Annoying Gym Behaviour - Mk2(?)

mindhorn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122315943#Comment_122315943

Bored this morning so said I'd take a look at some of the Flyefit Jervis Street Google reviews. Turns out I'm not the only one bothered by this.

Black Sheep

Should be told to wear socks or deadlift slippers or whatever, at a minimum... Save the bare feet for your home gym for sure..

Stephen_Maturin

Would have been a regular gym goer about 10 years ago - college, party lifestyle, giving up playing rugby and more latterly work and a house have kept me away, but happy to say I’ve been back to it for 8 months now and really enjoying getting back into the swing of it all

I go to a gym with a lot of younger 18-22 people and one thing I’ve noticed that I would hardly ever have seen is people going up to the mirrors and tensing their muscles having a good look at themselves like they’re on the stage in Mr Olympia haha

Is this something new??

Seems to be very unirish behaviour - if I did that 10 years ago when I was that age my friends would’ve slagged me mercilessly

Black Sheep

Probably yes, they're less inhibited than we were.

I think they feel freer to acknowledge aesthetics as a motivation to train, they're more open about it.

Some guys grumble that it seems vain, but I think it's odd to disavow that fact that almost all of us train to look good, as well as - or on top of - other goals. It's no harm.

Being jacked (muscle mass) is also a really good indicator of metabolic health anyway.

Slideways

I was back in Ireland recently and found a gym local that allowed me a 2 week casual membership.

Was a big spot with some great gear but was sadly let down by nobody using a towel on their equipment. In my local gym you’d get pulled up on that almost certainly the first time you did it.

Stephen_Maturin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122606501#Comment_122606501

Yeah I getcha

I wouldn’t begrudge anyone a quick little check of themselves, as you say, most of us are here to look better

But this was pure vanity, up there in front of the mirrors for a few minutes like…is this meant be for our benefit or what? There was nothing incredibly impressive on display in any case. Why not just do it when they’re at home?

Just seemed pretty crass, I was embarrassed for them tbh

niallm77

People leaving dumb bells around where you place your feet at a station

Drives me mad

TheChizler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122606545#Comment_122606545

I've never seen anyone with a towel in mine, and I'm the only one who seems to wipe down things with blue roll.

Strumms

Not annoying per say but was peculiar and utterly baffling, ok annoying because of the distraction factor…Earlier a fella on a treadmill on the row in front of me and about 4 over… he was doing intervals from jogging to sprints and then he gets off the treadmill, leaves it on and running at quite a lick and goes for a walk around the area before he jumps on again, one break he’s lying on the floor doing stretches on the ground in the pathway , about 3 minutes later, he’s jumping back on the treadmill , this happened about 3 times…. Treadmill left running at speed each time….

He has the look of a real I dunno, eccentric sort, Freddie Mercury lookalike…handlebar moustache , hair cut short and barely there shorts and this odd behaviour…a very intense stare and demeanour…

Quiet Achiever

Sounds like an awful experience. Why not go run in a park man

2nd Row Donkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122607367#Comment_122607367

If he hums along to the tune "I want to ride my bicycle" while cycling and also stares intensely at fat bottomed girls, I might have a few more questions for you.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122606545#Comment_122606545

Different gyms have different rules. Insisting on a towel is more typical of a health club, hotel type gym. Due the clientele.

In a more higher performance, weightlifting gym gym is less likely to be a concern, so less likely to be enforced.
Wouldn't bother me personally. Different strokes.

Quiet Achiever

It's a rule in my gym though rarely followed.

There are lots of disinfectant wipes around since covid though, and i really appreciate these when you are taking a bench after someone and it's dripping in sweat.

Especially going home to a little baba afterward

Cill94

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122608354#Comment_122608354

Yeah the towel things seems like a remnant of the luxury fitness era of Ireland from the 90s, where most people only encountered gyms through hotels and spas that wanted to posh everything up. Plus most of these places were already providing towels for the swimming pools they had anyway.

Honestly for resistance training, you shouldn't really be sweating so profusely that you'd need a towel. Particularly in this climate.

2nd Row Donkey

Jayzus I dunno what gyms you guys are going to but there's 3 that visit, 1 regularly and 2 occasionally and they all insist on users carrying a towel at all times and for everyone to disinfect machines after use with spray and paper towels.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122609081#Comment_122609081

Are any a particular chain or health club type? It’s common in the poshed up types places. But it’d be surprised if it made any actual difference.

If some body has sweated all over a bike seat, obviously they should wipe it down. Just to clean up.
But a rule about towels on the seat back, is mostly about optics. There little point giving a seat a quick wipe to then grab the same weights, plates, handles as everyone. The change room/bathroom door, handrails and a dozen things you grab everyday are likely much dirtier.

BlazingSaddler

West Wood insist on a towel and rightly so, even then the amount of people who don’t wipe their sweat off the equipment is worryingly high

bmc58

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/97468437#Comment_97468437

Fancies himself it seems.Give him a little towel whip as you're passing (accidently ,of course).That would turn him the right way up pretty fast.

Brian?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122608354#Comment_122608354

I agree. I don’t get the focus on it.

bren2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122608767#Comment_122608767

I sweat before I even lift a weight even in the depths of winter (my gym has no heating). If I didn’t bring a towel, I’d be leaving a saturated bench every time.

Doesn’t bother me if people do/don’t use a towel. I prefer a bench not to be covered in someone else’s sweat before I use it, if it is it’s just a quick wipe.

Slideways

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122608354#Comment_122608354

This gym clearly stated “No towel, no workout” as does every gym in one way or another where I live.

It’s not a big inconvenience to throw a towel on a bench etc before you use it. I even have one with a pocket section sewn in one end so you can hang it on a bench to stop it sliding off.

Mark Hamill

A few weeks ago I'm go to my gym looking to start with bench press. There is only one and someone is on it, not unusual, so I go an do start some on some other machine work until it's free. I'm halfway through my sets on the first machine I'm using and the person on the bench press finishes and another guy immediately gets on it. Fine I think, another 5-10 minutes and I will get on it after them.

An hour.

They were on it a full hour.

But not an hour straight, oh no. They did a set on the machine and then took a break. Nearly 5 minute long break. Note, this person was not in anyway a power-lifting and was not benching heavy (the weight wasn't heavy and they weren't struggling to finish their sets of ~8 reps or more). They then went back and did an other set. Then, during that break they took this ball-on-a-string-on-a-headband thing, put it on their head and started doing boxing jabbing and head movement drills with it (not very competently either, mind). After nearly 5 minutes, they went back and did another set on the bench press, then during their next break they wandered off to the other side of the gym and used one of the cable machines for a while. They continued like this for an hour - a set on the bench press followed by either using band or equipment from their bag, or going to a machine, or even just sitting in the corner on their phone. Note, they left their equipment and towel on the bench press the whole time and there is only one bench press in the gym (there are some free benches and two squat racks, so they can be set up for bench press, and I ended up doing that, but it's way more tedious).

Someone must have complained, because there are now signs on every wall telling people to only use a machine for 20 minutes.

He was there last week and did something similar but on the free benches - I was just finishing a set of incline bench press and he got the (only pair of) 22.5kgs dumbbells before I could get them for my next set. He then put them at the back end of the bench from where he was working on and then continued doing other work with other equipment, taking 3-4 minute long breaks, for over 15 minutes, before he actually came back and used them (I ended taking them while he had wandered off and doing my full set and putting them back before he noticed they were even gone).

mindhorn

The headband thing sounds hilarious. I can imagine Dr. Mike ripping the piss out of something like that.

Doesn't sound like you asked him to share the bench, even though he shouldn't be hogging it for an hour. There's no way I'm not asking him to allow me to jump in.

Mark Hamill

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611553#Comment_122611553

The headband thing was one of these: https://www.decathlon.ie/p/333587-143117-boxing-reflex-ball-kit-with-2-balls.html. I'm sure it's probably good for competent boxers working drills, but, eh, lets just say he seemed very new to it.

I kept thinking "surely he will be finished now" every time he came back to finish to a set and so kept holding back from saying something.

Quiet Achiever

In his defence, isn't it wonderful to be so unselfconscious! Bopping around to one of those yokes.

callaway92

Tiny moan for me (hotel gym)

People who bring their gear bag into the gym rather than using a locker. I can only assume they had a bad experience before with the lockers perhaps but they’d often stuff their bag between a machine etc.

Maybe a complaint for the sake of it but it just annoys me why they can’t do the normal thing of using the locker rooms.

Others (often of a certain minority) doing phone calls inside the gym floor shouting and roaring on it.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122610953#Comment_122610953

I've no issues with gyms having that rule. There house, their rules. But it they need to enforce it or it's a bit pointless.
But I was just pointing out that the actual reason presenting a gym that way is about optics (which a valid marketing strategy)

fatbhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122611379#Comment_122611379

Regarding him: 🙄

Regarding you: 🙄

Mark Hamill

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122612104#Comment_122612104

??

fatbhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122614672#Comment_122614672

I mean, you should have opened your mouth and persuaded him to share the bench, and he was a dick doing circuits in the gym commandeering various bits of equipment. So both of you were at fault, to some degree.

Cill94

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122609967#Comment_122609967

I don’t disagree

Black Sheep

If a bench is visibly wet, yeah, I'll definitely spray and wipe it down.

If someone is sweating heavily, I've never found that them having a towel makes a difference. A bench or seat is still going to end up damp enough to make me want to wipe it down.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122620834#Comment_122620834

Then they are carrying their sweaty towel and laying it on all the other machines they uses. Super hygienic

Brian?

yeah, I don’t get the magic ability of a towel to sterilise equipment.

It’s a sweat soaked piece of clothes.

Strumms

young wan this evening , walking on the treadmill with the phone actually held up to her ear yapping… I’ve complained about people waiting on equipment minutes after using it and on their phones…blocking others from using the equipment….but now working out and talking…

Not the biggest deal maybe but the culture amongst the 18-25 year olds now there is an absolute inability to NOT be using the phone…..🥱always this approximate age demographic….it’s got that bad this wan is walking on a treadmill making or taking calls, not on a break. Can’t be much comfort in that…Bluetooth earphones / headphones I’d be not too fussed over even if there is a…. ‘ no phone use, music only ‘ policy that’s posted ‘everywhere’…but…. Why or what is that generation’s obsession with phones to the point they can’t work out for an hour… without making / receiving phone calls…. Bizarre…

el Fenomeno

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122661798#Comment_122661798

I don't see the big deal.

A woman was walking on the treadmill, and talking on the phone while doing so.

So what?

I see the problem if she's doing the same using a bench or another piece of equipment as she'd generally need to stop what she's doing to use the phone, adding delays to anyone who may be waiting to use the equipment. But I don't see the harm if she's using it while getting her walk done.

For some people, walking and talking isnt the uncomfortable or awkward experience you think it is. Quite the opposite. I would say you're in the minority there.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122661798#Comment_122661798

yeah, this sounds like your own personal issue with young people/phones than something that inconvenienced you or anyone. If it was a 10 minute call between sets. Then sure it’s holding people up. But on a treadmill there’s no impact. If they answer or not, it affects nobody.

Brian?

I didn’t think young people made phone calls anymore.

Black Sheep

A lot of people use their time doing zone 2 on treadmills to take/make calls, answer emails etc. It's not that unusual.

Strumms

Well, It’s unusual, certainly in the gym I’m a member of..basically the gym policy forbids it as I’ve explained signs everywhere….” No phone use, music only “ It’s a culture thing. Either everyone is in 100%…

As stated to us… requirements… Wiping down / sanitising equipment post use…Not making/taking calls…Using sweat towels… cleaning up if you spill something..

I took out my phone yesterday, once to change Spotify playlist, otherwise never interacted with it at all. Do what I’m asked to do, nobody on a nearby piece of equipment wants to hear me waffling on it above the din of the music and machines… it’s not so difficult…. 🤷‍♂️ dunno how you can go to the gym for an hour and be of the needy assed mind.. “ bu bu but well if someone rings, I have to / want to answer “ The caller will still be alive when you finish , to talk to you most likely… 🤦🏻‍♂️

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122662674#Comment_122662674

If those are the rules, they should be followed. But I'd consider that to be an unusual rule in general. I know of gym where it's a rule that members have to wear white (it's a jiu jitsu gym). That's the rule, it must be followed. Being the rule does not mean its not unusual.

So how does it work. You're at the gym, the Missus texts you and asks what time are you finished? You don't text back until you leave, as it's not allowed? Would the guy in the next squat rack get annoyed if you shot a quick text between sets? I find that kinda funny and weird tbh.

I get what you mean about overhearing people. But people talk in person too. Is there also a rule about talking? One of the reason I wear headphones is to drown out people in the gym. I did my whole workout today with my earbuds in and didn't even put on music. Just silence. Focused on heavy singles.

mindhorn

That's a bizarre rule to have in place. What's the name of the gym?

Musicrules

Everyone should clean equipment they've used after they're finished with it. It's not that hard.

Brian?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122664736#Comment_122664736

it’s not a big deal if they don’t either. I do, because I’m a considerate lad and I know it bothers people. But if someone else doesn’t, I move with my day nonplussed. It’s not as if a towel disinfects

Brian?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122662674#Comment_122662674

I wouldn’t join any gym that had that many rules.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122664736#Comment_122664736

If somebody leaves a sweaty puddle behind them they should, of course, wipe the bench down. But most people are not dripping in sweat when strength training, compared to say cardio.

Thinking that any surface that somebody touches in a gym is instantly toxic is a bit germophobic imo. If you think people are that dirty, best not to integrate all your touch points too much.

Cill94

Something I've noticed is people not substituting exercises when the gym is busy, and instead choosing to queue for things (particularly cable machines). I've seen a guy queue for a lat pulldown machine for about 40 minutes before. I had done about 3 exercises by the time he got on.

Outside of non-beginners waiting for a barbell, I don't think there is any piece of equipment that is worth queueing 20 minutes to use. Even then, I would personally rather sub dumbbell bench or dips for a barbell bench than be standing around, letting others dictate how long my session is going to take.

I don't know if it's that people think there is something magical about what they're waiting to use, or that they genuinely don't realise they could train the same basic movement/muscles with a free piece of equipment. Maybe someone who queues like this could provide some insight.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122665239#Comment_122665239

Pretty much the only exercise/equipment I'll wait for is the big barbells: bench, squat, deadlift. And only if I'm following specific programming. A standalone workout. I'll get DBs, or a machines etc.

I don't know if it's that people think there is something magical about what they're waiting to use, or that they genuinely don't realise they could train the same basic movement/muscles with a free piece of equipment.

It's almost certainly a case of not knowing how else to train the same movement/muscles.

Musicrules

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122665026#Comment_122665026

In the grand schemes of life it's not a big deal but it's not great to have to be cleaning after smelly bastards. Especially when they're unaware that they're smelly bastards.

Brian?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122665405#Comment_122665405

I’ll concede that point alright.