It always creeps me out when some guy I don’t know asks me to spot him in the gym. I don’t want to be rude and say no – and maybe I’m just paranoid – but it always seems like a gay pick-up line to me.
So here’s the story… I don’t really like people, so I go to the gym as late as I can – usually after 1am. There aren’t very many people there at that time. I went over to the far corner of the room, and began to use the cable row thingy. As I’m resting between sets, I hear some jackass over on the leg press machine making orgasmic noises. That’s pretty annoying. So after a few minutes of that, the guy comes over to where I’m sitting and starts using the tricep-extension thingy. What kind of spooked me about that was the fact that there is another one on the other side of the rack.
One thing about Americans is that we like to spread out, and kind of even up the physical space between all of the people we don’t know in a room. Think about riding a bus, or standing in line.
Now, it’s pretty much just me an him in this room, and he decided to use the machine closest to the only other person there. He says jokingly, “My legs feel like they’re going to fall off.” I just kind of nod to him, and force a chuckle.
So after a minute, he goes back to his leg machine, and I continue on my cable row deal. He comes back over to my area after making more rude noises, and begins to stretch his legs out… facing me. So now I’m kinda creeped out, and I’m staring straight ahead to avoid eye contact. After a few seconds of that, I get up and go to the other corner of the room, and proceed to use the incline bench deal. After a few minutes, he wanders back over to where I am and makes some comment about how he only has “One more set.” I say, “Cool,” and begin to lift the weight so he won’t talk to me.
As I’m switching my weights around, I hear him say something. I turn around and say “Pardon?” He wants me to spot for him.
I don’t want to be rude and say “No,” so I say “Sure.”
I don’t usually work out with a partner, so I’m not very knowledgeable about being a spotter. So I make sure I ask him what I need to do and where I need to stand. He just tells me to lift the weight off of him so he can get 12 reps. I figure, “Fine, this will be easy.”
So I’m standing over him, as he’s on his back on a bench, pushing two 50 pound dumbbells over his head, and counting reps. He gets to 10, and I figure I’ll just pull up on the dumbbells. Apparently this is not the correct way to spot this particular exercise. After he drops the weights, he tells me the correct way to do this is to push up on his elbows. Now I really can’t think of a more physically awkward and funny looking position for me to be in. I apologized, and explained that I had no idea how to spot for that, since I don’t normally work with a partner. He said it was OK, and I took this opportunity to bolt.
I’m not really one for confrontation, so I think if this sort of thing persists, I’ll just run away.
Honestly, I believe it’s more likely that the dude was just socially goofy, rather than trying to pick me up. …but I have been working out for a couple of years now…
I can’t even imagine what it’s like to be a girl and get this kind of annoying attention every day.