Gym etiquette
 

I was wondring what your guy's opinions are when it comes to certain habits some people have in the gym or if you do anything a little out of the ordinary comapred to others. One habit I have is to bring a notebook with me and write down exactly what excersises, sets, reps, log in time, log out, cardio, blah blah blah. A lot of people look at me wierd but whatever... it helps me. Also, I hate it when people grunt but then again, I start to grunt also without thinking about it lol. I also bring like a half gallon jug of water with me.

i do the notebook too. i like it, i can track everything and put in detailed notes if i want. i always bring a hand towel too. put it down on the benches so that my sweaty head doesn't leave it nasty when i'm done. i hate when people don't wipe done a machine or bench, that's probably my biggest pet peeve.

yeah, thats pretty gross... a nasty pool of sweat.

I wouldn't look at you funny because writing stuff down is what I do at the gym, too. Just make sure you're not hogging the machine as you sit and write...maybe that would be what the funny looks are about? :)

I hate that too, it's so nasty. I've put my hand in a puddle of hidden sweat twice this week. :|

I track my progress in a notebook too. Without some documentation it can be hard to mold your work-out for maximum effectiveness. Its also nice to look back and see how far you've come. I carry a half gallon jug too. Gotta stay hydrated! I primarily super-set so I suppose people not cognizant of the idea might consider it unusual. My one real pet peeve is people just hanging out sitting on equipment. Yeah, I can ask you to move but I shouldn't have to. If you aren't using the machine or bench, move on. There's also unsolicited advice and conversation. I'm in the gym to work-out, not socialize.

I forgot my towel last week; I was so embarrassed that I left sweaty handprints on the machine :(
There are several things that bother me at the gym, namely when people who go together and share side by side machines and gab more than they exercise...when there are other people waiting for the machine. Gah! Whatever happened to common courtesy?
I also hate it when people go just to pick up or ogle other people. I usually wear a tshirt and track pants when I'm there, I'm not trying to look sexy or be stared at constantly. The gym is for physical fitness, it's not a meat market!
Ok, that was my rant :)

The only other thing that bothers me besides the sweat is when someone asks me if they can, "Get in real quick?" when I'm in the middle of doing my reps.

Bringing and using a towel is a must. My biggest pet peeve in the gym though is people who don't rerack their weights. It drives me insane. I hate standing around waiting to see if somebody is going to come back to the bench or not, I also hate wasting my time, changing out plates. Leave the machine or bench empty when you are finished with it. That is common courtesy. This practice runs rampant at my current gym and it really frustrates me.

I did the notebook thing for awhile when i was learning what to do when. Else I'd get home and realize i missed a muscle group or something like that.

Anyone who doesnt wipe sweat should be whipped naked with a sweaty towel.

I went to a gym in hollywood... man this one guy answered his cellphone 20x thinking he was the shit or something. i mean c'mon, stfu already!

I've stopped going to a gym due to a number of reasons, but I'd have to say one of them was a large number of guys, always guys, who seemed to spend hours on end in the damn place, just walking around, staring at everyone, and flexing their muscles. They'd take up a machine, do some excercises to get sweaty, and then just leave their crap, so that no one else could use it, and walk around the place for twenty minutes. Another thing was waight lifting against the mirror - seemed very shallow and daft, but maybe there's a trick in that. Finally, I couldn't stand the cock showroom, A.K.A. the locker room. I just don't see the appeal in walking around with my schlong right there for everyone to see. I think I'm not a prude by any means, but these things just ruined it for me. I got a swimming pool card, we'll see how that goes. I have some bad memories from my early years.

But then again, maybe when they say "Get in real quick" they aren't talking about the machines pinkie :)

I agree you with you on that though. If I'm doing three sets of 8 reps, and I'm between sets 2 and 3, someone can wait the extra two or three minutes until I'm done. If they're in that much of a rush to get out of the gym, why are they there in the first place? They're going to get a crappy workout that wont help them anyway.

By the way, your new avatar is the coolest yet, by far. Just thought I'd add that.

Peace,

Pierre

working out staring at yourself in the mirror is to make sure you are doing it correctly! I hate doing squats and cleans without a mirror its a lot harder to tell if im doing the correct posture going down low enough etc...and its fun to look at your muscles!

In addition to racking the weights after use, I also take the pin out of the weight stack machines when I'm done and lay it on the stack. Also when I'm done with a handle or grip (on the cable machines) I unhook it and put it in a crate with the rest. These are habits I learned by watching others at my gym.

I've done some weird exercises at the gym, just for kicks. The gym can get damn boring otherwise.

The weirdest thing I ever saw at the gym was a guy with a cloth sheet in each hand, waving them like a semaphore but super-fast. This was for about five minutes straight. It must have been an extremely aerobic routine, because he was ripped.

My I hate the "talkers", I go to the gym to lift, not to talk about how my day was, and if Sussie Q asked my friend to the barnyard dance or some crap like that. If they want to talk they could at least do it in the locker room where they have a shot at meating their type of guy anywaay.

Frat boys. 'Nuff said.

my pet hate is people using the weights and not returning them. Also it should be a rule that towels be used. I have the workout the gym instructor worked out for me ,i use that to keep track of my progress (get re-assessed every 4 months) And people coming and talking and going, meeting for coffee would be a cheaper way to catch up.

I hate people that talk on the phone while they are at the gym... i dunno why... i just cant stand it... Also i appoligize to the girls in advance... i hate the girls that come into the gym all dressed up in "work out clothes" and walk on the tredmill for 5 minutes then do like 20 sit ups and maybe pretend to do weights... i just dont get it...

Phones and not putting the dumbells back, especially not back in the right spot. Lifetime Fitness is terrible about this....they don't have anyone watching the weight room and keeping things in order.

Phone and people who take off their shirts in the gym. The latter isn't a problem in the school's gym since there are policies against it, but it is at my apartment's little gym.

It doesn't bother me if people are talking a lot, as long as they get off the machines. Hell, when my good friend from home and I go lifting it takes twice as long as normal, because we talk a lot. But we stand off to the side when we do it, freeing up any machines we were using. A lot of people at school use the gym as a good place to chat with people.

Oh yeah, and people who flex constantly in the mirror.

I don't think I have any peeves that haven't been mentioned before, at least not any that directly affect my gym experience. Stuff like the girls who use the elliptical trainer for 10 minutes at the lowest setting and then leave, or the guys who show up with half a bottle of gel in their hair, do a few curls and then spend the rest of the day walking around the gym posing for the girls doesn't really bug me anymore. It's your membership fees, waste 'em however you want.
Oh yeah, when I was using the gym at school last year, the sauna was broken for the entire semester, I asked about it almost every week, and they always told me that someone was coming in next week.

I dislike excessive grunting and groaning... Usually made by some guy looking for attention (i.e. Look! I'm lifting something really heavy, aren't I cool?)

People who don't wipe up their sweat.
People who don't rerack their weights.
People in the change room who walk around naked mocking others...

That is extrememly annoying! It's worse when you are in the middle of a set and the person comes up and wants to hover over you so that you see them and know that they want to cut in. Give me some space to breath people and when I'm done with the set I'll gladly let you in! Sheeeesh.../*pet peeve rant end*/

:D

Heehee... ;)
I know, and that was the exact scenario too. Impatient people in general just get on my cute little nerves... :rolleyes: :p

Oh, and thank you!!! :icare:

I always wipe the machines down prior to and after working out. I've seen several people not wipe their machines down after using them. That to me is just wrong after sweating over the entire machine...just wipe it down please!!! ok all done ranting.

My biggest thing in the gym is sharing the equipment. I know everyone likes to be in their own little world and not talk to anyone in the gym, but I think there's alot of benefit to sharing and switching in with someone. I can't even count the number of times that I've gotten a new idea or technique from chatting with a person while working in with them.

This is even more important if you're in a busy or crowded gym, since we all get done sooner by sharing equipment.

I hate the equipment 'Squatters' (pardon the pun) as well for this reason -when they do 5 sets and sit on the machine in between, monopolizing it for 20 minutes while 5 people pace around giving dirty looks.

Sweat on the machines I don't care too much about... I'm gonna take a shower after anyway.. I just don't put my fingers in my mouth until then. I do bring a towel to wipe my own sweat though ;)

Man starting to realize how good we have it at my little university gym..

no one flexes in the mirrors (small university and ppl would get looked at very oddly if they did it)
clipboards and blank routine worksheet for ppl to track thier progress and workouts.
and lastly and most importantly squirtbottles with a weak vineger soloution and a rag for spraying down machines after you are done with it.

the only bad thing is it's size.. you have to pretty much go in off hours if you don't want to deal with a crowd :(

My peeves in no particular order:
*Gym out of shaving cream & razors-Broken equipments (weights, blow dryers, irons, etc...)
*Clean towels looking not so clean.
*Muscle heads walking around like they own the place.
*Trainers who think they know everything and don't even look like they ever lifted an ounce of weight in their live.
*Folks doing stretching/crunches in the middle of the floor forcing u to walk around them.

Almost forgot---Women's Only Gym :(

My biggest pet peeve is when big ass jocks decide to flex in the mirror between their sets, its pathetic (we know you have muscle you don't need to convince yourself that your HUGE). Also, I used to used a piece of paper which had my workout on it and I would fill in how many reps, sets, and weight I did. I also hated when people did not wipe off their sweat on the machines that I actually used. I'm old fashioned I like free weights.

Not using a towel is the absolute worst - nothing worse than going on a machine after someone left it sweaty. Notebooks are great, particularly if you really want to make sure you're progressing. I stopped using one for a while, but went back to it - couldn't remember the number of sets and weights I used in previous workouts.

i remember another thing... i hate asshole staff members.

I though of another pet peeve:
 

When someone gets off the machine or equiptment, and you get on, and as you're in the middle of your reps they look at you and say, "I was on that."

Like, how was I to know, homey? You got off of it!!! :rolleyes:

ARGH

So, I walk into my gym this happy Monday night (Mondays are always the most crowded anyway, since everybody at college wants to work off their weekend naughties). I pick the student weights instead of the sports weightroom because it is usually not as croweded with cockbites (go figure). So anyway, all the dumbell benches are full, I notice one girl simply resting the weights she is using for standing exercises ON A BENCH, and another dude using 4 FCKING SETS of dumbells at a time, 3 sets resting on his bench, 1 set on the floor. Goddamn! I would allow 2 sets of dumbells in case you wanted to do supersets, but how the fuck do you use 8 DUMBELLS at ONE time??

So.......... I said fuck that, hustled over to the 'real' weights. I was immediately greeted by an empty rack of dumbells and another full set of already filled free weight benches. Holy fuck. Ready to go apeshit, I turned around to get a drink of water, and fortunately, found a friend on a barbell bench. I worked in with him, and by the time I got a few lifts done there, a few dumbells were left so I can almost do a few lifts. Only glitch the rest of the night was a couple fuckheads stopping right in front of me and gliding around, whether to look at their arms in the mirror, or whatever.. Fuck. When I'm in the weightroom, I'm on a mission. However, I'm gonna be courteous to people who need machines/weights that I'm using..

Oh, one last glitch, while I was doing dumbell laterals some guy tried to soder the iron to his face. Don't ask. I had scrunch in or else he woulda been a goner.. Good thing I was watching him coming up on me in the mirror.

Amen buddy. Although, the little skinny guys that pop off a quick flex in the mirror when they think nobody's lookin can be a good laugh :lol:

I like my gym and a few things that get in my way are people who break weights. Every time I see the dumbells, ours go up to 120, there is a jump at the end starting at 95 to 120. We have 1 100 and no 110's. Thats a big jump from 95 because the people who do bench, when they finish the last rep, they don't put down the weight, they force it down and you see them bounce. Even the 40's and 30's can feel like they are going to break. Its been that way for about 5 months and no new weights.
I know I have heard the others talk about the sweaty guy with no towel, it hasn't bothered me to bad except recently, a short, chubby, hairy guy in a tiny tank top(I know bad mental picture.) was on a machine I wanted so he just finished a set and looked at me and said, "You want to work in" I said, "are you going to wipe the machine off because its full of sweat and hair." He said no and I left and said show some resepect.
And the final thing about the gym is the old naked guys in the locker room. Why do they have to sit on the benches naked. To me thats about as nasty as a sweaty machine or because you don't know if the guy has herpies or rabies or something nasty. Put some clothes on man.

Yeah I definitely agree with alot of you, I experience most of these problems at our university gym, which is WAY undersized. You have to go before 11:00 am or after 10:00pm when it's not packed to the brim. When I go, I talk to my friends if I see them, I don't see why I would be silent or all serious in the weight room. I want to have fun when I'm lifting weights, not take myself so seriously that I am not enjoying the experience and it becomes a chore. Granted, I don't waste time having 10 minute conversations while I'm occupying the workout space.

I don't think trainers have to look big in order to be taken seriously. There are two staff members at our gym who work with NFL strength and conditioning coaches and players during the season, but they are the smallest guys there. They know their shit better than anyone I've ever met at the gym.

I hate the dirty "clean" towels too, you'd think they'd use stronger bleach on them or buy new rags every other week. I don't know about the mirror stuff though. I can understand if someone is just being a dumbass and flexing in the mirror, but when you can see yourself lifting it motivates really well (especially for biceps).

I'm torn every day as to the right thing to do when it comes to resting in between sets. I don't want to leave, or else someone might jump in and look at you like your an asshole when you say "I just need 1/2/3 more sets on that." But then again, somedays I take a little longer in between sets and I don't want to look like a squatter. So I usually just stand around the machine/bench and walk around it a bit, but then I'm running the risk of looking like someone who is just staring at the hot chicks and wasting time...you see my dilemma?

I'm always really courteous if someone wants to work in with me because I understand that there aren't enough machines/benches/seats, but some guys are real assholes (usually the big meatheads or frat guys).

As for the naked man parade, well I just stay the hell out of the locker room, unless I'm weighing myself and even then it's In-Out.

I do use this to get into a machine when, as was noted above, someone is taking their sweet ass time about things and you want to move them along. :thumbsup: "Mind if I work in?"

I love the fact that I've never been to a gym to workout once in my life. I'm so very proud of that. I get exercise in other ways. For example, in the winter I cross country ski. I don't have to share my equipment, I don't have to stand around watching other people, I don't have to worry about sitting in a pool of their sweat, I don't have to worry about people on cell phones, or people with bigger penises than me walking around in the shower.
And I get a great workout. I realize that you can only x-country ski in the winter and it's not the same thing as 'pumping iron' which I think is ridiculous anyway, but it's great...

I work in a health club as a personal trainer, so I hate all of you disgusting members. The people who don't wipe up sweat, who spit in the water fountain, who blow their nose in their club towels (someone has to load that towel in a washer later), who take off their shoes to stretch, who take off their shirts as they head for the locker room, who leave weights around, who complain about the music, who complain when a class is cancelled, who complain when they are late to a class that is full but they want to squeeze in, who are too lazy to pay their bills, who touch the mirrors and leave sweatprints everywhere, who want to use our office phones, who don't understand that our shitty management is too lazy to fix the broken machines or buy more towels, who steal said towels, who steal dumbells straps and ankle weights, who steal medicine balls, who steal newspapers and magazines, who break the magazine holders at the cardio machines, who complain about the temperature, who leave benches weights and dumbells in disarray, and members shit in the one person bathroom with little ventilation on the workout floor. Man, it stinks for ten minutes.
As far as being a good member, please be considerate to other members and please understand that we may not be able to help you with everything or jump to your need immediately. Thank you.