Crowded gyms (Page 2)

this one is logical to me.   When you arrive, and there are all kinds of people in one area, it is because they are leaving.   So, you find a place comfortably far from them, dump your stuff, and go work out.   that is what the person that came in 5, 10, and 15 minutes before and after you did.  So, when you are finished, you meet them - in your same general area as far from the people who left when you were coming in were....   so. to avoid this, take a locker NEARISH as you can stand to the people who are leaving, and when you leave, you are on your own....

D'oh I was just venting about the cellphone at the gym issue over in COJ a few days ago.  Heh!  

I find most of the things listed here a sligh irritant but what really winds me up is:

1) I've never seen a member of staff approach someone clearly using a machine wrong - either appalling technique or too heavy weights - and give out some advice.  Most of the time these people are really putting some effort in but because no one's told them / reminded them how to do it properly they're getting nothing out of it.

2) Gym etiquete is rarely published within the gym - it would be so easy to stick a laminate up to combat some of the issues mentioned here but the gyms just let the behaviour stagnate and eventually get normalised to everyone's detriment.

- People who rent yearly lockers when they are available January 1st (in other words, New Year's Resolution crowd) and then never use them or come back to the gym, thus keeping others from being allowed to use the locker all year.

- The chatty women that have to YELL the entire time to be heard over the hairdryers and showers.

My mom and I were invaded by a water walker one time in the pool. I took my mom up to the community pool to re-introduce her to swimming (she hadn't done lap swimming in years). We were doing some Total Immersion drills, and since it was the two of us, we were being nice and sharing a lane. While swimming we almost have a head-on collison with a walker that just jumped in our lane and started walking! And here's the killer...she was walking with her friends, that were in the next lane over! Hello?! Why not use the walking lane with your buddies?!?! I told her we were swimming, but she didn't get it and kept on walking (down the center, of course). Thankfully the lifeguard came over and told her to move out of our lane, as we were swimming and she was walking.

 that is when it's nice to have the biggest guy in the gym with the crazy 'jimmy eye' befriend you!  i had just that guy at my old gym that would spot me, keep me in line doing squats and lunges and having what he called 'brotherly chats' with the fellows that bothered me.  it was great!

now i have no worries in that department.  i get no notice from the college guys at my new gym.

k 

This cracked me up becuase it reminded me of the thread I started about my Lifetime having valet parking in January.  That thread turned into a "bash the NYEve Resolutionists" party.  I hope we have less of that this year.  Having been through a full year of this healthier lifestyle I've come to realize that if the only people who belonged to the gym were the people who worked out as consistently and as courteously as most of us my gym would be smaller than my house.  If those people want to invade for two months and finance the place for me for the rest of the year then more power to them.  And  hopefully every year a few more of them will stick because the more healthy people around the better it is for all of us. 

Just enter the Crummy Weather Challenge and you won't be needing the gym so much!

[rant] Oh, man, I hate the water aerobics classes! I'm glad it's not just me. I swim at one of the indoor county park's pools and they have classes there 2 nights a week. During the summer, the only time they had evening swim hours were on the same nights as the aerobics classes. It drove me crazy! They take up over half the pool, there are only 3 lanes set up but on some nights there were 15-20 people there to swim, seriously. When they did the shallow aerobics there'd be people in the 3 lanes and then tons of people just swimming in the deep end (hard to swim laps when there are 10 people around you who don't know the etiquette of swimming STRAIGHT.) Then when the deep water class started, everyone had to switch to the shallow side. It was so annoying. [/rant]

Honestly, I get it, they pay almost as much for 12 weeks of classes as I do for an entire year of membership so the park's priorities are not necessarily the swimmers. When my membership expires in March of next year I will probably take my swimming elsewhere. And it's probably good for the people who take these classes because some most of the people probably couldn't do any kind of weight bearing exercise, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Aaah, yes.  The old "why I hate the gym and the weird stuff people in the locker rooms" thread.  Think about it this way: its absolutely priceless people watching (though I really don't care to see the old guy dry his balls with the blow dryer...) 

Yesterday it was the 20something woman on the elliptical trainer talking on her cell phone about some guy issue and absolutely SOBBING.  WTF?!?!

This reminds of very silly gym sessions I had with a mate of mine when we were in our early twenties (we were highly competitive) - we ran on machines next to each other and controlled each others speed.  First one to hit the emergency button lost.

I'm not recommending it or condoning it - very stupid thing to do but at the time it was fantastic fun.  He was quick and I had better endurance so it was always quite a good battle - if I could get through the initial sprint phase I'd usually win but he occassionally broke me by sprinting flat out.  I'd try and reign him in by upping the slope (you had to go at the same speed and incline as each other)

woops - I 'double tapped' submit.  However, you can now check out the view from my office in the avatar.  Rainy days in London..

Or, in not so crowded gyms there's always the guy who is using the rack for squats and between sets he plops down on the hamstring curl machine that I want to use.   I'm guessing it's too much trouble for him to just stand-up between sets nearest the squat area.

Hey!  I stopped doing that after you bugged me about it last year! 

Another reason I'm glad I'm bald.

I try to avoid the gym as much as possible. Most of what has been said here I have experienced. But as said above, its great people watching. Here are my favorites.

• The person that cranks up the treadmill (incline or speed) then uses the handrails to take the weight off of their legs.
• The guy that gets on the treadmill next to me, tries to match (or beat my speed) then quits after five minutes (usually to the elliptical or recumbant bike)
• The person on the recumbant bike reading and has a cadence of about 5rpm
• The skinny guy in the free weight area that lifts the 50lb dumbells to do curls and has to use his entire body to get the weight to move.
• The hairy gorilla in the locker room that uses a hair dryer to dry himself (yes balls included)
• The large girl that is too embarrased to be seen in public in a bathing suit that has decided to do water aerobics and wants to be in the back of the class; therefore she jumps into the "lap" lane, while I am finishing up my 1600meters (I so wanted to smack her)
• The PT that takes more interest in the cute girl on the next machine, then in the client he is supposed to be working with.

This is an epedemic at my gym.  Not sure how the PTs stay in biz, considering they seem to care less about training their clients.