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?

They would hate me. My daughter has Olympic aspirations and trains conditioning 3 x per week in our home gym. I join in at a lower level too. We have been experimenting with music that helps the psyche as she trains. Its full of ACDC etc at high volumes. Thankfully i have insulated the garage and have checked and you can hardly hear it. However its getting very hot in there and i have to open a door once in a while.

If he said that to me i would be cranking the volume up to 11, the CF

Ignore! The moment you start giving into them, then their batshit request will increase exponentially. You are perfectly entitled to do exercise in your own garden

Start singing op.. Badly.

This !! 😁

Neighbor is being unreasonable. You had your headphones on. I’d understand if you were blaring it out of a speaker but them complaining about a bit of exercise noise is nonsensical.

I've got my Lycra on OP! I'll bring my jangly zumba belt too if you like. 😁"bit erotic sounding" sounds like a right nosey weirdo to me.

Have you got any friends you could invite over for a group workout? With loud music and add in some crying babies too?

Perfect background noise for fish watching if you ask me

Jumping around inside exercising is loud, jumping on the grass isn’t

I see OP is in Scotland.

I reckon she should have a workout after dinner tonight, get the GBX on for it, and get a shout out for her neighbours

Sounds like he has an overactive imagination.
I would feel quite uncomfortable about what he was thinking about from his comments.
Next time I'd have the music on so he doesn't get turned on by your breathing sounds.

Infact I’d go so far as to tell them not to bother asking for complete silence- no one has that right, people are allowed peaceful enjoyment of their own property. Just like having a couple friends over and having a chat over a glass of wine, or letting kids play in the garden.

Frankly I’d put them in their place about this, if you don’t be assertive here it’s probably the thin end of the wedge. Just my 2p

During lockdown I used to lift weights in my garage, you could definitely hear that at times, along with the 80s music 😂

@pigeonofpeace YESSSSS!!!!!!!!! This all day long!! Get some bits and pieces on and a bit of life is a highway just for the absolute laugh!

I am originally from Glasgow so obvs I'm paying homage to my roots!

You've given me and my Husband a right laugh with this comment!!

'' We want to watch our fish ''

Hahahaha!

OP, They are being unreasonable.

People using a trampoline can sound like a very heavy person having rampant sex on a squeaky bed, but you doing a workout surely cannot be that noisy...Can it?

I was going to say you were not being unreasonable, until I read your final paragraph.
You go in the garden so not to disturb your OH or wake the baby so you are clearly aware that you are noisy. Why is ok to then disturb your neighbour’s peace?

Bloody hell my neighbours enjoy making a racket most days doing DIY and your neighbours are getting animated over heavy breathing? Do yourselves a favour and tell them to piss off. Then you can ignore them completely and enjoy the peace and quiet.

The OP has stated they wear ear phones so they’re not being at all noisy.

Our CCTV is pretty sensitive and it struggled to pick anything up. I asked DH and he said not noisy at all.

Ironically the kids across from him (who share the fence) have a trampoline! Tempted to ask the owners there if they've had any trouble.

DH says to carry on as normal and if he complains again to tell him to stop watching me work out in the privacy of my own back garden and tell him to stick it. If he continues then tell him I will report him for harassment.

Ignore that nonsense. If it annoys them that much, they can stop watching their fish for a while and do something indoors instead.

20 minutes at 10.30am? Ignore them.

They can Fuck. Right. Off. How utterly bizarre. How old are these people?

Is your garden quite big OP? Could you consider taking up tennis for fitness? The grunting that some players do when hitting the ball is quite something.
Otherwise do you have some friends who are also into fitness, get them to come round and work out together, for motivational purposes of course ( extra panting).

There's a difference in noise level between doing HIIT on hard flooring and doing it on grass.

Perhaps that's the kind of noise OP means

Blimey. In lockdown my neighbours did this every day but with no headphones. So I had all the music, the instructions, the pair of them grunting and puffing and panting. Was a tad annoying but I didn’t say anything. I think you’re being good using headphones

They are being ridiculous. Tell them that their fish disturb you with all that swimming about.