Strange going's at the Gym wwyd.

[Voyager54]

I have recently started at a local gym with special lifting/exercising equipment for people with mobility issues.

Over the past few weeks very elderly women have made the following comments to me.

"Oh" to a collection of elderly women present in the gym, " you are a new boy". Me late 60's. Later on at the same visit the same lady states " you can not use the machines in that order". I advised he in a joking way that I could use the machines in order that I liked, it does not make any difference.

We are provided with cloths and spray for the machines.The next encounter another elderly lady advised me that I should not clean the machines down after use, expressed in a very strict manner!

Then as the air con wasn't working I opened a window to let some air in. As I left I shut the window. An elderly female snapped "why are you shutting the window". I then had to explain why I had opened it and why I was closing it.

I am aware that this sounds so trivial but I am beginning to wonder it I should have joined at all. What is wrong with these people?

Are you sure you've joined a gym and not the masons?
(That's all I've got - maybe just nod, smile and carry on doing your own thing?)

Ah, commiserations, you’ve found yourself a bunch of self appointed caretakers.

the options are to move gym, ignore them completely (and learn to take pleasure in pissing them off) or speak to the staff to see if there’s anyway they would supervise in the gym and put a stop to unwanted tutorage.

I would ignore them if possible. It sounds like you know what you’re doing and they don’t because of course you can use the machines in any order and should be wiping sweat/grime off afterwards.

Perhaps they have a particular way of doing things and they are flustered that you are new and not following their “rules”. But they are not the gym police.

Maybe you could try going at different times of day and see when there are fewer busybodies about

What does their age have to do with any of this?

It does sound trivial, but your post is also very ageist.

Fake jolly is the way to tackle this,

'Haha Mary you are completely wrong but I love your confidence!'

headphones in and then ignore ?

Why does their and your ages matter?

" you are a new boy" Are you a man attending a women's only session?

Perhaps these women with mobility issues have been advised/trained by a physiotherapist to use the equipment in a particular order and so they can transition smoothly from piece to piece. Why not check with gym management what is the accepted protocol?

Get over the window situation, the person involved probably did not know you had opened it. However, surely the gym management should be responsible for opening and closing windows to ensure comfort for all gym members.

Oh goody, another ageist thread with some misogyny thrown in.

Not to mention really weird anyway.

If this is really happening I suggest you ignore them in the same way I would ignore the over muscly, pigeon chested, weight lifting men of any age that I usually see at the gym. Admittedly I haven't been to the gym for years.

Put your earphones in and get on with it

The pensioners are like the mafia in every gym just ignore them 🤣

If you are in doubt about something - like cleaning the kit - then ask at reception otherwise just don't reply to them and ignore. If they really permit then consider changing to another gym.

This not ageist, it just so happens that the age group that have made these strange comments are in the same age group. It reminds me very much about the age group of teachers when I was in primary school! Although they they were younger by 10/15 years but displayed the same characteristics of incredible comment unwarranted

I vary the time that I attend the Gym. To add further insult to injury a lady who is about 95 years old believe it or not, who I have known for about a couple of year s playing bowls insists on calling me by my wrong first name, despite me correcting her numerous times. This is "One foot in the grave stuff

All I will say is unless you have experienced these strange incidents it would be difficult to imagine!

Also I did not ask anyone to comment on gym attendance, I did not comment on their attendance!

Headphones. Big, obnoxious, can’t-miss-them headphones. The kind of headphones that make it abundantly clear you’re not going be engaging with anyone.

I'm nowhere near 95 and forget peoples names.

The no spray afterwards could simply be to save the room constantly sprayed especially if the aircon isn't working and a lot of people spray before using the equipment.

Regardless of age or their sex gyms do attract dominating people.

Just thank them politely and get on with your gym time. Rinse, repeat as required. Eventually they will get bored or even forget about you or just tut.

Of course it's ageist! There was no need to describe the women as elderly - their behaviour was what you were talking about, not the age that they happened to be.

Would you have described them as black, or Jewish, or disabled, or gay? No.

Focus on the behaviour (which didn't sound great) and leave the ageism out of it.