Sexual Comments In The Gym!

[dottiedodah]

BBC news website.Young girls being approached by males. Inappropriate comments ,and being made to feel uncomfortable by men who see the Gym as "their space!) Has anyone else found this ? Was thinking of joining but this has put me off a little TBH!

No. You will be fine. Some gyms have a woman’s only room. Some gyms have an area where more woman are.

They're worse on the weights because they think you don't know what you're doing.
Take an mp3 player to block them out and practice your scowl.

Don't let arseholes put you off exercising.

The changing rooms might be mixed sex so you might need to wear your gym clothes there and back though and get changed and showered at home.

Never seen any of this in any of the gyms I've been to, and I use the free weights area.

I could write an essay on men aggressively taking up the whole lane swimming, happily knocking into you, and getting very annoyed when you are faster than them 😂😭

It’s not been my experience - in my gym at least nobody seems to talk to anyone beyond polite ‘are you using this machine’ interactions and people who seem to know one another and be chatting generally. Well, there was one guy trying to flirt with one of the personal trainers yesterday, but she didn’t seem in the least bit fazed by it.

I’m sure it happens in some places though - a tour to suss the place out is probably best. My gym is a council-run leisure centre so you get a good range of people there, all ages and body types. So it isn’t cliquey or anything like that. I can imagine that some smaller gyms could become a bit testosterone-swamped and not welcoming.

Oh and men sitting in the jacuzzi for hours as a group, like it's a roman baths.

And the noises they make in the sauna.

I'm all for brain plasticity, but this seems universal 😭

The last gym I went to probably had more women than men, certainly in the pool, but fewer in the free weights.
Never got any comments, or witnessed any, although it wouldn't altogether surprise me if people made a pass at each other there, it can be quite a social space.
I doubt there would be so many comments it would ruin it for you.

It's never happened to me/I've never seen it in the gym. (I don't doubt it happens, though)

I suspect gyms vary a fair bit in atmosphere though, and I go to the council-run one that is full of more mature people who have been prescribed exercise by their doctor, it has quite a civilised vibe.

HappyPunky mixed sex changing rooms? does anyone use them at all?

My last gym had two changing areas. Single sex ones in the gym area, mixed next to the pool. But you could easily walk from one to the other.
Both got used, the mixed sex one was busier, more women.

Most gyms let you do a trial session or two before you sign up, do that and see what yours would be like. I've found them fine, apart from sometimes the swimming thing.

OK thanks for all the comments . The article was a little bit off putting as feel a little nervous of joining anyway.However will try to have a free trial session and see how I get on!

Never happened to me either and I've never seen it in my gym. I'm only ever in the weights section too.

Joining a gym can be daunting, for everyone!
I'm on a fitness forum and there's tons of young men who post about how they are scared to go to the gym for the first time for fear of being judged - weak, skinny, out of shape, fat, etc.
There's no easy fix, you have to take the plunge, but it's not as bad as you might think.

I've never had this. I've been a member of a mixed sex local authority gym for 15yrs and never had a problem.
There's a women only gym but I don't use that part.

I’ve never seen anything like that when being at any gym has been to a few, worst things I’ve gotten is guys trying to explain things to me. I just interrupt them and say thanks I fine.

Its not been my experience tbh.

I've never experienced this in any gym I've belonged to.

We've a wide age range (and body shapes) in my current one and it skews more male generally, many of the guys are young and pretty dudebro-like but, I've never seen them harassing or even eying any of the young girls. Everyone is very focussed on their own workouts and respectful of each others'.

Working out is serious business.

I second the other posters saying just go check it out and see. I used to go to a gym (because it was next to my office) that was a real testosterone-fuelled one. I don't think I got harassed there but there was a lot of sweaty men in wife beaters not wiping down machines and protein shakes in the sauna. Fair play to those guys but not really my scene.

It's happened to me - being hit on (when I was young), made to feel that I'm taking up equipment that is meant for men (loud sighing at having to adjust machine settings) and being patronised by men who think they know more about weights than women.

But it very much depends on the gym - quite a few of them have women-only sessions where you should be able to avoid the worst of it

Eek sorry for using the word "wife beaters". I've heard it used so much I think I'd forgotten what it really meant.

@Tableclothing
Yeah some are mixed sex, some have changing villages with cubicles that have gaps. Luckily none near me but I wouldn't use them I'd go home sweaty and get showered in private.

I never had this problem myself, but then, when I used to go, I had quite a "butch" look going on, and men used to stay away from me in general . The thing that used to rile me more than anything was men (and I am afraid it was always men) who didn't follow the protocol about wiping machines down after they'd sweated all over them and, as a pp mentioned, their habit of lounging around in the steam room or jacuzzi for an hour at a time in a big group, legs spread, talking about their conquests. If I'd had the option to go to an all-women gym, I probably would have done, just because ime women are more considerate about using shared facilities in a non-obnoxious way.