To think the gym staff should sort it?

[80skid]

I've been going to my gym for years. It's not the cheapest, but there are plenty more expensive.

There's a good mix of age groups and it's generally a friendly and relaxed place to go. I've noticed recently that there's a big trend for dropping weights after the end of a set. It's always young men who do this, often when training together but sometimes alone. It's deliberate and exhibitionist. On one occasion, the vibrations from the weight dropping was so great that the weights on my machine were rattling. On another, the crash was so loud and sudden that I genuinely believed there to be a medical emergency. The noise is deafening, repetitive and needless.

This morning, I came to the conclusion that the noise level was such that in an industrial setting, ear defenders would be mandatory. There's usually staff about but they're often personal training or doing inductions, so not approachable.

AIBU to think the gym should make a greater effort to manage this? I know an autistic gym member who finds it really distressing and I can't say I'm that keen either. Don't start me on the people who think training barefoot on mats and then putting their sweaty feet on the wall while doing sit-ups is ok. It's basic manners isn't it?

I’ve been to a few different gyms and most frowned upon dropping weights.
Then I started a CrossFit gym and it seems to be normal to drop the weights here! Usually as they are encouraging you to hit your max !

I can chest press the 25kg dumbells, because I'm using those nice big muscles across my chest. I can even carry those dumbells over to the bench and set myself up. What I can't do is put them down on the floor afterwards, when I'm fatigued and needing to use my much smaller shoulder muscles to put them down in a range of motion not usually used in lifting which would involve my arm hanging almost behind my body.
I can safely put down the 12.5kg dumbells while laying on the bench, but they're not heavy enough for me to get a good workout

Wow, there are some absolute machines on this thread! 👏👏 Amazing! 140kg deadlifts and 200kg hip thrusts, brilliant work! 🫡

I don't actually go to the gym anymore as I'm fortunate enough to have one at home. Sometimes I miss it though, just for the change of scenery.

Even with a "no drop rule" weights are gonna be dropped. Sometimes people can't help it.

I must admit though, at my old gym, there was a powerlifter bloke (not a powerlifter gym, just a basic cheap one) who used to yell during his lifts and drop his weights down with an almighty crash! Even though I was expecting it each time it made me jump 😂.

On the hygiene thing, well gyms are stinky, sweaty places 🤷‍♀️. Having bare feet out isn't much different to a sweaty person lying on a bench. Or someone dripping sweat all over the treadmill. I assume they're wearing socks?

I always train bare foot, but like I said, I train at home. Not sure I would in the gym.

Have you ever done a heavy deadlift? Like say twice your bodyweight?

Indeed! The only time I tend to drop weights coming out of a deadlift is when it’s over 90kg. My 1RM is 100k - not quite twice my bodyweight but effing heavy.

Lowering slow is a really good thing to do to develop strength but not at near to 1RM.

I think the OP. Is probably not a lifter.

The ladies showers at my gym seem to be just under the weightlifting bit of the gym hall. The noise is quite something.

On the hygiene thing, well gyms are stinky, sweaty places 🤷‍♀️. Having bare feet out isn't much different to a sweaty person lying on a bench. Or someone dripping sweat all over the treadmill. I assume they're wearing socks?

People are expected to wear flip flops in the gym changing rooms for hygiene reasons, so why should it be acceptable to be barefoot in the gym itself?

Like I said: I assume they're wearing socks? I train without shoes on but I always wear socks.

I live in a very small town. There's the 2 gyms, one calls itself a boutique fitness centre and I'm in no doubt that I would not be very welcome in there. I like to lift up heavy things, which means I make noise, I grunt (Yes I'm a female who grunts) when I'm having to force myself to push out one more rep. I have to bail out sometimes, which means dumbells and barbells sometimes hit the ground. I do complexes that mean that I need to drop the bar at the end of a set. I challenge anyone to very gently return the bar to the floor at the end of DT. I also do a lot of crossfire style workouts, which means I'm slamming balls, jumping on boxes and even doing the dreaded burpees while leaving a pool of sweat on the floor (which I do clean up afterwards). So I know the boutique gym isn't for me (in fact I know the owner and know he is very in to the being quiet and not making a lot of noise, would probably be the ideal gym for those of you that don't like to hear weights banging)

The other gym, which I do belong to, markets itself as a family gym and really does have allsorts. From the 80 year old doing very sedate chair based classes and I kid you not an 86yo aerobics instructor (whose routine hasn't changed in the 7 years I've been going to the gym), to the cardio bunnies on the stairs master, to people that just want to get fit, to power lifters, bodybuilders and Olympic lifters and those that work out in the style I do. When I first started there I was literally the only female in the free weight section and learnt lifts from old school bodybuilders, including the need to drop weights at times.

Have you tried doing yoga or pilates in socks?? Would be seriously dangerous, you risk slipping about and a stretch going painfully wrong. As long as they wipe the mat after themselves what's the problem??? As for the floor, there's probably far worse on the bottom of people's shoes than there is on bare feet

I brought my own mat when I went to yoga at the gym, but yeah, you don't do it in trainers or socks and other people just used the mats the gym provided.

But yeah, dropping weights is shit. I'd contact the gym about it.

Well done on being in the 2plate club. Took me almost 4 years to get there, was stuck at 99kg for the longest time.

Only if they are wearing outdoor shoes in the gym. My gym shoes are plimsoll types and I only wear them in the gym. At my gym yoga and Pilates classes happen in the studio rooms and people generally bring their own mat. No one does yoga or Pilates in the main gym hall.

I rather like the "no grunts" sign at my gym, and fortunately there is very little of it. Making noise louder than the sound of your breathing is just a waste of energy and and also anti-social.

Thank fuck, no I haven't ever felt the need to do anything so ridiculous just to keep myself fit.

If "heavy lifters" need to make such noise then perhaps they should have a separate room, preferably sound-proof, the anti-social twats.

If I can hear you over the music in my headphones, you are definitely too loud, shut the fuck up.

I’m a female grunter. Mostly in the metcon section of my workout rather than the lifting /strength section. If you’re doing 20 Cala on the SkiErg and trying to hit 900 to a 1000 on your speed, then you’re gasping for air sometimes which is very like grunting.

It’s about the breath working for you.

Yeah but you can't know for sure who wears outdoor shoes in the gym or not! Just because you're considerate and wear shoes purely for the gym, someone else might wear their outdoor running trainers on the treadmill.

I think some people need some noise cancelling headphones for Christmas.

As long as we have the platforms, squat racks, benches, power racks, bars, plates, dumbells etc and enough space to not be under each others feet I'm all for that. Means I won't have to work out best time to be in gym to miss out on the cheesy music playing in a few of the classes

Hilariously I have exactly the same grunt that I use to lift a heavy weight when I throw a hard punch in kickboxing.

You're right, it's all about using your breathing to get that little but extra oomph

I have a brilliant pair from Samsung, fully cuts out the gym music (which is very often not to my taste) and only let's through the very loudest of bar drops. Which if I bother to look, I'm usually quite impressed with what they've lifted to make that noise. Seriously there was a guy lifting 5plates (for those of you that don't lift that comes in at 220kg) no way that was going back down quietly even on the platform.
Gyms are noisy places, if you don't like.noise invest in some decent, noise cancelling headphones (which are always great when you don't want to talk to people either, there's an unwritten rule among serious gym goers/lifters that if the headphones/earphones are on then that person doesn't want to interact)

If you can’t set the weights down gently then they are too heavy for you, and of course you risk injuring yourself.

In the reverse manner to picking it up.

I’ve swapped gyms recently because of this phenomenon. I think it’s people that are learning to lift on the internet, which has its place, but if you want to drop stupidly heavy weights like the competition guys do go to CrossFit not the council gym.

I refuse to go to the gym without mine (I'm autistic and it's hellishly loud otherwise).

Things that piss me off:
You're asked to spray the sanitiser onto the blue roll and then wipe - not make a huge thing over using half a bottle to cover the treadmill you've been on and then only half wipe it off so the next person to get on gets to find all these moist bits that you're not sure if they're sweat, other bodily fluids or cleaning spray.
Groups of blokes egging each other on on one of the resistance machines (fine) but manspreading so they're leaning all over the neighbouring machine I'm trying to use and just generally being in my space.
There's one bloke who brings his kid just to sit the kid on another machine so he can lay claim to both of them - fine, but not in the peak after work busy slot.
Another couple who bring their kids who just fuck about and don't do anything but block machines for anyone who wants to use them.
Blokes who sweat ridiculous amounts and try to shake it around like a fucking dog shaking water off them - and wear the exact same t-shirt every single night covered in the performative sweat.
There's one personal trainer who's been in a couple of times training someone and he counts reps at the same volume that the exercise studio next door is using for a full class, with a microphone, to be heard over the music - there's no need for me to be able to hear in the cardio room 2 rooms away that Dave is onto crunch number FIFTEEN - it's just being a loud twat for the sake of being a loud twat.
Judgemental glares because I'm fat and in the gym - find it particularly hilarious when blokes try to match what I'm doing to prove they're better than me and then can't do it.
Oh and carrying your entire gym bag around with you like it's fucking Tinkywinky's handbag - the rule is none of them on the gym floor - put it on the shelving like every bugger else does.

Basically I fucking hate the afterwork crowd and I'm bracing myself because the New Year New Me crowd are coming soon.

Basically I fucking hate the afterwork crowd and I'm bracing myself because the New Year New Me crowd are coming soon.

Ah, yes. The latter aren't too bad though apart from just filling the place up more than usual. DH will be one as I've bought him some PT sessions to get started. 😅

My bugbear is mostly young men (to be fair, the biggest users of my gym are young men) taking bloody ages on one piece of equipment, and often just sitting there on their phones on the leg raise as if it's an arm chair. With one lad I wasn't that bothered about the leg raise, or I'd have said something, and could fit it in later, but I did three different types of weights, 2 x 15 or 20 reps, and went on the cross trainer for ten minutes and he got off while I was doing tricep extensions after, so he must have been nearly 25 minutes on one pieceof equipment, mostly just sitting there. I know people might do more sets/take longer in between and that's fine but for some there does seem to be a lot of sitting around and not much doing. I'd be there all day if I was that slow!