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?

YANBU . I can tolerate a little bit of weight dropping in my DL gym as it’s a big space, padded floor etc etc. but I totally see where you’re coming from. Do complain.

what I CANNOT abide is people dropping their weights from waist height in a pump class. SMASH onto the newly refurbished sprung wood floor paid for with our membership fees. Luckily most instructors pick up on it straight away but there are an awful lot of dickheads ready to drop their 20kg weights in the next class…

100%

I do wonder if part of the issue is that commercial gyms have seemingly embraced deadlifting/squatting etc over the past decade or so. Gone are the days of women lifting pink fluffy dumbells.

Seriously though! How the hell would you have a "No Grunting" rule?!? Some people grunt just getting up from sitting 😂.

Seriously this is not true.
Let's take the snatch, it's an explosive lift, you're exploding through your whole body to get the bar over your head, your arms are (almost) straight through the whole movement. If you tried to slowly and gently reverse the movement you would dislocate your shoulders. There's no way to actually reverse that movement, the movement itself involves you coming up on your toes, it involves a squat (and the heavier the weight the deeper the squat), it involves pulling the bar from shin height to overhead. It sometimes even involves a small jump.
Now tell me how I gently reverse that movement?
If the weights not too heavy I can do the reverse of a clean, but I can snatch heavier than I can clean, plus hand position on the bar is completely different to a clean, your hands are much wider, the risk of injuring my shoulder if I try is very very real.
What I can do is bring the bar down to shoulder height and then drop it, which is the safe way of dealing with the bar.

You might not realise it, but deadlifts (even the slow, heavy ones) are also explosive and involve a complex chain of muscles and movements that are almost impossible to replicate in reverse. Sure during warm up sets it's easy enough to return the bar to the ground gently, but if your lifting more than 70% of your max then gentle ain't gonna happen. Its the reason platforms are a thing

I rest for five mins between sets of DLs and squats so can easily be 30 mins once you factor in the warmup sets. But most people that use the power cage understand. Common courtesy is to let somebody work in if they ask but most can't be arsed to keep changing the weights, taking plates on and off.

But if it's just a young bloke on a machine messing around on his phone I'll usually ask how many sets he's got left which let's him know I'm waiting. There's nothing rude about doing so because if they've only just started it gives you the chance to do something else first.

😂

Oh Christ. I am 39 this year and I know I really need to start building in resistance training to get out in front of the menopause, but God this thread gives me, well, pause. Because OH MY GOD people are fucking tedious and pedantic about 'lifting heavy'. I guess it's addictive like a lot of sport (runners and cyclists seem to get particularly monomaniacal on their sport of choice), and at least it's good for people and keeps them out of the public houses as my Granny used to say, but jeepers all the naff terminology-touting, the patronising 'don't you know that...' drivelling on... I just want to do exercise that will keep me fit and slow osteoporosis, I hope it's possible to find a gym where I can do that without becoming or being surrounded by total obsessive bores. No fucker goes on and on and on in this tedious self-aggrandizing fashion about zumba, or swimming.

The gym I go to has seen a huge culture change in the last 3 or so years. I've gone from being the only female in the free weight area to one of many. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but you still get a lot of prejudice, from both men and women who can't understand why a woman would enjoy heavy lifting and want to build muscle. And the judgment from those that don't understand the sheet joy of mastering a new lift or getting a pr and just complain that we're being noisy.

Can’t see why people get worked up about other people in socks or bare feet, other than abhorrence of bare feet is a peculiarly British thing.
The trainers that you traveled to the gym in are probably more gross in terms of what they leave on the floor.

I think a lot of people think that weights make women bulky. It's actually sitting on your arse and eating chocolate that does that. 😂

Says 'CaramacFiend'. 😳😂

@herewegoroundthebastardbush lifting sports appeal to a lot of neurodiverse people for a whole host of reasons, so they may be more likely to know a lot and communicate in ways you don't seem to like. You can strength train without taking part in lifting as a sport, so you're perfectly safe.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Hey I've been guilty of being bulky thanks to what I eat.
The great thing is I weigh the same as I did 4years ago, back then I was an 18 now I'm a 10-12. The shock of people's faces when they discover I weigh 80kg at 5'1 is always amusing. Not so amusing that I'm considered obese at 25% bodyfat, but hey ho

Yeah we are far more likely to become obsessed, not only with the exercise itself but our numbers and for those of you that seem to think if our weights bang our form is bad, we also tend to obsess over form. I regularly video myself and compare to online videos and am my own worse critic.

Couldn't agree more with this. My god, the state of some of these replies. People who define themselves by how much they can 'clean' need to get out more. And before anyone moans - I do a fair bit of strength training, and have for years. I know what I'm doing. I just haven't lost the ability to exercise (no pun intended) basic courtesy.

And don't get me started on the 'urgh, the new year crowd' snobbery.

I video myself too. 😂

If they have to drop the weights they can’t cope with the weight …. I’d be ashamed to drop them but you are correct that it’s new behaviour. At our gym it’s usually young men dripping in fake tan and teeth whitener dropping the weights loudly.

YANBU - Chucking weights on the floor is SO annoying! They only do it so everyone glances over to see how heavy they were lifting. Anyone who disagrees is dellusional!

There's not much the gym can do really other than put up a sign (like my one has) but maybe you can suggest they run a quieter session a couple of times a week for those who might find it genuinely hard to listen to beyond general annoyance.

I use the weights machines and hand weights, but do not do actual weightlifting as I have dodgy knees.

Because OH MY GOD people are fucking tedious and pedantic about 'lifting heavy'.

Well, bloody hell, that's rude.

We talk about 'lifting heavy' here because some people think 'doing weights' is using 5 k dumbbells. They have their place, but weightlifting is different, and sometimes we need to drop weights, be explosive, and grunt.

@firef1y yep I make noise, know all my numbers, think about those numbers, watch endless videos to study form, watch competitions, talk to my lifting buddies about all that stuff endlessly, have views on which bars I prefer, how bars should be loaded etc etc. And I am living my best life 🤩 I'd love for everyone to find something that makes them as happy.

@CaramacFiend oh yes I forgot the videos. I don't have many but I watch the ones I do a lot. In fact I'm going to do that right now. Good reminder.

That’s cool. But a fair group of people don’t like hearing it and are intimidated out of exercising because of it. So some gyms ask you not to do it so that they reflect the desire of 95% of its members. Horses for courses.

Intrigued. I just re-watched DD at her powerlifting club. She definitely puts the weights down, small bounce, but no drop. She's dead lifting 130kgs at 58kgs, so over double her weight. She also uses slim professional weights, so I assume although they obviously weigh the same as standard weights, as they are less bulky, and make less impact.