If that 30 second phone call is going to inconvenience somebody, I’d rather have it inconvenience the person taking it. I’ve gotta go with Lord Ashtar on this one.
I understand sometimes people may be waiting for an important call and may need to carry their cell phone on rare occasions, but the moment it rings - excuse yourself to the lobby to answer.
Which brings me to my next gripe: Obliviously sitting on a machine for an extended period of time and TEXTING. Seriously, GTFO.
My other gripe is neanderthals who refuse to re-rack their weights.
And yeah, the gym may post ‘please re-rack your weights’ and ‘use of cell phones is permitted in the lobby only’ signs, but IME gyms never enforce these ‘rules’.
Suggest to Mgmt. a little sign up sheet for each one during busy hours.
I hate when people spit water into the pool. Gross. Makes me wonder about their other bodily functions.
Also, I’ve wondered about the towel wipe down rule. So then we’re all just taking our sweaty towels and smearing it around on the equipment so it dries faster. Ew. Hardly clean.
My husband works at the local university, so we get a really cheap rate to the on-campus gym. It’s a little annoying, though, as working out next to these perky little 19-year-olds in their matching outfits and bouncy hair and… sigh makes me feel old sometimes.
I was working second shift in the summer, so I was usually going to the gym around 11:00, and as campus is not as full during summer semester, the gym had a small usual group there, including about six of us ladies who were regularly helping each other with the weight machines. One day, this guy (Who was… 20?) goes up to the machines in the row across from us and starts lifting a pitiful amount of weight and… posing. After about a dozen reps, he turns to the girl next to me, and says in a fake-Jersey accent, “Yeah, you like what you see?” She drops her jaw, and stammers out, “Nah, I’m good.” at which point he turns to me and says, “How 'bout you?” I’m seriously looking around for a camera man at this point, this situation is so surreal. The gal on my other side (A faculty member in her 40s), gives up and just busts out laughing at the absurdity of the situation.
For awhile during January, intramural basketball was scheduled in the big gym, which shares a wall with the group fitness studio… where yoga was going on. The clock buzzers were a real downer on my zen.
I didn’t care that he was making a call, I cared that he was bogarting the weights I wanted to use. Frankly, I think those calling for phones to be banned from the gym are a little silly. As long as you’re not in someone else’s way, do whatever you want.
Rest assured, my workout was unimpeded. I was finished with my set and had the dumbbells returned to the floor in front of him before he had finished his call.
I guess I’m broken. I have no problem just telling someone when they are being impolite. Take the drink off, and say, “You can’t save a machine, other people are working out too.”
If you’re afraid she’s going to beat you up, pick up a barbell first. 
In the cases of people hogging the machines with drinks or phone calls and such, I think some people do these things intentionally just to dare us to confront them. I don’t like to give them the satisfaction.
Evil prospers when good men do nothing.
Someone intelligent* said that once. It’s a good motto for the small things in life as well as the big things. In this case it means that those who behave badly get to continue doing so because no-one wishes to confront them.
As for phone calls, I don’t particularly care whether people use them or not or where; as Lord Ashtar said, a phone call is not a good excuse for hogging scarce equipment. There are no good excuses for hogging equipment except for the period when you are actually using it. I don’t care if someone wants to work out for an hour on the treadmill, as long as they are actually there the whole time. Simple as that.
*Edmund Burke or John Philpot Curran or someone of that kidney
Roddy
I put my cardio cruiser in front of one of my game consoles, the system that plays NES/SNES games. Sure, I’m not working my arms like I should, but I really think that I’m making progress with my leg strength. The CC doesn’t take up much more room than a chair, and I’m using it far more now that I’ve got something interesting to do while I’m using it.
And the best part? It can be done at home. I haven’t paid for a gym in over two years. I also have never been fitter, and my workouts aren’t boring any more.
Well, I guess karma struck back because today some douchesquirt hogged a machine I was waiting to use for over 20 minutes, a portion of which he spent sitting there yakking on his cell phone. Welcome to the thread, shitbag.
Welcome to the side of right and justice, VT!
Why do cell phone users not get it that they are seriously annoying and distracting the people trapped next to them? I’m using the elliptical two weeks ago (last open one) at my gym, and suddenly the woman next to me takes a call. Naturally she doesn’t believe that electronics actually works, so she’s holding her side of the conversation in a voice she could use to call in the ships at sea. (And the caller is holding the phone about six inches away from his/her ear at the other end, wincing…) After ten minutes (I know, cause I’m timing my cardio session), I finally turn toward her and just lay my finger over my lips ('the signal for "Shhhh!).
And she starts yelling at me. “My daughter is at the doctor! I have to talk to her!”
“Okay,” I said peaceably. “This is the workout area. Over there (pointing to lounge) is the cell phone area. There’s a sign on the wall that says so. In the meantime, please lower your voice, I can hear your conversation better than the music in my earbuds.”
She called me a name that rhymes with “witch.”
I get along great with everybody else, and we usually work out “Oh, are you using this?” situations extremely amicably. Because there are fifteen different machines or free weights around. Always something to do. But I’ve never seen anyone try to “reserve” a machine they’re not actually using–Man, that’s rude.
I’m with the Dopers who said speak up–only the force of social disapproval is likely to penetrate the thick, thick skulls of these jerks.
In related news: my home state, NJ, is considering a bill to make the penalties for talking on a handheld cell phone while driving much higher: $400/first offense, $800/second offense, $1000 and 3 big points on your license/3rd offense. Yay!
So I walk into the gym a couple weeks ago. There are five squat racks on the floor. All of them appear to be taken up from a distance, except for one.
I walk over to said squat rack and discover some kid SITTING DOWN in-between the bars, on the floor, legs against one side and back against the other, scrunched up against the mirror. He’s fiddling around with his cell phone, just chilling.
I give him a few minutes, decide to do some rows, thinking maybe he’s resting in between sets.
He hasn’t moved.
I walk over and politely ask, “Are you using this?”
“Yeah.”
I swear, I completed a good thirty minutes of my upper body workout and the guy was still sitting there. I guess I know not to go during that timeframe again, because pretty much nothing else opened up either, between all the guys who buddied up on racks and the guys who were solo but still actually doing work. Not begrudging them, really, but the one dude…geez.
Most of my fellow gym patrons aren’t much problem. (There is the one man who insists on watching Kathie Lee and Hoda, followed by Steve Harvey, but that’s a trivial gripe.)
My beef is with Pwincess Pwecious who has all of her crap spread out on the counter next to the one sink in the locker room. She’s usually chatting on her phone while she preens, but it’s impossible to get in there while she’s there. It’s as if she believes that this is her personal bathroom. Fortunately, I’m transferring to a different office in a week, so I’ll get to deal with a whole different group of people at the gym. (I use the fitness center at my workplace. It’s a good facility and it’s a lot cheaper than joining a regular gym.)
That’s one of the things I love about my new gym. Lots of preening area away from those of us who are just trying to get in, work out and get out. I have seen 8 women there blow drying their hair, etc and they have never been in my way.
What pisses me off is people that don’t use the sign up board. Dude, don’t be an asshole. You see the machine is free, sign up for it on the board, don’t just go on it. This gym gets busy, some people structure their workouts based on what is on the sign up board.
Also, if your kids aren’t old enough to be using the machines properly, leave them at home. Your 12 year old doesn’t need to be dicking around on the cardio machines and switching between them every 5 minutes because they’re bored.
Sign up board? What is this? I’ve never been to a gym with a sign up board for equipment…
Cardio equipment.
Ahhh, that’s why I’ve never heard of such a thing. 