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15 February 2007
Gym gross-outs The gym is a weird place. What icky/annoying behaviors do you witness at your gym?
People who insist on talking on their cell phones EVEN THOUGH it's against the rules. This particularly bugs me in the locker room, where I KNOW all those ladies are just trying to get pictures of me to sell to the tabs!
-Guys in the weight room who grunt. Pleeeeease. You don't need to sound that way to contract your abs.
-People who don't observe the 30 minute cardio machine time limit when others are waiting.
-the guy who takes his shirt off when he's running on the treadmill, sending drops of his sweat flying outward
-People who elliptickize like crazy, feet flying, but have no friction on the machine so they are basically not working out at all. Not a drop of sweat. Reading a magazine.
-Young children in the locker room who escape Mommy's grasp while she changes and wander over to stand there googly-eyed to stare at your boobies.
-Young children in the locker room, period. This is a real hazard of the Y. I don't mind kids, but when they shriek and run around nekkid, oy.
I used to go to a gym (yes, me! don't laugh) about 10 years ago where there was this guy who at night worked as a male stripper. Being a stripper, he worked out a lot so he was always there. Always. And he used to wear luridly-coloured lycra workout pants/leggings that left nothing to the imagination. He used to strut about thinking we all fancied him. He was vile, the antithesis of sexy.
There was this guy at my gym who really smelled. It was difficult to use the exercise bike next to him - that's how much he smelled. I don't know if he had a glandular problem or what, but it was too gross. There was another guy, real tall and skinny, who was apparantly trying to put on a lot of muscle mass all at once. I didn't really understand his plan, but it involved maxing out his lifts and making a lot of loud, sustained grunts and groans. It was sort of embarrasing to be in the same room as he was.
Yeah, I'm right there with you on the kids thing; it's truly annoying. And the really rude old ladies, most particularly the water aerobics class whose time in the locker room always ended up coinciding with mine no matter how I tried to avoid them. This one once yelled at me for leaving a towel on the bench - for like 30 seconds. And they chatted and talked and hung out and monopolized the showers forever even though they were all clearly retired and some of us actually had to get to work. Grrrrrrr water aerobics hags! Grrrrr!
I am an ex trainer and worked in gyms for a long time. The worst behaviour I've witnessed was a guy jacking off in the communal shower.
But there are plenty of other annoying incidents that convinced me to get a Bowflex, not the least of which is that the only sweat on the machine is my own.
Eww, I hate sitting in other people's sweat puddles. Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl!
Miko, when I was benching an awful lot of weight, I would grunt through the hardest part of the reps. We're talking 300+ pounds though so I think I'm allowed to grunt some. And I exhale sharply while doing crunches because it gives me a more complete motion.
I dunno why old dudes in the locker room love being naked so much. A favorite activity among the old men at my gym is combing their hair in front of the mirror while stark naked.
Ugh, there's a bad grunter at my gym. I have to leave the weight room when he's there. It's not just that it sounds gross, he also throws off my own rhythm and I just can't concentrate.
Oh, and there's the old guy who works out, both in the weight room and the cardio room, in bare feet and without a shirt. I'm sure it totally violates the gym rules, but I've seen him a bunch so I guess he gets away with it.
Yeah, the portly naked 50-something professional guys hanging out and shaving, watching tv, etc, early mornings. I have no idea what they do to work out, or if they do, but it's social and possibly homoerotic for them. They seem to laugh a lot.
(disclaimer: I am 50 something but pretty much come and go after doing whatever workout I do.)
You see that in the women's locker room, too, except there'll be 3 or 4 naked old ladies standing around together, toweling off, etc. My dad used to take me to the pool at the gym when I was a kid, except I never wanted to go because of those old naked ladies.
fenriq: I hear ya, but I've worked with trainers and lift a bit myself, and I've learned that grunting is basically not needed - even when done as part of breath control, it's a sloppy shortcut to the more proper exhale-with-ab-contraction. Exhaling during peak effort is definitely recommended, in general. But you can exhale without grunting, and exhaling through the nose gives a more controlled long exhale anyway. Most of the grunts in my gym do not go with 300-pound lifts, anyway; they go with people who seem to need whatever psychological boost they get from making a gross noise. It's the guys with the big weights and the terrible form. Exercise physiologists seem to agree that grunting doesn't enhance actual performance; if there's any benefit to it all, it's only psychological.
The people at my gym are mostly pretty hygienic, but GOD, I can't stand women (it always seems to be women, alas) who get on one of the weight machines with a goddamned copy of goddamned Self magazine, and do about 359 sets of 456198 reps with NO weight because god FORBID they get all MUSCULAR. And then they give you attitude if you ask to work in. Grraaahhhhrrrrr.
And he used to wear luridly-coloured lycra workout pants/leggings that left nothing to the imagination. He used to strut about thinking we all fancied him.
Mmmm-hmmm. Because nothing, but nothing, says "macho" like fuchsia-colored tights on yer bum.
I'm sure he had to beat the women away with a stick.
Funny - I was just thinking about this yesterday! There is a man at my gym who farts as he lifts or does situps, and because he is wearing headphones, he doesn't seem aware of how noisy it is. I find that absolutely repellant.
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