you can’t enforce it).
Please, let’s not tarnish the very useful corrective power of a swift kick in the ass with all this psycho-babble malarkey about “passive aggression.”
Planet Fitness gyms have a circuit training area that is strictly enforced; it includes cardio and weights. I don’t know how good it is, I never used it, but it’s there.
Of course, you have to put up with the Planet Fitness culture, which some people don’t like; and, being a cheap gym, they often scrimp on some things that are important to me, like locker rooms and showers. YMMV.
To respond to the OP, most gyms that I have ever been to are self-policing to a remarkable degree. This is especially true of the cheap gyms - they are usually crowded and no-one there is going to put up with princess (no gender implications intended) behavior. The only one where I ever saw this kind of behavior was a swanky plush gym that I belonged to until I decided it was just too expensive.
Roddy
I’ve seen this before with free weights as well. I’ve seen guys load up the bench press, the sitting military press, and the squat cage. Really annoying but fortunately there’s doubles and triples of that kind of thing.
The gym I go to, women will start the treadmill, lay a towel across the screen, and then go get changed to workout. I have no problem accepting the look of death they give me when I take the towel off, throw it to the floor and get on the machine.
There is an obnoxious personal trainer who works at my gym and my anecdote involves her stealing my bench. It can get fairly packed during peak hours (5-6p.m.) and during such times the Smith machines can become a scarce commodity. Well I was in the middle of doing sets on a Smith machine using one of those incline benches one busy afternoon when I got up to fill up my empty water bottle at the drinking fountain. Being familiar with how quickly a vacated bench will be re-claimed by another gym-goer, I made sure to leave my dirty towel plus protein shaker with my dry powder (for after workout) on the bench seat as I left.
I was gone from the Smith machine for not even a minute and I come back to find this personal trainer dragging my bench out from underneath the Smith machine, with my weights already stripped off the bar! :mad: I wheel up to her in protest, “Excuse me, I was in the middle of using that…I guess all my stuff sitting on the bench didn’t give that away.” Her: “Oh yes, I saw that and I knew you were on it but I figured you’d see it was me and it’d be cool.” :dubious: Wha? Her: “We’ll (she was working with a client) just be a couple quick sets, ok?” Me: “Uh, yeah, I guess.”
People who make loud grunting noises with every rep.
Those who ‘reserve’ machines with their towels.
The worse are those who came in groups and take turns using the same machine. They share all right, but along among their group.
Truth to be told, though, most of them are pretty reasonable if you go up to them and ask politely if you could share. Though nowadays I just got a set of weights at home and I rarely went to the gym any more.
I guess this is sort of irrational how much this bothers me, but people who walk in the outside lane of the track instead of the inside lanes where walkers are supposed to be. This is especially irksome on busy days when there are many walkers and runners and it disrupts the natural flow and makes it harder on the runners.
You really ought to try crushing 150 mg of caffeine before a workout. It is something else - for weight training at least.
Skipping in the squat rack anyone? This jerk on Saturday was doing 500 double-unders in the power rack. It took him about an hour. I could’ve asked him to move, but I was able to accomplish my goals elsewhere in the gym.
He pays a membership, same as me, which give him equal right to use any equipment any (safe) way he chooses.
I find part of the charm of any gym is that everyone shares everything, and sometimes you have to adapt and overcome.
The deal is to pick it up, strike a pose, make sure your lips on the cup are clearly visible, and pantomime it to the hilt. After a gulp (or a phony gulp), let out a refreshed “Ahhhhh…!” and then raise the cup with a smile and a wink, saying “Thanks, Babe…!”
OK, so this why I’m a guy. Because I’d be effing terrible at being a girl…
These are reasons why I work out at 5 in the morning. I’m generally the only person in the free weight area, with the exception of two or three other older guys.
Of course the bigger reason I workout at 5 is because I don’t really have time to workout later (young kids and all).
Wha? Her: “We’ll (she was working with a client) just be a couple quick sets, ok?” Me: “Uh, yeah, I guess.”