Gym bastards

[Nettletheelf]

Am I being unreasonable in being annoyed with tw@ts at the gym? Am I?

1. Bodypump.

Selfish equipment-hogging woman. Class usually full. This woman arrives half an hour early and sets up a bench for herself with two - TWO! - bars, several of every type of weight disc, a pair of every type of dumb bell and TWO mats.

Means that other class members are short of weights, because she has provided herself with every permutation she might possibly need, although she doesn’t use half of them. When they aren’t enough bars to go around, she stays quiet and waits to be asked to relinquish one of hers, at which point she pulls a face and reluctantly yields the minimum amount of equipment.

She seems unembarrassed by this. Apparently she ‘needs’ two bars so that she can swap over during one of the tracks in case she gets a bit tired. So everybody else can feck off.

1. Spinning.

Bike hogging bastards saving bikes for themselves and their friends, even when they aren’t sure that the friends will be turning up.

People arriving just before the start of the class have to run the gauntlet - you sign up for the class in advance, so there are theoretically enough bikes - trying to get on a bike with a jacket draped over it whilst somebody snaps, “my friend is on there!”.

Naturally, the friend never turns up and you end up either missing the start of the class or putting up with being scowled at for taking your booked place.

1. Body attack

Home of the show offs who try to put in extra big jumps and other athletic moves into the routine. No matter how many times the poor instructor says, “don’t put a big jump in here, the routine is designed like this for a reason. No big jumps!”, they still insist on doing them. Just so everybody knows they are really fit and the routine is too easy for them, being virtually professional athletes and all.

Is it just me? Share your stories of gym idiocy. Also your advice on dealing with the equipment hoggers.

This is exactly why I'm building my own gym at home. And partially because if I have to watch the same stupid bint practising her competition poses in front of the mirror one more time, I am actually going to punch her in the face.

To the people suggesting we’d be better off getting good old fashioned fresh air and climbing trees:
I have a bum left foot that makes walking painful. Plus I bloody hate feeling cold! Going to a lovely, warm, indoor gym that I can access whenever I want means I’m building a healthy, strong body. Strength training is also pretty important for women, and anyone who can do it should be, to some extent at least, to protect against ageing.

With the lads who grunt around in packs, I pretend they’re filming a homoerotic romance. Makes it more amusing.
They are pretty irritating hogging machines whilst they all take their goes.

1. Re rack your fucking weights

1. Wipe down the pec fly when you get off it!

1. In fact wipe down all fecking equipment.

1. You don't need a fucking gun shield when you're deadlifting 50kg

1. Those grunts you make when you lift make you sound like a total dick head

I move belongings off unattended machines or spin bikes - I don't give a shit.

I run on a treadmill because:

a. It's easier on my knees (I am old!)
b. I can run in the mornings / evenings when it's dark
c. I can track and set more accurate intervals
d. I get left completely to my own devices while I run
e. I can then use other equipment / classes / the pool / the spa while I'm there at the gym
f. I find it relaxing
g. It's more sociable than running alone outside
h. I want to

I also run outside too but I'm a bit of a fair weather outdoor runner

And tell staff if there's an issue that you can't resolve yourself.

Just grew some balls instead of seething in silence.

Other people are so irritating!

The men who sweat pools around and on the cross trainer or bike, and have not even brought a towel with them. I get the impression that the LIKE doing this, they think it's impressive in some way.

Again, sweating on mats and the floor and not wiping.

People whi come to classes with their friend and just talk all the way through. It is so distracting! And particularly in the stretch/relaxation part. All you can hear is whittering. Shut up!

People annoy me in Zumba all the time. There is a woman who tries to police where people stand in Zumba. She goes up behind people and growls at them.

Another woman is like a springy gazelle leaping about, pouting at herself in the mirror, overemphasising every move.Yes, I know it doesn't effect me, but it still annoys me! She also kicks her height every time you have to lift your leg.

YCAWS what's a gun shield???

The friends that arrive, sit on one of the few mats available in front of the mirrors and then chat, glancing at their phones for half an hour without doing a single exercise. And these are middle aged women. Not kids.

Oh, oh - and the fuckers who start packing away their weights during the last track of Body Pump, even after the instructor has said ‘No packing away while people are lying down, please’.

I’d rather not risk having a 5kg weight dropped on my head just so that you can get out 21 seconds early, Karen.

I hope people aren't reading this thread and reconsidering joining a gym.
I think there is a misconception. I've trained at a few different gyms & yes some are better than others but you will normally find people more than helpful at gyms.

Ive always had a really positive experience in the free weights area
Liads of encouragement and some 'woah's
Even the old die hard chaps whove been lifting for decades chat and are nice (except the one who asked if i was going to knock off deadlifting heavy (130kg) in the third trimester)

Id swerve the class ass hats and go to the free weights area if i were the posters above. Get much more dramatic results with less time and less effort. Reduces osteoporotic risk. And you can eat lots and lots.

I use a Pure Gym. Low cost, masses of equipment and classes, nice trainers, very clean (the gym, I mean, wasn't remarking on the PTs' personal hygiene). I don't use the machines though, or free weights, and maybe this is where irritating behaviour, hogging and showing off gets concentrated? I'm in and out for a 30 or 45 minute class/spin and maybe miss some of this stuff. They don't overbook classes and there always seems to be plenty of equipment. But I'd have a quiet word with the manager if people were hoarding equipment and being greedy about space. Everyone pays the same subs.

Loving the classes, btw. Previous experiences with different gyms over many years have ended because I just get bored with weights and cardio.

I hate it when the class has started and everyone has a perfect spot with just the right amount of space around them to exercise comfortably and someone comes in late...they then stand ridiculously close to you mucking it all up.

There's plenty of lifts that - in my gym - are perfectly socially acceptable to do in a squat rack that aren't squats. Rack pulls, overhead presses (standing or seated), bench press, incline bench press, barbell rows. In a busy commercial gym with limited lifting equipment, you have to be creative with the space. Sure, it's a bit annoying if you actually want to do squats, but I just change around what I'm doing until one becomes free.

This is true and I don't begrudge rack pulls etc however we have 3 benches for bench press that can also incline and decline; one seated shoulder press bar; multiple different curl racks and one slightly angled smith machine. All are perfect for every other exercise but not so much squats. We only have two squat racks and yet groups of, typically, teenage boys decide to bloody bench in there when all 3 benches are free!

That being said everyone at my gym is nice, will allow you to work in during their rest periods, shares equipment and is always willing to spot you.
The PTs are good too.

I don't understand gyms. Running like mice on a mouse wheel. Get some fresh air, walk, dance. Why pay for this shit?

This attitude pisses me off far more than anything i see in the gym.

I run outside 4 times a week, i have 3 horses i see to twice a day and ride daily. I get more than enough fresh air!
I go to the gym to do conditioning and strengthening work, with safe equipment and staff that can help me when required.

Nothing against people pushing themselves but if they feel the need to make awful noises like they are in terrible pain then maybe they are pushing too far? I push myself (I have increased the weights I’m lifting) but I don’t have to make a noise whilst doing it.

Anyway it will soon be January, the month where 100’s of new members join and gym gets busy, then most of these people slowly fade away over a number of weeks.

I enjoy the gym, it’s great for my mental and physical health, I was never good at spot when I was younger mainly because at school it’s just competitive sports, in the gym you are only competing against yourself and at your own pace. I would highly recomend it to anyone.
I go all year round, I take a couple weeks off I the summer and go slightly less as I do more outdoors like kayaking and tail running. Would love my own treadmill but have no space so the gym is perfect.

Oh dear. I'm the body pump woman..
But I need those weights because those weights are too light for me so I need half a million of them.
I do share tho on the tracks I don't need so many, and I do need 2 bars

People that refuse to take their plates off the bar in the main hall after grit and stand in front of the rack taking their equipment apart, causing a hold up for everyone else. They then just put their plates on the end of the rack, rather than put them to the back and someone has to push a pile of plates to the back to fit theirs on. It’s out for a run in the wind today.

If theyre too light for you you should try 'real' free weights.
I agree a 20kg deadlift is going to do nothing at all for anyone

and I do need 2 bars

Why?

I’d love to start free weights but I have so little upper body strength and can lift such tiny weights,despite being several stone overweight, that I look so pathetic even I want to laugh. I haven’t stepped (haha) inside the gym for months and this thread has put me off going back!
Let me tell you about the pool though .... idiot men diving into 4 ft of water. People hogging the jacuzzi for hours. Woman swimming breast stroke, with their head back so they don’t get their hair wet, always three abreast moving slowly, talking loudly, taking up the space of six individual swimmers, so that all the rest of us are having to swim in skinny lanes with barely a fag paper between us. Couples who get into the pool then stay at the end canoodling so you can’t complete your length.
Now I’m sounding unreasonable, better go and find a reason not to go to the gym today!

We have 2 types of bar. I use a thick one when it goes on my back because it spreads the weight better and the thin one digs in and a thin one for when I'm holding it because the thick one is too thick

I'm not the only one who does this, different bars for different things,
We do have enough for everyone to do that if they want to tho

There are a couple of really irritating women in my spin class. They just sit there with virtually no resistance, pedalling as fast as they can, no matter what the instructor tells them they’re meant to be doing. When the class ends and we’re all cooling down and stretching, they just carry on with their pointless pedalling.

When we do ‘dips’ one of them insists on doing them at double speed so she looks like she’s doing the chicken dance. The other one does these weird arm exercises throughout the class, like she’s doing very fast bicep curls without the weights.

It shouldn’t annoy me as I know it doesn’t really affect my workout but they always sit in my eyeline and it’s bloody distracting when everyone except them is following the instructor. If they want to do their own thing they can just go use the bikes in the gym upstairs.

Not to mention that pedalling so fast with no resistance is a good way to bust both your knees!

I think Les Mills classes bring out the worst in people for behaviour like this!!