Gym etiquette

[EggsFlorentine]

Intrigued to know whether am I just a grumpy cow, or whether this is a bit weird..
Just been to the gym in my building, usually quiet in there I'm often the only one in there and there was a woman using one of the machines while on her phone (hands free), suppose I should be glad it wasn't loud speaker at least.
Anyway it really bugged me. I like to be in my one little world at the gym, and pretend there is no one else there (judging my fat rolls...). So, am I just bitchy?

Wouldn't the sound of that just be like people talking to each other?

In fairness to OP, there's some study or something that found it's more annoying to listen to half of a conversation than it is to listen to two people talking because your brain only gets half the information. Even if you're just eavesdropping.

It's annoying. Most gyms have a no phones on the gym floor rule.

Damn, just me being grumpy then. (And er yes, two people talking in the gym gets my grump on too.) Message received and understood!

I don't think you're grumpy.

My gym gripe is when there are hundreds (well tens) of treadmills /bikes/rowers, and someone comes and uses the one right beside me.

Why? Why? Why?

Ha! Dunsborough, come join me in the grumps corner.

And yes I completely share your gripe about fellow gym goers getting too close.

YABVVVVR. I hate it when people do this - they tend to bellow and you shouldn't have to use earphones to block out the noise. My gym used to have notices up asking people not to use their phones, but people do and it is very annoying. I am the gym user throwing everyone dirty looks for everything that pisses me off.

I don't use my phone at the gym but I can't bring myself to get worked up at anyone who does. My gym is tiny though, it sounds like some of you would hate it - there is always someone next to you, and it's very friendly so people do tend to chat to each other and encourage each other. It's what keeps me motivated.

Keeping phone on vibrate in case of urgent calls (family, work etc) is fine, but they should go outside, or to the changing rooms, to talk.

Phone conversations in the training area are totally against gym etiquette:

• not paying 100% attention to the equipment they are using, so a safety issue
• not aware of others around them, who may be e.g. carrying heavy weights to another area
• conversation, often loud, with someone outside the gym is VERY distracting, completely different to quietly encouraging a friend who is next to you

So, the training area is one of the places that addicts need to realise are out of bounds for phone conversations.
Non-phone conversation is nok too, because other people wish to concentrate and train seriously. Just a nod / wave or a hello to a friend is usual.
The only exception is a PT training someone in the gym. They should be talking quietly and anyway that is appropriate.

Most gyms have an area where they sell drinks and have seats, so this is where you can natter.

Btw: anyone is perfectly entitled to train on the machine next to you. It is available and is not encroaching in your space.
They should not try to talk to you though.

I regularly have a chat to a friend at the gym, totally OK in the gym we are in. The blokes doing weights together would be a bit weird if it were all silent!

A phone call not on really, but my PT recommends having your mobile with you to use the stop watch function when doing floor work.

I was all ready to say YABU, but then I remembered that I get irritated by people just chatting to each other in the gym, if their chatting is prolonged and in my vicinity when I'm working out, so I guess I am too if you are! I even have earphones so it's not like the noise bothers me.

This would annoy me too.

A couple if weeks ago the man on the next treadmill answered his phone twice! Continued to talk to the caller whilst he was running. I glared at him both times.

My biggest bugbear is people in the gym not wiping their sweat off the machines. There is plenty of blue roll in machines on the wall for them to do this. I hate sitting on a machine that is still visible with the previous persons sweat. Now this I have complained about. They tell me they will put bigger signs up... Yet to happen.

There are two specific blokes that annoy me in ours. I have named them "sweaty bollocks man" and "sweaty sweaty man".

Sweaty bollocks man will stand behind a particular machine (his favourite) and wait for the person to stop running/walking on it. He then starts to limber up, adjust his bollocks (yes hand down his pants) and he really winds me up. He is adjusting all the time whilst on the machine.

Sweat sweaty man is one of the culprits of not wiping machines down. He grins at himself in the mirror whilst running too. There can be 10 machines empty in a row but he will come into the one next to me and his sweat flies every where. I have to get off and go do something else.

Just remembered another grump-inducing situation. A (bloody irritating) couple turned up, it was just the three of us in the gym, and then they proceeded to work out on machines on either side of the room, all the time shouting encouragement to each other, often with me playing piggy-in-the-middle.

Oh and he was one of those types who finds it necessary to "Hhuuuuhhhhhh!" with every weight lift/ crunch/ whatever. ARGH!

You'd like our gym. The reception is very bad, so people can't use their phones even if they wanted

There's a guy at my gym that sits at the equipment, eg bench press, while having his phone convo!
So he's chatting at the same time as preventing others from using the equipment. Hes not using it, just sitting! Grrrrr.

ARGH! for fucks sake, just been to the gym again (two days in a row, not quite sure what came over me..) Anyway, some arsehole first took a phonecall - which some of you have lead me to believe I should be more patient about, BUT THEN he started playing music on loud speaker. Surely I can't be unreasonable for thinking that is just shitty?

other people doing annoying things in the gym

arrrrgggghhhh

dont get me started!!!!!

the playing the music thing would really piss me off, no need to be reasonable about that.

And having read this thread I now agree with the mobile phones being annoying too! I think I misunderstood, I was thinking of someone stopping what they were doing and going off to a quiet corner to answer a call. I didn't realise you all meant yapping away whilst on the equipment. No need for that. I have been convinced!

Yanbu. Surely people can work out for an hour without the need to use their phone?

Talking to other people in the gym wouldn't bother me so much.

If they can sustain a decent conversation whilst on equipment they are not working out sufficiently hard! I can manage a few words at a time, but not whole sentences unless it's over a longer period with a gap between every few words!!!

I don't think there is a place for phones in the gym, that would have annoyed me too!

Those taking or making calls in the gym usually appear (to me) as if attempting to 'big themselves up' ie loud conversation about an important business deal.

Or, depending on the type of gym, a loud conversation about some sort of 'dodgy' deal

Anyone who is having a conversation on their phone at the gym isn't working out hard enough.