Annoying Gym Behaviour - Mk2(?)

Not annoying behaviour per se but joined a new gym recently. Having been at my old one for over 8 years, I was always going to notice anything different with the new gym. Two things kind of bug me:

1. They have 4 racks in that 2x2 formation. So if you're squatting, you're staring straight at the person in the rack right in front of you (insert here that meme of the monkey/puppet thing side-eye awkwardly looking away). No big deal but I'm just so used to having a mirror in front of me I find it so weird squatting without being able to look at my reflection to check form, see how much depth I'm getting, ensuring the bar is level across the back etc. It's a strange experience having to work off other cues to know if I've gone down far enough and/or if my form looks ok. I'm half tempted to email them to ask if there's any chance they'd install a mirror in front of each rack but I'd very much doubt it would go anywhere. Anyone else at a gym where there are no mirrors in front of racks and what you do to ensure form seems ok?
2. With those 4 racks, they obviously each have one barbell but mounted on the side of the rack is a connection/attachment point where one can stick in a barbell to do landmine rows. It's a bit redundant if all four racks are being used as there's no spare barbell to use on the connection device. Or alternatively, if someone has a barbell in the connection doing rows then it means one rack is a bit useless without a barbell so it's basically out of use until the barbell is freed up. Again, half tempted to ask if they'd get a spare barbell to solve this issue.

That rack setup sounds awkward af.

But as for the mirrors, they're actually a hinderance when it comes to learning technique - hence why you won't find them in the racks for weightlifting or powerlifting gyms. Best to just video yourself and compare that to a technical model. You won't need a mirror after a while. If anything, they throw me off now.

You don't really want to rely on a mirror to hit depth of have good form. It should be based a pre-learned movement pattern, and proprioception rather than reactively adjust to to a reflection. Those kind of racks are pretty much the preference for weightlifting or powerlifting gyms.

The no additional barbell thing is weird though. What about bench press, rows, deadlifts. Landmine attachment aside, I'd expect a gym with 4 racks to have ~8 barbells.

That rack setup is pretty standard. Double half rack, or double rig. Most high end gyms I've seen utilise some version of it. Either that or wall mounted half racks. There are more elaborate single sided set ups, but they are less efficient.

You can squat facing out. You just have to move the J-Hooks to the inside and stand inside the rack. This is where you stand if using bands, safety straps etc. In a true double half rack, two people can stand inside. But I think the double side rig is more common in chain gyms.

The worst one I can think of, and this happens a lot, is dumbass cúnts stripping weight off a racked barbell from one end, causing the bar to flip over violently towards the other end. This will kill someone eventually. In my gym, I've witnessed this happening about 4 or 5 times in the last 6 months. The worst one was some girl noob taking about 70KG off one side, bar flips with huge force. Luckily nobody was walking past in the bar's path.

This is the thing that annoys me the most. When I suggested to staff that they try to do something to prevent it, like perhaps putting up visual-only signs (like a stickman stripping weight off one side in one picture, then the bar flipping over in the next picture...cartoon style), their manager supposedly said "no, because no other gyms have these signs". Facepalm.

Just tell your man to move it as your using the rower. That's what I would do. Same for the user sitting looking at her mobile. Just tell her you want to use the machine.

It’s what I ‘ could ‘ do indeed. But it’s still annoying behaviour. I don’t go there to negotiate with or talk to anyone…Usually one other rower is free but apart from inconveniencing me, they shouldn’t be inconveniencing anyone…..

Not quite annoying behaviour from others, but moreso the Gym owners etc.

Drive me nuts when a Treadmill or Cross Trainer has an awful squeaking or slamming/bumping noise off it and they never bother to fix it.

Happens the odd time where I'd be 500m or 750m into a planned 2km run on a treadmill and I hear the banging through my headphones and it completely makes me self-conscious etc!

At what point do they say 'ya we better get that fixed'...

Yeh, now admittedly I said it in a 'jokey' kind of way to one of the guys I get on with there, with a 'jaysis that first treadmill does serious thumpung' when running on it. Whole place could hear' ... not sure if anything further was done with what I said though!

I used to know a lad, a hurler from down the country, that mixed his protein shake with a can of Amstel lager instead of water.

I mean, Amstel is vile on its own....

Y’know what could’ve been a good idea? Growing a pair and asking if you could use it.

Irritating me big time lately. Mostly very young people around 18.

I agree you should ask to work in but some people won’t let you.

Also if you are in a public gym you should have the awareness that other people might want to use the machine and not be taking the piss with 5 minute rest periods scrolling.

There’s no way I’d be sitting on a machine that long even if it was empty. You’re there to work out.

There's a few people in my gym who regularly refuse to allow people to work in.

This tends to happen on the dual cable machine. These guys are masters of taking four or five minute breaks between sets to gawp at their phones and wander off from the machine only to rush back and stop others from using it (if there's nobody at a piece of equipment it's a fair call to assume it's available for use).

Most people are happy to let others work in but this small number of people are just disgusted by the idea.

One guy will take a bench from the free weights area (which is typically packed and in doing so he's clogging up two pieces of equipment) and drag it over to the machine and spend 45 minutes at a time on it, a good 30 minutes of that is looking at their phone and telling anyone that approaches that they won't be finished for ages and that it's too awkward for them to work in.

The staff are useless for dealing with these type of issues so some of us have said things to him ourselves but the compulsion for some people to treat the gym as a personal space instead of a shared one is something that's crept in over the last few years.

There's no instruction to younger members on basic etiquette or seemingly basic use of equipment (one teenage lad broke his ankle lifting an overloaded trap bar a year or so ago).

Over all the basic experience of using the gym has gotten worse in recent times, a number of gyms closed in the general area leading to the remaining gyms being over crowded, great for the operators revenue but a nett loss for long term members jostling for space on the gym floor with gormless phone addicted young adults who generally either don't know any better or just don't care one way or another.

So while we all can say working in is the accepted solution in these situations, there's cohort of people who don't really understand the concept and aren't willing to accept they don't have sole ownership of equipment.

Jesus.. I'd tell them exactly where to go, but I appreciate that's not something everyone is willing to do.

Your only options in that scenario is sub in a different exercise, or go to a gym with better culture where that malarkey isn't tolerated.

Most people will let you work in but some won’t.

I will say it to people if they are at it every day and it’s stopping me doing what I want to do but I did have one occasion where a bouncer from a nearby club lost the head to the point where it was looking like it was going to end up being a fight.

He regularly super settled on 3 things at a time and no one was allowed near any of them until he was finished.

Similar to the other person’s experience he could be ages getting back to the first machine that you’d nearly have your 4 sets done by the time he got back.

3-5 minutes can be appropriate for heavy multi-joint exercises like squats, deadlifts etc. Usually more so for people who are quite strong.

For something single joint and lighter like leg extensions, curls etc. it's rarely necessary to rest that long.

It's probably more to do with people's addiction to their phones.

One thing popped into my head and I've never been 100% sure if i was in the right or not.

Gym had two standalone benches; one comp style and another cheaper commercial style (no safeties, rigid pin slots). Both were free so i started on the comp style one. Two lads training together started working on the other bench but came over to ask if we could swap. I said no. My reason being that I was by myself and wanted the safeties and as they were together, they could spot each other. They seemed annoyed but didn't make a scene.

Was my reason justified?

Using my local gym as an example. One bench declines and the other doesn’t. I’d swap in that situation if I was doing flat but someone wanted to use the one with decline option.

it’s a working gym, unless they can read minds, they won’t be aware as to who is waiting for what. 🙂 . People don’t Q for machines in my experience they’ll do something else while waiting.

example …. I could stop using the leg curl machine, ‘see’ nobody actively waiting for it, say “ grand, “ pull out the phone and be messaging and looking at social media, (which is explicitly against gym policy and signposted) …I don’t… if I want to catch up on that stuff, as I always do, I do it sat on a chair in the waiting area, getting my breath, having a drink after my workout, then I’m grand to start home… I don’t worry about ‘ who ‘ is waiting for it just that someone could be so respecting their time and contributing positively to the general etiquette of the place… im freeing up equipment and sanitising it right when I’m finished….

btw I’ve no issues with a person taking a break mid use… but finishing using something then resting on the equipment for 7-8 minutes before fecking off or in fact even less is just bell end behaviour…

Sitting on a machine after you've finishes using it is pretty rude and inconsiderate. But I'd also suggest it's pretty rare. I also reckon asking to work in would never be refused.

Most of the time people are complaining about people using phones in the gym. They are referring to people using there phones while they are still using the equipment, ie between sets. Obvious if people are taking excessive rests it's frustrating. But people using their phone during a normal between set rest is perfectly reasonable and affects nobody.

I think that a lot of people are cn#ts, and some people are just bigger cn#ts than others, and just don't care as long as they're okay,

Leave weights on the bar not my problem, want to use a machine later, sure I'll just leave my stuff on it till i need it

I'm old school and always use manners and respect others, but i think,especially younger people think that manners is a sign of weakness .

Today 2 things with under 20s happened to me in the gym

Going to walk down the stairs,stood back to leave a young lad come up the stairs, walked by me, not a thanks or a nod,

Coming out of the changing room young lad let's the door swing back into me,

No respect these days, when i was younger 😒

Having good experiences the last few weeks with people letting me work in and vice versa. All older people 30-50 age group.

I have noticed people doing circuits taking 3 sets of dumbbells out of action which is annoying.

I’ve also noticed the leaving water bottle trick to keep ownership of a machine but walking off for 5/10 mins and using other equipment. I just start using it. **** them.