People walking on treadmills in the gym

[crinklechips]

OK to start with I know I'm being a bit U but I need to have a mini-rant.

I use currently use the gym mainly for running intervals and speedier sessions which are easier to manage indoors.

Every time I go in all the treadmills are taken, and mostly by people walking.

Now I can totally understand that people have different fitness levels, might be using the treadmill to warm up or for recovery and that's absolutely fine.

But there seems to a growing number of people (actually, exclusively younger women in my observation) just using the treadmills for a gentle stroll while messing around on their phones.

I ended up next to a young woman last night who spent the entire half hour I was on the neighbouring treadmill walking at 3kph, no incline, while scrolling instagram. I can barely call that exercise, it's below a normal walking pace. If that's how you want to kill time then I guess it's up to you but it just seems selfish when there's a queue of people waiting for a treadmill.

They are using the machine for its intended purpose but at a different intensity to you. It's not the same as sitting and not eating at a cafe table. Your preferred speed setting is not the only one worthy of a machine.

Your cafe example would be 'it's not fair that people are taking up a table by eating food I don't like.'

that don't appear to be meaningful exercise for that person. Not that I can say with any certainty what's meaningful exercise for any individual person

Exactly. You can't. You're not the Gym Police.

I can see the trend towards greater use of cardio equipment for prolonged periods of very very light activity typically by young women

Oh yes, 'young women', such awful people aren't they, with their phones and their scrunch-bum leggings and their influencers etc etc. So lazy and silly and shallow, in a way that young men somehow mysteriously aren't...

Seriously, can there not be one day on Mumsnet where we don't get a fuck-ton of misogyny and snobbery and judgement thrown at young women for literally anything they like?

There is nothing wrong with walking on a treadmill for light activity for a prolonged period. Done on its own, it's better than no exercise at all and it no doubt feels a lot more comfortable and safe for some women than going for a walk alone in horrible winter weather in the dark.

It's also a nice way to burn, say, another 50-100 calories while warming up/cooling down and stopping your legs from seizing up. Why shouldn't people add a bit of extra value to their workout? Not everyone wants their entire workout to be slogging away and sweating.

Yabu. They have paid to use the gym too, they can use it how they see fit (obviously it's different if they are standing still on a treadmill or sitting at the weights scrolling their phone without doing exercise)?

knees and ankles Just seem so badly designed don’t they? Glad you’ve found something that helps. Balance is so vital as we age.

signed
Another Weary Old Woman with knackered knees

Op yanbu I assume the other posters aren't people that actually exercise. My dad gave up his gym subscription for this. Fed up of youngsters pissing around taking up machines and just taking pictures of themselves. No actual effort put into moving. I'm a runner I wouldn't bother with the gym. Get outside and run then you can't be annoyed by these morons and save your money.

Ha maybe!

I think some previous posters have helped give me some insight on what I've struggled to understand about what looks like "performative gym going" and I've got a totally different outlook on being a the gym as a completely functional activity (I have a small window of time to do a very specific activity to achieve a very specific goal) and everything about it is completely different for the what I perceive as the "treadmill hogs".

I apologise to all those people with health conditions, injuries etc as I don't want to give any perception that I don't appreciate people benefit from using the gym for these reasons. I've been through a long period of ill health myself where I wouldn't have even got to the gym, still less been able to run, so I'm not without empathy here.

Well I can't speak for anyone else but I can offer one possible explanation. I have a disability, and in this weather even a 10 minute walk, if I'm having a flare, can cause numb, painful joints and extremities. In a temperature-controlled gym, it's not a problem.

YABU are you the treadmill police?

Thank you. This genuinely made me smile.

Not your circus not your monkeys. They pay for the gym same as you.

I don't know what it says (positively or negatively) about gym culture but I've never seen a single young man slowly on the treadmill. Which might well be to their detriment, but there's a VERY clear gender divide here.

Why do you think you running on a treadmill is more important than someone walking on the treadmill? Both can be done outdoors. You may find it easier to run on a treadmill compared to outdoors, they may find it easier walking on the treadmill rather than walking outside. I think you're the one who is selfish here, you think your needs and wants trump the needs and wants of the ones walking.

I think you are being unreasonable. How someone chooses to move their body is their business, not yours. I’d totally do that and the main reason would be that I don’t feel safe going for a decent length walk outside when it’s dark - and unfortunately what with it being winter and having to work during daylight hours, the only chance I get to move my body is either very early morning (dark) before my toddler is awake or late evening (dark) once she’s down to bed.

Maybe you should buy your own treadmill for home if you want one free and ready to use whenever you need? :)

I agree with you. My gym has a no phones policy to discourage people hogging machines and faffing about while scrolling, rather than getting on with a work out. Also it’s not a young persons gym. So we don’t get too much of it, but if we did it would annoy me. If I saw someone on a treadmill on a phone I’d tell a member of staff as it’s dangerous.

Or maybe people with some tolerance or understanding that not everyone wants to do things the same way.

I’m sure the other gym users were devastated at the loss.

You assume incorrectly. I'm still unfit, but I'm less unfit than I was, if that makes any sense.

I've only moved up from side raises with 2kg to side raises with 6kg weights but it's progress. (Tried 7.5kg on Monday. Thought I was having a prolapse.) I'm also walking faster (on the treadmill) than I was and my heart rate has improved if the machines are to be believed.

For half an hour?

You have no more right to the machines than anyone else. Its not a ‘running machine’ but a treadmill and people do not have to run on them.

I lost 2 stone once walking an hour a day on a high incline treadmill (burnt around 800 calories each time). Walking on the treadmill is low impact but good for cardio and weight loss especially with a steady incline.

These young women clearly want to walk while on their phone. And it’s better for them than sitting while on their phone. They can’t do it outside cause they’d need to see in front of them.

If you want sole use of a treadmill then… buy one. £50 on Facebook Marketplace. Your super amazing extra special better than everyone else workouts aren’t actually that important!

Well, that's perfectly understandable; but I wasn't talking about someone with joint pain or a disability. The point I was making is that the choices people make aren't always logical. They are free to make those choices and in some respects the economy relies on people having preferences which won't always make sense to everybody else. Unless there is any obvious harm from this, or to the rights or well-being of others, it doesn't really matter.

Op i think you need to go when it's quieter. I hate the gym.at busy times and its hard when.people sit around scrolling on phones.

Absolute rubbish 😂 I sometimes work while running on a treadmill, it's easy and not dangerous at all. Maybe some gyms do have a no phones rule, but mine doesn't, and if it did I'd move to a different one. Maybe OP should apply the same idea?

So what? What does it matter? Why would you mention that it's women at all?

They've paid the same amount as you to join the gym. If there's not enough equipment for all the members, the gym should sort that out or stop accepting new members. The expectation in a cafe is that the table is yours whilst you are eating- not once you've finished your food. In this situation they are using the equipment, just not in the same way you use it. If they were sleeping on the treadmills or sitting on them, I'd have sympathy.

And I totally agree with you that it doesn't matter to anyone else. I'm just making the point that when you (and the OP) say you're seeing "completely fit people" do XY and Z and therefore it doesn't make sense, what I'm saying is that you have no idea whether you're looking at a "completely fit" person or not.