Worst Examples of Gym Etiquette You've Experienced

[askthetrainer]

As personal trainers we're supposed to set an example in many things one being gym etiquette. I know (especially if you work in a busy gym) it can be easy to get pissed at some people, such as the guy biceps curling 25 pounds in the only squat rack etc.

I have 5 specific incidences spanning 4 continents which you may shock even the most seasoned frequent visitor of gyms... you guessed it, I'm currently writing about them...

What are some of the worst things you have ever experienced, seen or heard of bad gym etiquette that either makes you irate or makes your skin crawl?

[askthetrainer]

i hate it when people are on there damn cell phones sitting on equipment !!!!!

people who have on flip flops on the weight floor "do you really want to lose your toes?"

people who leave sweat all over the equipment and do not whip it off

the chick who knows her thong is hanging out but leaves it there to get attention

PEOPLE WHO FORGET TO PUT ON DEODORANT

She'd have my attention, but yes, the others bother me, flip flops not because I'm worried about their toes because it's tardly

I don't think dropping a 65 pound dumbbell on running shoes is gonna be that much safer than bare toes.... but I would love to see some video or photo evidence to prove otherwise

[askthetrainer]

I had a kid at LifeTime Fitness come running inside from the pool and his mom was an a treadmill and he hit the belt while she was running and it burned the top of his foot off its not cool.... and for the chick ya i hate it because i forget to count for my clients 8)~

Damn that is badass, I wonder who got the privilege of scraping off his flesh from the belt?

I didn't mention danger, that is a good point, endangering yourself is not cool, but endangering others is even worse... I had a baseball player at Oregon State leave 115 pounds on 1 side of squat rack and 45 on the other...

Leave it to a dumbass baseball player to take off the 45 first... the bar flipped over up slow first, then down super fast and cracked another player on the forehead, which opened up like a geyser...

[907xxx]

looks like ur trying to take a sh*t

[907xxx]

tj .

[Mr.ILL]

I train at a rec center and the gym etiquette is the worst I've ever seen. No one de-loads the bar or puts their weights away. People even leave their dumbells laying out. People walk on the inside lanes of the track.

[Thuirwyne]

Well, all of those plus a new one last Sunday night.

My workout partner and I were doing seated dumbell shoulder presses on the short-backed chair. At this gym all the benches and chairs in front of the dumbell racks are bolted to the floor. SO, this freak (around 50-60yrs old, flip flops, belly tank, zinc oxide on his forehead)proceeds to grab the 60's which were right in front of us, turn to face us with his back to the rack, and do his shrugs... awkwardly annoying.

[Mr.ILL]

O also people that sit on machines and rest. I always have to ask people If they would mind we use this machine while they rest when I'm circuit training clients.

One time I was using a machine myself. After the set i hopped off so someone else could use it while I rested. So the old geyser hoped on then rested on the ****ing machine! I asked if I could use it while he rested he said "I'm almost done" Afte 5 more minutes of sitting there he finally got off after he already messed up my rest interval.

[askthetrainer]

Not really gym etiquette ... more like human decency but how about NOT SHI|TTING or pissing on the toilet seats... the bathrooms are very clean in gyms in Asia but in the busiest 24 hour fitness in San Francisco w/ no joke, 2 sh|tters for like 3000 + daily people would always be not usable because some dirty ass mofos soiled them..

[Environ]

From a trainer's point of view, the worst etiquette has to be at the gym where I work. NOBODY gives a damn about the place. I train myself at 7 every morning before it opens (it opens at 7.30 and I'm done by 8).

Anyway, every morning I have to clear a space for myself to train. NOTHING is racked. As I say, none of the people who use the gym care about the place or have any respect for it.

In fact, last week, these two guys loaded up the leg press and did a few sets. I heard one of them say afterwards 'hey, there's no racks'.

He was standing beside a rack. It was located less than 2 feet away from the leg press. And, the walked off, leaving almost 200 kg of plates on the machine.

Last week, there were two other guys doing bench press. One of them was using 7.5 Kg plates yes, 7 POINT 5). After his set, he just had to slam the dumbbells into the ground. If it didn't annoy me so much, it would have been funny.

I should point out that a large percengate of our members and casual users are non-national, so I suppose they have no reason to care anyway. But, in my opinion, it is the management's fault. I used to tell people to rack weight. They'd argue and I'd tell them to leave. I asked the management to erect signs telling people to rack their weights, but they refused to allow this. And, if things came to a head between me and someone who I'd asked to rack the weights, management wouldn't support me. So, I decided to drop the matter and focus on what I do best - training people.

[askthetrainer]

From a trainer's point of view, the worst etiquette has to be at the gym where I work. NOBODY gives a damn about the place. I train myself at 7 every morning before it opens (it opens at 7.30 and I'm done by 8).

Anyway, every morning I have to clear a space for myself to train. NOTHING is racked. As I say, none of the people who use the gym care about the place or have any respect for it.

In fact, last week, these two guys loaded up the leg press and did a few sets. I heard one of them say afterwards 'hey, there's no racks'.

He was standing beside a rack. It was located less than 2 feet away from the leg press. And, the walked off, leaving almost 200 kg of plates on the machine.

Last week, there were two other guys doing bench press. One of them was using 7.5 Kg plates yes, 7 POINT 5). After his set, he just had to slam the dumbbells into the ground. If it didn't annoy me so much, it would have been funny.

I should point out that a large percengate of our members and casual users are non-national, so I suppose they have no reason to care anyway.

That brings up a good point that all trainers should know from the start... I remember when I did my internship w/ NCAA div 1 strength & conditioning program the head strength coach explained to me about having pride in your facility, you'd think the head and assistant strength coaches would just have the interns clean up the place, but they did it as well, keeping everything in order...

While obviously a NCAA program has to be looking good for possible recruits, boosters etc a gym should look good to attract new members too and to simply function... I know how it gets frustrating when 90% don't have any respect...

[liegelord]

I can't stand when I'm in the middle of a set of cleans, or C&J and someone walks by right in front of me. I've had someone start talking to me right before I did a heavy jerk.

One of the worst was just as I received the bar during a snatch, this guy walks in front of me and says, "Dude, I never see you doing any core training, why don't you train your core?"

How can people be so oblivious to someone doing olympic lifts? This is especially true at a globo gym where you'd think it would stand out.

[notgumbel]

How many of you provide gym etiquette as part of orientation ... or do you train clients who are already gym members, and should have been taught that already?

[Emily92]

People who leave sweat all over stuff.

There was this man not that long ago who was sneezing everywhere. Little did I know he'd left an unbelievable amount of snot underneath one of the benches. I went to go and put my hand on to lie on it and...yeah, you can guess what happened. I took my hand from underneath the bench and it was covered in it. Disgusting.

[Environ]

man i would suggest you do what i do

if it is that big of a problem to you come back right befor they shut the gym down and pick up it is your house and just like a big party these people are paying you so start yelling at them for not putting **** up !!!!! i go to my gym every night and talk the floor with my team and we pick up it mays you take pride in what you do and being clean is a huge thing inside of the gyms these days

give them a warning first time if they do not do it !!!!! then go get a manager and ask them to leave

I'm an independent contractor. I have zero authority to do anything. If it was my gym, it would be a lot different.

That brings up a good point that all trainers should know from the start... I remember when I did my internship w/ NCAA div 1 strength & conditioning program the head strength coach explained to me about having pride in your facility, you'd think the head and assistant strength coaches would just have the interns clean up the place, but they did it as well, keeping everything in order...

While obviously a NCAA program has to be looking good for possible recruits, boosters etc a gym should look good to attract new members too and to simply function... I know how it gets frustrating when 90% don't have any respect...

I take your point about staff cleaning up after the members, but, in all honesty, where has respect gone. I mean, the people who use the equipment should have the decency and respect to clean up after themselves. They are, after all, adults/young adults. I'm just waiting for a big accident to happen. Every single time that I asked a person to rack their weights after them, they replied by telling me to get stuffed.

[Environ]

I can't stand when I'm in the middle of a set of cleans, or C&J and someone walks by right in front of me. I've had someone start talking to me right before I did a heavy jerk.

One of the worst was just as I received the bar during a snatch, this guy walks in front of me and says, "Dude, I never see you doing any core training, why don't you train your core?"

How can people be so oblivious to someone doing olympic lifts? This is especially true at a globo gym where you'd think it would stand out.

This happened to me the other day. I was doing the snatch. A guy walked in front of me. At first he was far enough to not interfere, but just as I did the first pull, he changed direction about 45 degrees, which meant that he was walking right towards one end of the bar. Of course, I missed this rep.

[Keltron]

I hate the arseholes that don't care if they leave the faucet on when they're done. Our area is in a damn drought right now. Even if it wasn't, there are people who don't have running water in this world. How retarded.

And then we have the morons who bring the weight plates from the weights area over to the ab benches and back extension benches and then leave them there. But if they're stupid enough to think using weight is going to speed up their idiotic attempts at spot reduction, then I wouldn't expect them to be considerate enough to pick up after themselves.

People who approach me while I'm training someone. It might not be that bad when we're in between sets but some people actually walk up to me WHILE I'M COUNTING!
"excuse me... hey hey.. EXCUSE ME.. where's the.. um, excuse me..."

People that see me doing a certain exercise w/a client and then ask me, "Where does that work?"... I just hate that type of thinking.... they type of thinking where each exercise is supposed to target a certain muscle or something.

People who walk up to me speaking a language other than English. It's OK if you think I'm of a different ethnicity, it's OK if you're English is bad or if you can barely speak it. JUST DON'T ASSUME! Ask me first!

So one day, in the AM, I was calling new members to schedule FREE assessments. I called this one lady and set up an appt for later that day. Well, about later on and 2 hours before the scheduled appointment, she comes to work out and then has me paged to the front desk.

"I can't make it today. Can we reschedule?"
normally if a paying client cancels on the same day, they lose their session. But I decided to be nice and give her another chance, "I've got an opening on Saturday"

"No! Saturdays are too crowded here. I don't like coming saturdays."
What? I couldn't believe the audacity of this woman. So I said:

"Well then it looks like we can't work together because that's all I have for you."
She stormed off and I never saw her again. LOL.

[JulianBee]

I'm not quite sure if this falls under etiquette, but people who wear sweats with their hoodies up or people who wear the vinyl suits thinking its cutting them up.

[BC02]

when I am doing walking lunges and a trainer gets a couple steps in front of me and puts something like a bosu ball in front of me

[jedi786]

fat into muscle theory...

[dsupera]

For me in order...

1) pissing everywhere except the damn toilet, I have to clean that **** up.
2) leaving your weights everywhere, I have to clean that **** up.
3) leaving drinks laying around to be kicked over, I have to clean that **** up.
4) leaving a sweaty machine unwiped, I have to clean that **** up.
5) mixing protein drinks on my display case, I have to clean that **** up.
6) spitting in the gym water fountain, yep you guessed it, I have to clean that **** up.

Theres a hundred others I'm sure I'm not thinking of at the moment.

[loudenator]

This happened to me the other day. I was doing the snatch. A guy walked in front of me. At first he was far enough to not interfere, but just as I did the first pull, he changed direction about 45 degrees, which meant that he was walking right towards one end of the bar. Of course, I missed this rep.

Hit the f**king bast*rd, i have no patience for people walking in front of me doesn't matter what kind of lift im doing, unless your in a studio where space is tight there is NEVER any reason to walk in front of someone when there performing a set, its a respect thing i don't do it so i would expect the same from others, of course there are the clueless n00bs you can't get mad at but its the people that should know better.

[loudenator]

For me in order...

1) pissing everywhere except the damn toilet, I have to clean that **** up.
2) leaving your weights everywhere, I have to clean that **** up.
3) leaving drinks laying around to be kicked over, I have to clean that **** up.
4) leaving a sweaty machine unwiped, I have to clean that **** up.
5) mixing protein drinks on my display case, I have to clean that **** up.
6) spitting in the gym water fountain, yep you guessed it, I have to clean that **** up.

Theres a hundred others I'm sure I'm not thinking of at the moment.

haahahaha amen buddy.

[askthetrainer]

Does gym etiquette include locker room etiquette?

What about the dudes who use their locker room hand dryers, flip them upwards, spread eagle and dry off their BA&SS blowing the air up in the locker room for everyone to enjoy???

[atjohan23]

Damn that is badass, I wonder who got the privilege of scraping off his flesh from the belt?

I didn't mention danger, that is a good point, endangering yourself is not cool, but endangering others is even worse... I had a baseball player at Oregon State leave 115 pounds on 1 side of squat rack and 45 on the other...

Leave it to a dumbass baseball player to take off the 45 first... the bar flipped over up slow first, then down super fast and cracked another player on the forehead, which opened up like a geyser...

I saw the same exact thing happen at my gym.. I was busy spotting a client on the bench press when I look over at the guy in the squat rack and he unracked 3 45's all at once on one side and in slow motion i watch the olympic bar slide off and the unweighted side careen over right into the 200 dollar mirror on the wall.... he didnt pay for it either...

[JulianBee]

Leave it to a dumbass baseball player to take off the 45 first...

this makes me embarrassed to say I was a division 1 baseball player

[askthetrainer]

this makes me embarrassed to say I was a division 1 baseball player

You're not denying it either lol

I played baseball from for 5 years through high school & American Legion and I can say I had a lot of dumbbass teammates haha... I remember I could smell almost every baseball player was either drunk or getting over a night of drinking at 5:30am S&C

[JulianBee]

You're not denying it either lol

I played baseball from for 5 years through high school & American Legion and I can say I had a lot of dumbbass teammates haha... I remember I could smell almost every baseball player was either drunk or getting over a night of drinking at 5:30am S&C

Lol I've had teammates that you just described...