Snark at the gym

flyingfoxes

We have a pretty sweet little gym at work that costs us $10 per pay period to be a member of, so there's little for me to complain about, although the New Year's resolution people always bug me when they hog the machines from January-March when they all go back to wherever they came from. The other day there was a chick on the treadmill running, then doing weights....all while FaceTiming with someone. I'm still scratching my head over that one.

hales2010

That would have made me mad. You were a lot nicer than I would have been. I would have just started using it even after she told me about it. You do not take 2 machines at gym (especially a small one) that is just rude.

hales2010

Oh and the getting hit on things...hate it so much. Makes me feel uncomfortable. Then after they leave I feel like they are staring at me the rest of the time. So weird...

JCbride2015

I'm annoyed that my gym lacks convenient group class times.  We have a mini gym in our apartment complex and really I'm only paying for the membership for the group classes.  I really wish they had Pilates more than twice per week.

Mostly, people at my gym are considerate, though.  I don't see too much machine-hogging, etc.  The worst thing is that sometimes people don't wipe off their mats after yoga or Pilates.  So I always wipe mine down before and after JIC.

ashley8918

SeaCaptainOtter said:

ashley8918 said:

STARERS. I want to throttle people who STARE at me at the gym. I mean, it's not like I never glance at another person, or make quick eye contact, but come on. But when they just sit there and stare at me or make prolonged, creeptacular eye contact? STOP IT! I know I look ridiculous. And I know that my ass is jiggling like an earthquake just hit. Jesus. ETF Paragraphs... or maybe not. Ugh.

SITB:

So creepy! Especially that moment between when you think they were just looking around and when you realize they are an stare-er. Staring back sometimes works... 

It's horrible!

I have been working with a personal trainer, and last week I had to send him over to yell at a starer. Dude was literally just sitting on a machine, not using it, staring at me HARD.

beethery

@ashley8918 what you have to do, and I've found that it works great, is making eye contact, and then making a HORRIFICALLY UGLY face. I am a champ at ugly faces, and it usually makes them reconsider their behavior and sometimes dry-heave.

This is a go-to

Chipmunk415

I had to quit public gyms and love my total gym and treadmill at home. Reasons I had to quit: too many near misses where I nearly yanked a stick figure off a cardio machine and gave the poor thing something to eat.; got fed up with the perfect hair/makeup/etc types making comments and snide remarks nearby.

ashley8918

beethery said:

@ashley8918 what you have to do, and I've found that it works great, is making eye contact, and then making a HORRIFICALLY UGLY face. I am a champ at ugly faces, and it usually makes them reconsider their behavior and sometimes dry-heave.

This is a go-to

hellohkb

I absolutely hate when people monopolize machines at the gym. It's rude and inconsiderate to those around you. I go to a gym where women will literally just sit and talk on the machines, particularly the thigh machines (there's only one machine of this kind). This is my reaction:

And high-five for those who also don't get hit on at that gym. I have been hit on at the gym twice in my life. Once was when I was 16 at the YMCA. The look on the poor guys face when I told him how old I was was priceless. I still feel bad for him. The second time was a month ago and I could not understand a word he said because he had an extremely thick French accent. 

Then again, I look like a sad tomato when I am at the gym, so I suspect this may be why....

sophhabobopha

beethery said:

@ashley8918 what you have to do, and I've found that it works great, is making eye contact, and then making a HORRIFICALLY UGLY face. I am a champ at ugly faces, and it usually makes them reconsider their behavior and sometimes dry-heave.

This is a go-to

I am also a champ, but make my faces at Fi to disturb him. (;

VulgarGirl

When I get the weird starerers I just stare back looking super creepy as well. So far it's worked for me, but at some point it might backfire and I end up with a new friend.

I've started getting hit on more when I do strength training because I have to go use the free weights and it's like guy central in there. Though I have been on the treadmills and had a guy come over and say "Ya know, I bet you got a really pretty smile. Come on smile for me. Oh come on, what'll make you smile?" so I said "Thinking about you being brutally murdered" in a scary calm voice. He called me a freak and left. He was like 50! I'm 28 but look like a teenager. WTF?! Haven't seen him around since.

One real young guy (maybe 18) came up to me and said "Bet you'd like to suck my dick" I responded "No, but I'm sure you'd like to suck mine" and reported him to management. Another guy came up to me right after and said he was very sorry I was treated that way and that he saw me in there all the time and was impressed by how well I could lift. I bought that guy a smoothie and hooked him up with one of my hot friends. See, see what happens when you're respectful to women!! If we won't sleep with you, we know other women who might!!! Treat us well and we'll introduce you!

ashley8918

MagicInk said:

When I get the weird starerers I just stare back looking super creepy as well. So far it's worked for me, but at some point it might backfire and I end up with a new friend.

I've started getting hit on more when I do strength training because I have to go use the free weights and it's like guy central in there. Though I have been on the treadmills and had a guy come over and say "Ya know, I bet you got a really pretty smile. Come on smile for me. Oh come on, what'll make you smile?" so I said "Thinking about you being brutally murdered" in a scary calm voice. He called me a freak and left. He was like 50! I'm 28 but look like a teenager. WTF?! Haven't seen him around since.

One real young guy (maybe 18) came up to me and said "Bet you'd like to suck my dick" I responded "No, but I'm sure you'd like to suck mine" and reported him to management. Another guy came up to me right after and said he was very sorry I was treated that way and that he saw me in there all the time and was impressed by how well I could lift. I bought that guy a smoothie and hooked him up with one of my hot friends. See, see what happens when you're respectful to women!! If we won't sleep with you, we know other women who might!!! Treat us well and we'll introduce you!

Hahahaha, i didn't even think about that.

I will definitely be employing this technique tomorrow. Will report back.

lovesclimbing

MagicInk said:

------box Yea, I was going to say reading is perfectly fine. But on a weight machine?! That's impossible unless you have a thingamajig that let's you hang it a few inches above your face. I don't have too many annoyances. My main annoyance is with gyms themselves. I really wish they'd put in private showers (just curtain dividers would be fine!) instead of a communal room. I'm extremely modest and also not too happy with how far I've let myself go the past year or so and really don't want anyone except H or the doctor seeing me naked.

Wait like just one big communal shower? Like on prison shows? Or like one big communal shower area with separate stalls? Because...outside of my elementary locker room I have never seen a communal shower in real life. And no one used the one in elementary school, it was a storage area. 

My gym has a shower area, and then there are separate stalls with shower curtains hanging up.

Yea, the gyms I've been at have all been communal.  As in one big room with about eight or ten shower heads with no partitions of any sort. My college gym and college pool was like that, the locker room at the pool where I used to work, and the shower at the gym where I grew up. Those are the only ones I've been to.  Maybe if I was at a higher end gym it'd be different?  But I don't have that much money, haha.

VulgarGirl

lovesclimbing said:

MagicInk said:

------box Yea, I was going to say reading is perfectly fine. But on a weight machine?! That's impossible unless you have a thingamajig that let's you hang it a few inches above your face. I don't have too many annoyances. My main annoyance is with gyms themselves. I really wish they'd put in private showers (just curtain dividers would be fine!) instead of a communal room. I'm extremely modest and also not too happy with how far I've let myself go the past year or so and really don't want anyone except H or the doctor seeing me naked.

Wait like just one big communal shower? Like on prison shows? Or like one big communal shower area with separate stalls? Because...outside of my elementary locker room I have never seen a communal shower in real life. And no one used the one in elementary school, it was a storage area. 

My gym has a shower area, and then there are separate stalls with shower curtains hanging up.

Yea, the gyms I've been at have all been communal.  As in one big room with about eight or ten shower heads with no partitions of any sort. My college gym and college pool was like that, the locker room at the pool where I used to work, and the shower at the gym where I grew up. Those are the only ones I've been to.  Maybe if I was at a higher end gym it'd be different?  But I don't have that much money, haha.

That's...that's crazy! Even my high school gym had shower stalls. The water park has a communal shower (I remembered that after I posted), but that's really just suppossed to be for a quick hose off, before heading home, not a full on shower. My gym isn't too fancy...we pay $20 a month each...even the YMCA by me has separate shower stalls.

I couldn't imagine asking a bunch of grown ups to take a group shower with total strangers. I love being naked. I have been naked on stage. And I would still not be comfortable with that.

zitiqueen

It's pretty common for men's shower rooms to be communal, but women's usually aren't. I go to two different Ys and both have stalls with curtains. One has four communal shower heads in addition to the stalls.

theartistformerlyknownas

MagicInk said:

When I get the weird starerers I just stare back looking super creepy as well. So far it's worked for me, but at some point it might backfire and I end up with a new friend.

I've started getting hit on more when I do strength training because I have to go use the free weights and it's like guy central in there. Though I have been on the treadmills and had a guy come over and say "Ya know, I bet you got a really pretty smile. Come on smile for me. Oh come on, what'll make you smile?" so I said "Thinking about you being brutally murdered" in a scary calm voice. He called me a freak and left. He was like 50! I'm 28 but look like a teenager. WTF?! Haven't seen him around since.

One real young guy (maybe 18) came up to me and said "Bet you'd like to suck my dick" I responded "No, but I'm sure you'd like to suck mine" and reported him to management. Another guy came up to me right after and said he was very sorry I was treated that way and that he saw me in there all the time and was impressed by how well I could lift. I bought that guy a smoothie and hooked him up with one of my hot friends. See, see what happens when you're respectful to women!! If we won't sleep with you, we know other women who might!!! Treat us well and we'll introduce you!

You're my hero.

SJM7538

For me is the 35 year old lady at the gym That looks 50 bc she tans so much and might as well be wearing a bikini when she works out. Don't get me wrong, she's in great shape, and good for her. But I don't need to see your ass hanging out of your shorts and your double d breasts popping out of your sports bra bc you refuse to put a shirt on. And she has her belly button pierced. Unrelated... I just think she's a little too old for that.

Other than that it's the men who insist on bathing in cologne before the run on the treadmill. News flash... It's not going to make the stink go away! It's just going to make me gag!

Kauris

Things that bother me at the gym:

• People with too much perfume/cologne on, gag
  
• Creepers, the guys just barely doing anything and waiting for a girl to talk to
  
• Gorillas, or they sound like it with their grunting, usually followed by:
  
• People who slam their weights down, it always startles me

SJM7538

Let's add people who don't bother to put shit back where it belongs to the list. Such as the weights. Bc it makes sense that the 40 lb barbell is next to the yoga mats and not on the rack

Senecaf

SJM7538 said:

Let's add people who don't bother to put shit back where it belongs to the list. Such as the weights. Bc it makes sense that the 40 lb barbell is next to the yoga mats and not on the rack

This is my biggest peeve. I get my workout in just moving your shit. RE RACK YOUR WEIGHTS! It says so all over the place.

Teenagers. I'm ok with he ones that actually are doing something but the girls that do 10 mins of cardio then stand around the free weights talking to boys from their school (it's summer, they are everywhere) Making the boys stop working and just sit on the bench talking the he girls. I want to say something but then I'm afraid I'll get jumped in the parking lot by 16 year olds.

-Grunters/slammers ROAARR!!!


As far as using double machines I do it occasionally (hams and quads super set baby) But only when it isn't busy. And I would never say anything to someone if they go on. FI likes to walk up to people while they are resting to ask if he can "work in" with them or ask how many sets they have left. I would find this annoying if he did it to me so I leave people alone.