Fitness Review Network

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Author: Amy Barnby

Whether you’re brand spanking new to the gym or a decorated veteran, there are certain things everyone needs to live by to get along in the same environment. Let’s get real here. Other people gross us out. You can admit it. Don’t be offended by what you’re about to read. It’s all meant for the greater good. We all have pet peeves and here are some that rank amongst the top offenders. So spill the beans. Are you guilty?

1) If you sweat all over the equipment, wipe it off! This is the gym version of “If you break it, you buy it.” If your sweat trickles down your body and finds itself comfortably pooled on a bench or elliptical that others are going to use, clean it up. I’m sure we’re in agreement that we don’t want strangers’ bodily fluids infiltrating our personal space without invitation!

2) Rack your weights! Not everyone is as strong as you nor does anyone else want a temp job as your janitor. You know who you are. If you use a weight, put it back. Ten plates a side on the leg press is a pain in the butt for anyone to put away. At least you got the benefit of growing your wheels with those weights! Don’t make other people do your dirty work for you.

3) Pick a weight and use it—not the entire collection of dumbbells! Many people have to use the same weights. That means we all have to share. Pick a set—or two if you must—and use them. Don’t pile five pairs of dumbbells around your bench and tie them up so no one else can use them.

4) Return weights to their proper place! No, 5-pound dumbbells don’t typically belong in between the 75-pound and 80-pound sets. They typically go from lightest to heaviest and don’t skip and jump around. You want a quick, intense workout and don’t want that to include a frustrating 30-minutes of weight-searching.

5) Use the equipment and move on. Don’t take calls, text or have long, drawn-out conversations while sitting on the equipment. It’s a place of fitness, not a nightclub.

6) Don’t spit in the steam room, sauna or pool. OK, I know this seems like common sense but I can’t tell you how many people I hear clearing their throats with that deep, gurgling, productive noise and spitting it on the gym floor. Quite simply, that’s disgusting and you should know better.

7) Wear shoes in all common areas. Flip flops are cheap. Get a pair and wear them in the wet areas. Who knows what people have growing on their feet? Do you want that touching you? I think not.

If you make a mess in the locker room, pick it up. I know gyms claim they have a cleaning crew come in everyday but we all know that’s just not the case or there wouldn’t be dust bunnies around the locker bases. Let’s not add to the daily mung. Throw away your trash and pick up the stuff you spill. It takes two seconds.

9) Grunting like a wounded pack of pigs is completely unnecessary when lifting weights. I understand hitting it hard and I understand sometimes a grunt here or there pops out. But come on, when you sound like Tim-The-Toolman-Taylor on steroids and high as the stratosphere, you look like an idiot, not a man of steel.

10) Don’t stand in the doorway of the sauna and have a conversation while the door’s open. It’s hot in there and we’d like to keep it that way. Letting in all of that room-temp air defeats the purpose and is just plain inconsiderate.

11) Flexing at the gym is a joke. I’m not talking about admiring a great pump or looking to see if you’ve made improvements. I’m talking about getting up close and personal with the mirrors, pulling your shorts up so you look like you’re wearing a teeny bikini, and standing there for ten plus minutes flexing. It’s a joke. The only people I ever see doing that are spindly looking worms. Are you one?

12) Don’t put Mr. Bubble in the hot tub! I have seen mountainous bubbles in the hot tubs of every gym I’ve ever used. Aside from the fact that it’s actually kind of funny, it takes days, even weeks, to fix it correctly. Besides, there are cameras watching you in those areas. They know who you are.

13) Wear underwear if you’re going to be wearing short shorts and stretching. Like Seinfeld said, there’s good naked and there’s bad naked and a bout of underwear-less stretching just isn’t anyone’s idea of good naked. Enough said.

14) While we’re on the subject of good naked versus bad naked…wait until you’ve got the body you’ve always dreamed of to flaunt your stuff in the locker room. I understand getting undressed is necessary and normal. What I don’t understand is why the only people walking around completely naked for 30 minutes at a time, putting on make-up, blow drying their hair, reading a book (I’m not even kidding) and watching TV, are the ones even Roseanne Barr would want to cover up. Please, for the sake of humanity, get naked, get dressed and be done with it already. The locker room is not your local nudist colony.

And finally, it’s here—the pièce de résistance.

15) Make sure you’ve showered and have clean clothes when you go the gym! And good grief, wear some deodorant! When you walk by and people are parting like the Red Sea, you or your clothes need a wash—perhaps both! If you’re using, say, an exercise bike and five people have spent two minutes each on the bike next to you and suddenly then left in the middle of their workout, you probably stink. If people’s eyes are watering and their mouths are pursed like they’ve just sucked a lemon, it might just be you. Never, ever, ever wear the same clothes to the gym without washing them first. And, since that needed to be stated, I’ll put this out there, too. Never, ever, ever store sweaty gym clothes in your gym bag and wear them again the next workout! This is just rank and I’m not kidding when I say people can smell you from a mile away.

There you go. Someone had to say it and it might as well have been me. We all want to look like gods and goddesses and we all know it’s going to take effort to get there. So, let’s make it easier on all of us. Follow these simple acts of decency and we’ll all get along just fine. We might even start to enjoy it!

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at 3:31 pm and is filed under Weight Loss Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.