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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

One customer totally dominating everything at the gym!

79 replies

HexagonalQueenOfTheSummer · 21/05/2012 12:30

I am a member of a branch of a national chain of gyms.

There is one member who is a total exercise obsessive. She goes to classes every morning, then the gym, then runs home, then is back again in the evening for more classes. As a former fitness professional I can see she has a problem, but that's a whole other thread.

Basically she dominates all of the classes. For example there is a very strict system of booking in for classes, but she gives the receptionist a list days ahead of when the booking list is opened and they book her in for the lot in advance. So she gets into every class. Spaces are at a premium and sometimes it's very hard to get places, especially for things like Body Pump and Zumba.

Next, at every class she is in, the instructors will say things like 'Oh we were going to do X routine now but as S came this morning and did it then we'll do something else' with no thought at all about any of the other customers. I have said before 'Actually I would like to do what you were originally going to do' but it still has to suit this woman. Or in a spinning class the instructor will start playing a track and she'll say 'I hate this one' and the instructors will swap tracks, again disregarding the fact that the other 19 of us in the lesson might like it!

Lastly, in the spinning room she has 'her' bike, in the front row and woe betide anyone who sits on it! Everyone tiptoes around her and if a newcomer sits on they all start saying 'Oh that's S's bike, you can't sit there'. I've seen her really create a scene when others have sat on it and she even stormed out of a huff once as she came in once the class had started, someone else was on the bike and she didn't like it. The instructor chased her out of the room and came back and 'negotiated' with the other person that they moved bikes!!

It's really starting to piss me off and I'm thinking of speaking the club manager about it. We all pay the same amount per month btw, and it's a gym with one level of membership for all, it's not like she's got 'super gold' membership and we're all on bronze or anything like that.

OP posts:

curiositykitten · 21/05/2012 13:44

Why do people allow themselves to be walked over by bullies? Complain. Or better yet, confront her!

wannaBe · 21/05/2012 13:44

I would sit on "her" bike too. And then, when she gets used to a new bike, I would sit on that.

AnyoneforTurps · 21/05/2012 13:48

And no worries if a fight kicks off - given her sparrow like figure you can't really lose, lol.

OTOH, she's probably ripped and fit from her addiction exercise

typicalvirgo · 21/05/2012 13:49

at wannabe

i wouldn't mess with you

fuckarama · 21/05/2012 13:58

Why are you not sitting on her bike?

thebody · 21/05/2012 13:59

See I am vile and if she did this at my gym I would sit on her bike
On Purpose and stay there.

Report her as she needs help and the gym should pick this up anyway.

cocolepew · 21/05/2012 14:03

i'd complain and sit on 'her' bike every time.i'd also have told her to shut the fuck up by now but i'm common like that.

SomethingSuitablyWitty · 21/05/2012 14:28

Actually, I disagree with everyone and can't really see why you should take this on and make a big deal out of something that is just mildly annoying.

So, this woman has made the gym the absolute focus of her daily life, attending all activities obsessively. It's not really surprising in that case that the gym staff have become her substitute friends and she feels entitled to offer opinions on the music choices and routine choices and that those working there, who see an awful lot of her, fall in with some of this.

Does it really matter that she needs some kind of special recognition from the gym that she is somehow a particularly valued customer who has her reserved place in the spinning class? Is it not a bit sad that the gym has that kind of essential place in her life and self-esteem?

It sounds like she gets her places in the classes by being organised ages in advance (because it matters hugely to her and she isn't doing much else) and the other forms of "favouritism" are irritating to you, but do not actually matter. I don't think a change of routine or music changes the quality of the class.

So why not be kind, let it off and be happy that the work-out for you is part of a day and a life that hold lots of other meaningful and happy elements, while it may be the centre of hers.

2rebecca · 21/05/2012 14:28

If she pays the same as everyone else then she should be told that she doesn't own any of the bikes. If she wants her own bike she can get an exercise bike and stay at home. Can you get a few of you together? Several complaining and maybe writing a letter as well may help.
She sounds as though she has OCD problems, but the gym management shouldn't let that affect the rest of you and should be watching she doesn't exercise excessively.

Shutupanddrive · 21/05/2012 14:31

Please sit on her bike ASAP and report back!

SarahStratton · 21/05/2012 14:33

It would matter hugely to me if a routine or music was constantly changed to suit one particular client. Especially as nobody else is being consulted.

Sit on her bike. When she gets a new favourite bike, someone else in the class can bag that one.

Mayisout · 21/05/2012 14:36

I wouldn't dare sit on her bike as it will obviously result in an embarrassing stand off.
I would get in early and sabotage her bike when no one's looking

Mayisout · 21/05/2012 14:40

Mind you For example there is a very strict system of booking in for classes, but she gives the receptionist a list days ahead of when the booking list is opened and they book her in for the lot in advance. So she gets into every class.

         I thought you couldn't do this and at my classes you have to contact the club when the class list opens to get your name on. The whole point being to stop people block booking the best slots.

ENormaSnob · 21/05/2012 14:41

Get off the net and get your arse on that bike

Or spread something unsavoury under the handles.

thisisyesterday · 21/05/2012 14:42

somethingsuitablywitty i think it does matter actually. if i had paid to do a specific class and when i got there it had been changed, again, due to ONE person having a tantrum then I would be pretty pissed off.

why should everyone have all their classes determined by one customer?

Original poster

HexagonalQueenOfTheSummer · 21/05/2012 14:44

Somethingsuitably, why should the workouts be tailored to her likes and dislikes too? There has to be a limit on 'kindness' surely? Why should the rest of us not be able to do routines or tracks we like just because she vettoes them?

OP posts:

HexGirl · 21/05/2012 14:46

Good idea to speak to others who might be willing to also raise the issue. It isn't fair and the gym should be taking it seriously and not pandering to her. I still think they should also be addressing the issue of her obsessive attendance as it can't be healthy.

I too would be tempted to sit on her bike - having made sure I'd had a large curry with beer the night before and a fry up for breakfast

SomethingSuitablyWitty · 21/05/2012 14:49

Well, I've done quite a few classes at various gyms and IME there is very often someone with more or less this profile in the classes, who needs for their own self-esteem to feel like they're in some kind of inner circle with the trainers in the little world of the gym.

thisis as far as a as a routine change goes, unless you have been working on perfecting a complicated routine for a few weeks (and then the teacher won't change it on a whim) then I don't think it matters an awful lot - the same elements are in all routines. So a change to that is not going to actually change the class (you'll still be doing body attack/Zumba or whatever - the music and the sequences will be a bit different).

I have been a bit irritated by people like this in the past, but I usually think they are vulnerable (and I think the OP doesn't really doubt that about this woman) so I can't see the harm in being a bit more gentle or tolerant, especially as I don't think it really affects the service you have paid for.

misdee · 21/05/2012 14:51

Yes it matters.

Now get on her bike and refuse to move!

Methe · 21/05/2012 14:52

I love winding people like this up :)

Definitely ride her bike and don't bloody well get off even if she starts stropping.

SarahStratton · 21/05/2012 14:54

I'd actively look forward to the stropping.

SomethingSuitablyWitty · 21/05/2012 14:55

Well, you have to review the situation objectively Hexagonal - Ok she gets on your nerves, but is it really true to say that routines are 'tailored' to her - because that is not what you described in your OP.

If you really feel you are justifiably aggrieved and being ripped off by the gym through the special treatment of this woman, by all means complain. But it really sounds to me like it's more the case that this woman (understandably - she sounds most annoying) gets on your nerves. So I would hesitate to take away from someone the few slightly pathetic props to her self-esteem that I could afford to concede.

porcamiseria · 21/05/2012 14:55

another to say get on "her" bike and report back

Pandemoniaa · 21/05/2012 14:55

She clearly thinks she is body everyself and actually, even if she does have ishoos, nobody is doing her a kindness by pandering to them. It's not fair on anyone so I would suggest speaking to the gym manager or, better still, a delegation of you doing that thing.

I should so sit on that bike though. And do so as unhygienically as possible.

ENormaSnob · 21/05/2012 14:56

I would actually complain tbh.

The list of classes given to the receptionist is taking the piss and unfair to other users.

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