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?

Yanbu, I'd be tempted to give them a little dose of what living next door to a noisy neighbour actually sounds like, blast music from 9am, mow the lawn at the same time, invite all your friends and family and their kids round for a bbq, don't let them know your having one, let the kids go nuts and all sit outside talking and laughing till 10.30pm. They'll be begging for your workouts back by day 2 😂😂

I thought the " very important office meeting" guy was bad enough . What is it with neighbours knocking on doors and pointing out everything they don't like about the way people live

Have you tried doing the workout routine as normal without earphones in?
Only ask as sometimes the wearer can't actually here the noises they're making.
But surely if it's only for a short time it should be ok, it's when it's day in day out and that loud that it invades other people's privacy it can become inconsiderate.

Start working out more and without headphones on. What idiots

I hope that your garden has a big lawn OP, maybe they're right - put down those dumbbells and get mowing instead 😉 ( Good for Abs too)
Oh, and what about a few more hanging baskets? 6 or 7 should do it. Where's that power drill?

How about also building a garden play house for when baby is abit older? Or another shed for all your equipment?

You know, this is what I would do. Because it's being 'responsive' to their issue while still doing what you are entitled to do in your own garden.

who complains about someone doing something for 20 minutes? That's ridiculous. Even if you played annoying music for that length of time I'm sure most people could cope.

YADNBU!

There's nothing inconsiderate about it , it's a women working out and making a few grunt noises not a Bull Elephant charging at the fence. This is a typical new neighbour trying to piss all over the OPs territory

This is batshit and if you give in to it, what’s next ? You are entitled to the enjoyment of your garden, and as you rightly point out, if this bothers them then you’re going to have real problems with them when a child is in the garden. If they wanted complete peace and tranquility, they should have moved out to the country where neighbours are further away. This is just entitled behaviour and you shouldn’t enable it. At all.

So true 🙌

Setting aside the fact that you said you went outside so you didn't wake the baby and didn't disturb your dh who was working, so it does seem odd you then say you weren't making any noise.....

You actually can make noise in your garden. Your neighbours are being ridiculous.
I mean, it would be inconsiderate to pump out drum and bass, or opera at full volume, but chat, or dc playing etc are to be expected if you have neighbours.
Of course YANBU

I'd have told them to get over themselves and stop being so ridiculous.

Maybe the wife gets jealous if you are outside working out, and her hubby is pottering about in the garden.

Definitely not being unreasonable. It’s HIIT, it’s only 20 minutes. They need to get over themselves.

I work out every morning in my kitchen with the back doors wide open, usually around 7am. Sometimes I’m lifting weights, sometimes it’s HIIT, sometimes (sorry neighbours!), it’s a killer step aerobics class).

I’m sure I make lots of noise jumping and grunting…my neighbours have never once complained.

It’s your garden, use it how you see fit. And GL with the HIIT workouts, they are ace to shift baby weight and tone up!

Was just thinking that , bloody un-nerving having it put on the level of erotic though

We work out all the time. Was a gymnast , I made noises that only a hunter could recognise. I refuse to let neighbours comments get in the way of my healthy lifestyle !

Is "watching the fish" a euphemism? I agree about putting the music on, then they can't be disturbed by your breathing 🙄

Your neighbours ABU in expecting you to simply not exercise in your garden.

You may be able to build a better relationship with them by having a set schedule and letting them know what it is (you say “around 10:30” in your OP, so maybe if you can make it always at 10:30 they could work around it). Also, it may not simply be the noise of you breathing but what that sounds like to them, so your being considerate with he headphones may not be as helpful as you’d intended. They may prefer it if you used a speaker as that would make it sound different to them.

So you could tell them that you obviously aren’t going to give up using your garden, or start paying for an inconvenient and pricey gym, but you’re happy to make these accommodations if it will help them enjoy their garden more. They sound a bit obstreperous, so it may not help, but that may just be a bit of adrenalin that made them like that if they’ve been working themselves up to talk to you for weeks or something.

Try and change the tone of the conversation, but stand your ground on what’s important to you and be accommodating where it won’t make any difference. You may be living next to these people for decades, so it’s worth a bit of effort to make it a respectful relationship if you can.

I do have a warped sense of humour but I would have found that hilarious. Mates of mine rented a house once in a rather posh village and the agent came by one day to ask the lady of the house to stop hanging her underwear on the washing line as it was "disturbing" her elderly male neighbour. She pointed out that the only way he could have seen into the garden was by hanging out the bedroom window and got a silent but eloquent eyeroll as a response. Agent said aloud "well I have been asked to call on you and I have" grinned broadly and left.

what????? hell no!

Gosh, think I'd be making some real (and loud) 'erotic' noises with hubby with all windows open!!

That's probably what the NDN is hoping for, to make OP feel too self conscious to do it.
They are being controlling
If you give in to this batshittery, they will find other things to complain about, until in the end you won't be able to use your garden at all. Definitely don't give in to them.

OP whatever you do, don't you dare stop your workouts because of your batshit perve neighbour. When you think about some of the absolutely horrendous behaviour from neighbours people have posted about on here, you are extremely considerate, don't doubt yourself for a second.

Ooh, ooh! Throw in dogs barking and jetski revving a la my cunt neighbour who deserves a fiery death