Working out in back garden - neighbours complaining.

[LuciferKitty]

I had a baby a few months ago and trying to shift the baby weight which I have gained.

The last few mornings around 10:30am I have been going into our back garden to do a workout on apple fitness+. I have been wearing my headphones as quite frankly my neighbours don't need to hear the cheesy "come on, push it harder" motivation chat from the fitness instructor.

This morning after my workout (I do HIIT - 20 minutes), the neighbour next door came to the door and asked if I could work out inside as they are trying to relax in their back garden in peace and watch their fish. I was a bit taken aback. My DH heard this and came to the door and politely said that I'm not making lots of noise, it's day light and we are entitled to work out in our garden. He pointed out what will they think when our daughter is older and playing in the garden? The neighbour responded "that's different" and apparently my panting noises are a bit "erotic sounding". At this point we said to the neighbour that again, I'm not making excessive noise and that I'm simply working out. His response? "Well join a gym then"

I'm actually really annoyed. We have CCTV outside the property so I checked to hear how loud I am when working out and honestly hardly any noise, mostly just heavy breathing which the camera struggled to pick up. It's not like I'm making noises like Monica from friends when she gets her massage.

I also have a gym in the garage so why would I join a gym? We live in a detached house so no risk of noise to adjoining walls etc. there's not that much floor space to do the workouts inside the garage. Before baby I didn't do the HIIT.

The reason for me working out in the back garden is my DH is working from home and my baby is napping so I don't want to be creating noise inside to wake up baby or disturb DH working. If baby wakes up the monitor pings a notification to my phone so I will know if she is awake and will stop workout to tend to baby.

Neighbour only moved in about 6 months ago and never had any issues since.

Who is BU? Me or the neighbour?

Massive high five to you for having the guts to workout in your garden! I certainly would dare, I'm far too shy and self conscious.
Keep it up and ignore the neighbours!
BTW you've made the "papers" 🤣

Sake!!! Clearly stated in my post for journalists to bugger off as well lol!

Oh well, let's hope the neighbours see it 🤣

Hahahaha 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Too funny!!
But yeah, say that to them🤣

Also clocked it's Edinburgh live.... I don't live anywhere near Edinburgh lol! I'm just over 250 miles from it

No more journalists please haha.

The fact he said your exercise noises were erotic says a lot more about your pervy neighbour than anything else.

Entitled prick.

@LuciferKitty I would totally be taking out the headphones and using the workout on full blast. Then if he says anything say “you obviously didn’t like my puffing noises so I wasn’t trying to do you a favour by drowning them out, you can always join in over the fence too it’s good to regularly work out”.

if he suggests a gym again perhaps ask him to cough up the £30?? A month membership and maybe £12? an hour for the babysitting whilst you’re out for 2hr a day (incl journey and shower time). Let’s say you do 5 workouts a week that £120x4+£30=£510 a month to keep his garden peaceful 😂 as a new mum on maternity leave it’s unlikely a cost you would want to bear!

I would also invite lots of other new mums round for some (very chatty) outdoor coffee mornings and shared mum and baby fitness sessions 😉

Tell them the sound of their fish is keeping you up at night

1. No you ANBU, its your garden to use and enjoy as you deem fit (so long as its legal)
2. Good your DH was there to here the BS and back u up.
3. Why can't they enjoy their fish when you aren't exercising?
4. BTW how do you enjoy fish in the garden, i thought the only ways were eating them or watching them in a tank.
5. Why is he enjoying his fish whilst you exercise, is he a peeping tom

This is the second garden neighbour complaining thread that’s been based in Scotland what’s going on up there ?

Gosh. Neighbours can be strange, can't they? An ex neighbour of mine was a naturalist. Trying to keep my 2 year old away from the holes in the fence was challenging. And highly amusing! I don't care, what people do, in their own back garden. Although it was quite funny, when my neighbour had 6 pairs of underpants hung on the line. Clearly, he was wearing the 7th pair! OP, it's YOUR back garden. You do what you do and keep on doing what you do.

It's not unreasonable to spend 20 mins working out in your garden , however you say you do it outside so you don't disturb your baby and DH so it's contradictory to think you arent disturbing your neighbours as clearly you think its loud enough to possibly wake baby and disturb DH WFH!?
Anyway 20 mins a day isn't very long, your neighbours can obviously hear you but should be able to tolerate it for 20 mins or play music or the radio to drown you out!

NDN fish seem happy enough to hear you work out.

Read the OPs description of her house layout. She's posted about it at least twice.

Fuck em. They are rubbish, inconsiderate, selfish neighbours
Keep doing your workouts in your garden. Totally ridiculous of them

Absolutely recommend! No annoying neighbours having the audacity to actually use their garden, you can watch the luckiest cod in the world swim peacefully!

Twenty minute workout daily, good for you. I can't even mange 2 minutes!

The people here recommending that you should begin to deliberately try to annoy your neighbour in response to their complaint are every bit as petty and childish as your neighbour (and hypocritical to boot). Please don't take the advice of these simpletons seriously because that would only make you unreasonable and likely result in an escalation and real trouble. Trust me, the last thing you want in your life is trouble with the neighbours.

No, you're not being unreasonable. However, you might want to consider at least pretending that you have taken your neighbour's complaint seriously by, for example, telling him that you are trying your best not to make too much noise the first opportunity you get. This will do a couple of things; firstly, it will make him feel heard in the event he genuinely does feel justified in complaining. This can have a psychological 'placebo' effect on him such that he imagines you are making less noise with the result that he feels better able to deal with what is clearly his problem. Secondly, and more importantly, it places you in the position of being eminently reasonable should your neighbour, having shown himself to be a potential problem neighbour, becomes an actual problem e.g. by making further complaints, or 'retaliating' with antisocial behaviour (obviously it would be ideal to record yourself telling him of the efforts you have gone to not to disturb him).

I fully agree with the first half of this advice- I and another poster in particular, said the same.

However, UNLESS OP has left out important details of what she is really doing and about the nature of the neighbour’s complaint, I do not recommend you speak to them following this ONE complaint which, on the face of it, seems unfounded and unreasonable on the part of your neighbour.

If, you did speak to them - ( I highlighted that you do not know them and if they had suffered from noise at previous address which can make sufferers paranoid at any first sign of ‘sound’ from any subsequent neighbours, so they CAN equally interpret your well-meaning approach ‘to explain they have been heard etc etc’ as an ADMISSION of your being 1) noisy; and/ or 2) unreasonable or both.

I did recommend you make your own adjustments which you should make a note of for your own records and no need to tell them.

While I am here, I did note your subsequent updates mentioned ‘earphones’ from then on or similar’- I thought you said you always used them? Not that it makes much difference, but I was surprised to see this in the update.

Also, not that it made much difference- hence I didn’t post until now- your drawing clearly shows your workout BY the boundary of the two gardens and a bit further away from your own house- am I correct? I wondered if this was the neighbours issue: wanting to understand why your workout is not nearer your house especially because you have more outside space? Are you sure you have understood their complaint (not that they will spell this out to you even if you asked?).

Anyway, if the above is correct- this may be gives credence to the number of posters who have tried to understand why you say the ‘little’ noise you make (let’s call it that) would disturb your DH and baby if you exercised in the house, but it seems like the same would occur if you exercised near your house/ by the patio?! Just trying to understand or help you re look the neighbour’s complaint.

It is correct you do not want an escalation so please do make any adjustments you yourself feel you can make- only you honestly know what that is. We don’t as we have not seen this for ourselves.

Good luck and keep up your 20 min workouts! I alternate between 16 min/ 20 mins / 45 mins workout at home ( stopped the gym classes as pulled a muscle so need to manage my movements myself and at my pace- and short workouts although I consider them boring are actually the best for keeping me in shape (loved a spinning classes but gave them up). Short exercises or 1 hour walk in the park or in my garden- I am lucky I have plenty of space.

Meant to add that your advice in second half although I do not agree with it/ don’t recommend it, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. I would especially recommend she implements it following any subsequent complaint, but even then, OP needs to be careful in her evaluation of both the complaint and what she chooses to say to the neighbour then.

I have also seen neighbours- in my work- who make up things or twist well-meaning approaches from other neighbours. Some people can be strange.

What OP has full control over here (at this stage) are her own behaviour during her workout and satisfying herself that her own conducts always remain reasonable.

Your neighbours are from ?

They were watching you in your garden , judging you, considering your work out erotic , no ethic and quite dangerous for their morality .

you should report that to the authority , even media should write about that .. People who watch over their garden, annoying and threading others ? No good at all in a democratic country .

Please ignore them, play the music outloud and make proper grunting and erotic sounds especially 🤣🤣🤣