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.

Why can’t you run outside OP? If you’re expecting other to walk outside, get yourself out there and run, stop hogging the treadmills that can be used by people to walk.

But there's a regular type of young woman who is in the all the fancy gym gear at the gym but is barely using the equipment in a meaningful way at all.

Other gym users are not under any obligation to use any of the gym equipment, or the changing rooms, in a way that you judge to be meaningful. Regardless of what they are wearing.

Unless you are somehow on the board of directors doing some kind of time and motion study, or you pay for a premium membership that means you don't have to queue up like everybody else, then you wait in line, like everyone else and try and think good thoughts, and mind your own business. You are no better than anyone else, they are no better than you. You clearly missed that memo from your parents.

Or run outside, no queue for that.

Do you feel the same about slow readers who hog popular books from the library so quick readers are kept waiting for the new releases. Then there are the slow eaters who hang on to tables in cafes and restaurants, the slow supermarket packers, and the people who carefully read the ingredients list to check for allergies before they put stuff in their baskets. Not to mention the people who can’t leap onto buses because they are fumbling about with walking sticks and shopping trollies.

Normal people just don’t realise how utterly irritating we are to superhumans who live life at a fast pace do we ?

Oh tell me about it, they do a set every 10 minutes 🤣 what's the effing point?!
(Bless their cotton socks etc 😄)

I don't think you are being at all unreasonable, OP. You've clearly distinguished between people who are walking slowly because of some sort of health issues (or because they are warming/cooling), and the strange phenomenon of young, healthy people strolling on the treadmill under the misapprehension that it is exercise. And yet lots of the replies ignore the fact that you have made this distinction.

Other replies seem to have the superpower of knowing what you have seen with your own eyes in your own gym and have judged that there were no healthy young women behaving as you describe.

I've seen it too, in my gym. Luckily I am fortunate enough to be able to go to the gym at a time when it isn't busy, so they don't inconvenience me. If they were blocking treadmills so that they couldn't be used for actual exercise, then I would be very frustrated.

As for the reason, I think that gyms have changed over the years from being places that people joined because they were keen on exercise to being just another retail/hospitality venue. People join because 'that's what you do' these days. Young people in particular are quite likely to be gifted membership (perhaps by parents who are worried about their screen time), and to be there without any authentic interest in exercise.

I've been a member of my gym for over twenty years and have noticed huge changes in this direction. The clientele are a completely different demographic, and the gym itself is offering a wide range of goods and services that have little to do with fitness. For example they flog 'health washed' junk food (like creme egg flavoured protein bars) and gimmicky spa days. Even the actual exercise classes have seen a creep of 'new' class-types that are more influenced by branding/marketing imperatives than actual fitness.

It's the enshittification of gym culture.

Would you feel better if they were getting a sweat on and running up a steep incline?

I can't run at all because I get asthma with impact exercise.

It seems you are only happy to wait if someone is doing "proper" exercise.

Maybe go at a different time or run for free outside...

Not with pineapple on though, surely. There are limits to even the most sainted persons tolerance …

@MyThreeWords but walking IS exercise (no matter how slow)
no it won’t get your heart rate up, but it is moving your body.

Yeah this. I prefer running and walking outside both and throughout December I thought about going to the gym to use the treadmill because it was fucking freezing. You can run or walk outside, you can run or walk on a treadmill.

But why is that a problem? Its a good thing that young women are seeing the gym as a lifestyle. Good for them.
When someone has a problem with someone else, then they are the ones with the problem, not the someone else who is going about their business.
Some people just go to the gym to get out the house, some for socialising, some for fitness, some for recovery. Not everyone signs up to a gym membership purely for tbe equipment. Thats why gyms offer more than the equipment. They actually offer a 'lifestyle' in their marketing and services.
Maybe you are at the wrong gym?

Ahhh, your problem finally reveals itself.

One lad was on the machine i wanted to use the entire time and i had already done 25 minutes of my work out!

so frustrating…..bless them etc

Movement is good even if ifs sluggish it’s better tha watching tv

i mean I know some don’t like to raise a sweat - no glow and no make up run but that attitude is had to change

OP needs to provide some clarification here. What is the minimum speed and inclined we are allowed to do on a treadmill to avoid your eye rolling? What are the minimum weights and reps we must do on the resistance equipment.

Presumably we must all be at least "running fit" before being permitted membership of a gym?

People aren't denying it's happening, people are saying OP is BU to be annoyed because actually, walking IS exercise, and OP cannot possibly know who is walking because of health issues, warming/cooling, or any other reason.

It's the lack of what seems like any purposeful use of the equipment that's annoying. It feels like using the weights bench to have little siesta.

But I know I'm being U here and that one person's idea of purpose is different to anothers. I'm not saying anything that isn't running isn't purposeful.

Though i did hear one of them talking about how he failed his driving test and it wasn’t really his fault so that was a highlight i suppose

I don't care if they turn into literal sloths on the machines, they've paid their fee, they can walk as slow as they want, it's none of your business.

God, yes. It's just so judgemental isn't it?

Depends on your definition of exercise, obviously walking is better than just sitting down all day.

Aren't you a superior being

This is the most unintentionally funny post I've seen in a long time. Thank you!

@crinklechips I'm not saying anything that isn't running isn't purposeful. But that’s exactly what you’re saying. Go do your running outside and save yourself from all this torture 🙄

even better if they reserve 2-3 machines at the same time.

Walking is a legitimate exercise. Throwing your towel on a machine and then sitting on your phone for half an hour, now that's shitty gym etiquette.

I sort of agree with this. It’s the instagramification of gyms isn’t it?

But I also disagree because I think it’s great that so many young women in particular now feel comfortable in gyms, doing things that would have traditionally been really intimidating. Weight training for instance. Even 8-10 years ago there would have been vanishingly few women doing that. Now it’s perhaps one third women in that section at the gym. Even me, a slightly tunky 58-yo does it now, without a second thought of what anyone else thinks.

Like you though I try to go at a time when the packs of teenage boys and the Tik-tok scrolling crowd isn’t in because waiting for equipment is a bore.