Gym Ettiquette For 2010 Dummies

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[quote]Smallfry69 wrote:
Some good posts here…

To the dude that doesn’t want women in the gym in skimpy clothes - I feel sorry ya’s… I get way more motivated with a group of hot, sweaty, athletic women around… Hell most times I’ll be hitting my best workouts… Now it’s time for me to hit the gym and I hope to god this hottie is there in her tight fitting yoga pants (wish me luck)…

To the woman that had a dude come up and ask to spot her on the stiff-legged deads… Sign me up if you need a spot… I’ll snug in real close…

As for me, I’m pretty much in the zone the moment I walk through the door… I have a few regulars that give me the nod or a wave and then nobody talks to me… It’s better that way…

Things I don’t like:

  1. The photo taking with your cell phones of your hawt abs you send off to all your friends so they can all wack off to your little physiques… It’s a huge peeve and a distraction…

  2. Chatting on the cell phone… There’s a time and place… You start chatting on your cell phone near me when I’m squatting or benching, I’m gonna get up and shove it so far up your ass you’ll be dialing Berlin each time you fart…

  3. The working-in thing - I’m a FAN of this, but as someone said, be close to my level and don’t dick around, fondling the machine, as it blows my intensity… I was doing hammer strength on shoulders and had some dude work in, drop the weight to nothing do one to three reps and rest it down… I was thinking he was done… Hell no, he was taking a 30 second break before he did some more… Also, if you’re working in, it means your THERE at the machine, ready to bolt into a set - you’re not half way across the gym talking to your buddies about your hawt abs - seriously… As far as I’m concerned, you lost you spot, move on and deal with it. Got a problem with this? Again, move on and deal with it.

  4. Spotting - I love the dude to always asks how the person wants the spot… I’ve had people lift it so much I’m getting shit out of it… I’ve had people stand back while I hit a sticking point, can’t get past and have the bar descend… If I tell you I’m doing 6-8 reps, don’t expect me to stop at 8 as I might have more power and go for 10 - if so, it’s a warm up, so don’t try to re-rack my weight in mid-press. I’d say something else about females spotting me on the bench and “how I like it”, but it would come across to sexist, so I better shut-up while I’m on a roll…

  5. The squat rack at one of my gyms has handles so you can do pull-ups off it… To the guy that proceeded to do these while I was in the middle of squatting, you killed my set and if I see you do it again, I’m gonna drop the weight back towards you, get up, and have some words… I won’t be polite this time…

  6. Don’t critique someone’s form unless you have the physique to back it up… I’ll listen to people that have progressed, but don’t you dare come up to me and tell me my ass to the ground squats are bad and I don’t know what I’m doing… Or my deadlifts are bothering the other clients as they feel it’s bad for my back…

I’d write more, but I’m late for my workout…[/quote]

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This has probably been of my favorite topics on T-Nation, and I definitely vote it gets stickied. I work out at the “hardcore gym” in my town when I’m home from college, or at least that’s what I thought it was before I actually got decent at lifting. It’s sad that I’m one of (if not THE) the strongest guy in the gym at 20 years old, 6 ft 1.5, and 220 lbs. For the most part, I follow the rule of walk in like you have work to do and don’t talk to anybody, and the people that me will nod or wave and let me go about my business. However, we have a lot of middle aged people who come there to hang out and chat opposed to move some decent weights, and they are the ones who will routinely give you shit.

Here recently, I was doing power cleans and dropping the weight from the top, and yes I had the bumper plates on, the proper collar on the bar, and the rubber mats under to stifle the noise and protect the floor. I ask the current gym manager on staff before every session of power cleans so I don’t catch and shit, which is exactly what I did before said session. He gives me the green light, I go on my way. I’m not gonna lie, the bar makes a little noise when it hits the ground,but it’s a FUCKING GYM the last time I checked, so loud shit is welcome. Anyway, I’m working my way up to 250 for 5, and this old fucker who routinely sits around doing absolutely nothing talking to staff and doing a hammer press in between his routine jabbering calls me out in front of gym staff as I walk to get some water.

Him- Condescendly to me,“You don’t have to drop the bar.”
Me-“On power cleans, if I don’t drop the bar from the top, which is standard technique, I can really hurt my lower back because this is a lot of weight for me.”
Him-" I don’t know what a power clean is, but you’re doing it wrong and you’re gonna break the bar." WTF!!!?
Me-“So you don’t know what a power clean is, but I’m doing it wrong? The bar is meant to be used-it’s a bar. Would YOU like to learn how to do them?”
Him-“No I can’t do them, and I don’t know what they are, but you’re doing them wrong.”
Me-“Sorry you feel that way” and walk off shaking my head. You can’t fix stupid.

I walk back to the bar, and as I make my attempt at 250, one of the Cardio Queens straight RUNS across the gym from the treadmill to blatantly stare at me. For some reason, her face really weirds me out and I try to not look at her when I see her because it makes me laugh, and she got to me and I only hit the weight for 3 when it should of been an easy 5. Workout ends, I go home. I come back for my next session and i get a fucking note from the gym supervisor saying that a bunch of members complained( let me guess who, all of the skinny old fucks who’ve been running on the treadmill for 3 years now and haven’t changed their appearance at all and got their latest edition of AARP interrupted by some real work) and that my exercise was “endangering patron safety along with my own.” Guys, I’m absolutely willing to admit if I am wrong, but my form was good on the power cleans, there was no lateral deviation, and I was in complete control of the weight the whole time, and have never been hurt of hurt anyone else in the gym.

That shit pissed me off to my fucking core. I confront the supervisor who wrote the note, who’s known me for 3 years, and I told him that I had permission,and that there were two staff members present during my power clean session,and no one said shit. I get an apology, he says that he would really appreciate if I would keep my cleans to after 6pm, and that he will talk to the staff about not addressing the issue when it arose.I saw the guy who wanted to call me out the week after the note, and I smiled at him and kept on walking, while he glared at me. Otherwise, besides this thing, the only routine occurrence is people staring at me when I do this thing called a “front squat” with anything more then 1 plate and I actually squat butt-to-calves. I wish they could come on here and see what strong looks like, and maybe they would stop ogling my weak 285X5 front squat sets and go back to their latest edition of “Home Decor”.
Despite my long-winded story, a lot of the same etiquette issues happen at every gym and this shit needs to stop.

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I’ve started working-out at a college (not university, think tiny, tiny college) gym, so the obnoxious stuff is a little different. You get a combination of the five to ten guys who go regularly on are “bad-azz” in a world of skinny-fat book-worms (not bashing on the book worms, I went to this school too), and think they own the gym, the “functional fitness” gurus, and the fat (mostly chicks) spinning on the stationary bikes at 5 rpms… so take that for what it’s worth:

  1. I think it’s great that you love your kettle bells, but don’t take off my head or crush my balls while you’re flailing around. And it should go without saying that you don’t need to be within ten feet of any of the benches or machines, there’s plenty of room, in fact there’s three or four empty, completely separate rooms you can flail your kettle-bell around in with no risk of hurting anyone but yourself.

  2. I know 99% of the student population is totally out of shape, but just because you’re one of the ten guys that hits the gym regularly doesn’t mean I want your advice, doesn’t mean I want to hear about your “boxing club” exploits, and doesn’t mean I want to hear your snarky comments about increasing the weight on my squat - yeah, I know you’re “trying to get smaller” to be a competitive boxer (? Yeah, I don’t mean loose flab/make weight, I mean a twiggy 6" tall guy who weighs in at 150 pounds wants to actually “get smaller” to improve his boxing), and you think lifting heavy is a joke, but keep it to yourself.

  3. I think it’s great when people help eachother out, even if I know you’re speaking out of your ass, your still getting the fat kid into the gym and moving. Nice. But we don’t all need to hear your workout philosophy. We’re not taking your class, you don’t need to glance around the room to make sure everyone is hanging on your every word.

  4. If I ask how many more sets you have, I’m not being a dick, or telloing you to move, I’m really asking you how much longer you’re going to be using the piece of equipment you’re using. You neither need to shit yourself because I’m talking to you, nor puff out your chest and get defensive about how long you’re taking on the machine. I really am just asking.

  5. Yeah, I sweat. I grunt, I work-hard, and by the end, I’ll probably smell pretty rank. Sorry. It’s a gym, I’m there to sweat and grunt. No need to alert the authorities.

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Here recently, I was doing power cleans and dropping the weight from the top, and yes I had the bumper plates on, the proper collar on the bar, and the rubber mats under to stifle the noise and protect the floor. I ask the current gym manager on staff before every session of power cleans so I don’t catch and shit, which is exactly what I did before said session. He gives me the green light, I go on my way. I’m not gonna lie, the bar makes a little noise when it hits the ground,but it’s a FUCKING GYM the last time I checked, so loud shit is welcome. Anyway, I’m working my way up to 250 for 5, and this old fucker who routinely sits around doing absolutely nothing talking to staff and doing a hammer press in between his routine jabbering calls me out in front of gym staff as I walk to get some water.

Him- Condescendly to me,“You don’t have to drop the bar.”
Me-“On power cleans, if I don’t drop the bar from the top, which is standard technique, I can really hurt my lower back because this is a lot of weight for me.”
Him-" I don’t know what a power clean is, but you’re doing it wrong and you’re gonna break the bar." WTF!!!?
Me-“So you don’t know what a power clean is, but I’m doing it wrong? The bar is meant to be used-it’s a bar. Would YOU like to learn how to do them?”
Him-“No I can’t do them, and I don’t know what they are, but you’re doing them wrong.”
Me-“Sorry you feel that way” and walk off shaking my head. You can’t fix stupid.

" You can’t fix stupid." LOL One of my all time favorite quotes.

To add to your power clean experience; please, pretty please, do not walk in front or near me while I am performing cleans; very dangerous, both for me and you. I don’t know why but Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection comes to mind when this has happened to me.
To the cleaning staff at the gym. I appreciate you keeping the gym clean but could you please refrain from spraying your industrial strength windex around me? Nothing like a lung full of that crap while I am gasping for air during squats. Sheesh!
This is also becoming one of my favorite threads.

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[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]DJHT wrote:

X this is probably society creeping into the gym. NO ONE should have to wait for anyone. Today’s culture is “I am a special snowflake, you have to respect me even though I have not accomplished anything”. If you had kids (I dont know and I dont want to know) you would also see this in our school systems. NO kid left behind, educate to the lowest common denominator. Our best and brightest are not pushed they are left behind to take care of little Johnny. Sorry for Rant. Blame my X-wife. :slight_smile: [/quote]

Dude, we are on the same page and it pisses me off…and we see it right here on this site. No, IN BODYBUILDING, the guys who have been “training” for 12 years yet no one can tell they lift without them stripping to their underwear and holding a light bulb directly overhead as they flex every muscle until their nose starts bleeding…are NOT on the same level as people who everyone knows lifts weights seriously upon seeing them. Yet they seem to want the exact same respect and attention.

There used to be a level of respect in most gyms that the really big and strong guys earned. You didn’t fuck around with the 280lbs monster in the corner because he was clearly more focused and driven than the 150lbs weekend warrior who is in the gym “to tone”.

Good for us that society is benefiting so much from acting like everyone is made exactly alike. This could clearly have no lasting negative effects…could it?

I mean, let’s not give the kids who stayed out all last night partying an “F”…because that will destroy their self esteem. Let’s erase grades altogether so no one feels bad.

Didn’t go to college and make less than 50k a year? Well, you deserve a $200,000 house anyway so you don’t feel lesser than the neurosurgeon down the street. That will surely have no lasting economic effects, will it?[/quote]

Luckily, in my high school gym, I haven’t had to experience this. One time high school has something good about it.

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Thumbs down for 3 consecutive text walls on page 7. Youre late. Post funny pics or be gone

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[quote]marathe wrote:

[quote]Smallfry69 wrote:

  1. The squat rack at one of my gyms has handles so you can do pull-ups off it… To the guy that proceeded to do these while I was in the middle of squatting,
    [/quote]

Who would ever think that it was okay to do this? What the fuck is wrong with people? [/quote]

Oh yea. On the floor of my gym there are literally six stations for doing pull ups. It was 2am and it was just me and three other guys. There are two Cable Crossover machines and I had taken over the one with adjustable-height pulleys. My stuff was all over the place, leaving no doubt the area was occupied, when I went for a quick drink and came back to one of the guys doing pull-ups on the two little handles jutting out of the top. Of all the pull-up apparatus’s in the gym he chose the most rickety, most awkward one attached to a machine someone was using, while all the others were available.

Some of us train at stupid hours to avoid this kind of crap. When I came back I stood and hovered with my arms folded. He finished and went and hung out in front of one of the big tv’s. Haven’t seen him since. I can usually tell when someone’s trying to pick me up and that’s not what was happening. This guy was just OBLIVIOUS.

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When I first started powerlifting there was a PT at my gym who was pregnant. She was “training” a woman who was also pregnant. The PT used to bring a swiss ball from the stretching/ab area to the squat cages at the other end of the gym, put the ball between the two cages, and have her client do sit-ups on the damn thing because thats where the mirror was. None of this would have bothered me, except it only seemed to happen when i was in one of the squat cages, grunting away under near-on twice my own puny bodyweight. Used to scare the bejeebus out of me thinking what could happen if I fell over, or dropped the bar.

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This thread is awesome…especially the cleans. Whose fault is it if they get hit in the head with a barbell on the way down, the lifter or the the person trying to walk within 3 feet of you? At one gym I go to the lifting platform is right in the middle of all the racks and cable machines, I’ve always been scared to hit someone. I almost dropped 135 on a lady one day, luckily I saw her just in time. I hate how some gyms crowd way too much stuff around racks and platforms that you can’t even walk between them to get the weights.

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I hate when people grab weights off the rack while you’re lifting.

Today, I’m benching, not a lot of weight at the time, and this guy comes by and grabs weights. At this gym, weight stands are attached to the bench. It’s also a fairly narrow space between benches. So after I’m done I ask the guy how long he’s been lifting and inform him that its impolite to come by and grab weights right next to me when I’m under a load. Especially since the gym is loaded with weights all over the place.

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[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]pushmepullme wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]AlisaV wrote:
I wouldn’t ask to work in with a total stranger, but I do have training partners who are stronger than me, and we have to take off and put on plates all the time. It’s not a problem unless you make it one. Our rule: the weeny put on plates for the mighty.
[/quote]

I used to have training partners who were stronger than me too, but not 5 PLATES STRONGER per side. That is on a completely different level of strength. Does it make sense for someone who weighs all of 150lbs to run up to Ronnie Coleman on the hammer Strength and ask to work in? After he unloads 20 plates a side, how ready for that next set do you think he will be?[/quote]

If I am doing heavy singles and taking five minutes+ between sets, sure, come on in and strip the bar, do your thing…but you better have it reloaded by the time I get my knees wrapped.

I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that there just isn’t enough demand for the cage at my gym to make this an issue.[/quote]

And your mind set makes sense. If I were literally hogging a piece of equipment AND the guy wasn’t some rank newbie who needs me to unload several plates each and every set, I have no problem…but I don’t see anyone anywhere near my strength level in most gyms unless they are NPC competitors. For some newbie to jump in with me wouldn’t even make sense unless I am taking it easy that day and don’t mind turning “plate load&unload” into a workout in itself.

Once again, some of this is just common courtesy. I’m pretty strong but I STILL wouldn’t run up to someone like Ronnie Coleman and ask to work in unless I checked to see if it wold set him back at all.

I am not one who believes that everyone in the gym is treated exactly a like. If I see some guy who I know is training for an NPC contest, is already deep into his diet, has two weeks left of prep (which is exactly what one of the guys was dealing with months back), and he is doing leg presses, I am going to back off and let him finish his leg presses. I consider his goals slightly above mine since I have no major engagement coming up.

Why is this seen as wrong now?

This used to be how every single gym was run up until the 90’s or so.[/quote]

50 years ago it was like that but there were less morons around those days!

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These reasons are why I am glad I have my own gym!

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I have one more:

Don’t get offended when I turn down your advice.

Yes I know you are excited about your new program that you read about or seen a video of. And yes I understand you went to a seminar and are excited about your new found knowledge. But try to understand that my goals might be different and my time may be limited to workout (work,wife,kids,etc).

So don’t get pissed off when I stop you short to finish my training.

AND STOP TELLING THE PEOPLE AT THE FRONT DESK THAT I LOOK ANGRY ALL THE TIME.

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[quote]four60 wrote:

AND STOP TELLING THE PEOPLE AT THE FRONT DESK THAT I LOOK ANGRY ALL THE TIME.
[/quote]

GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!

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Well im suprised no one has mentioned this:

NO SHADOW BOXING OR SKIPPING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GYM, WHAT THE FUCK?

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[quote]waldo21212 wrote:

[quote]four60 wrote:

AND STOP TELLING THE PEOPLE AT THE FRONT DESK THAT I LOOK ANGRY ALL THE TIME.
[/quote]

GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!![/quote]

HAHAHAHAHA TELL EM “I LOOK ANGRY BECAUSE I AM ANGRY”

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haha shadow boxing thats a good one but we got a heavy bag and everyone thinks their the next ali on that thing…i guess i gotta mention wearing lifting gloves while doing seated calf raises or 15 lb bicep curls is quite annoying (besides the fact that i hate when people wear gloves anyways) also the naked guys in the locker room are the worst…but the worst of all is when im trying to work out fast w/ little rest and some guy feels the need to tell me about his nephew in buttfuck kentucky who is gettin recruited by lane kiffin and is runnin 4.5 40s as a wr…i swear i tried walkin away at least 5 times finally i just left mid conversation

my list goes:

gloves/wife beater guys
walking right behind you when ur cleaning or overhead pressing
chatty guy
naked guy

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What’s the acceptable alternative to wearing gloves if you or your sig other doesn’t like torn up hands?

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[quote]Spartiates wrote:
What’s the acceptable alternative to wearing gloves if you or your sig other doesn’t like torn up hands?[/quote]

Not to be an ass, I would say dont lift weights. That is our badge of honor like the torn up shins I have from dead.

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[quote]Spartiates wrote:
What’s the acceptable alternative to wearing gloves if you or your sig other doesn’t like torn up hands?[/quote]

Get another significant other.