Lets not be judgemental and reinforce a stereotype.
People not allowing you to work in, either offering it when they can clearly see you standing there next to the machine being used waiting patiently or if you ask to work in, they act like it’s going to be too much of a problem and so they just tell you they have several sets left; presuming you’ll walk away. The latter is what I experience the most.
I always try to be mindful when I’m approaching a piece of equipment that I’d like to use and see it currently being used by someone (or in the case of teenagers or kids in their early 20s, a “pack”), and as I am pretty large and imposing, I’ll often politely even just stand several feet away for a minute or two, drying off or drinking water, but assessing the situation. How many are actually rotating in to work out on this machine? Ok, what sort of rest are these guys taking in between sets (with the previously mentioned age groups, this is nowadays almost always anywhere from 10-15 minutes while they joke around and also play on the internet). Do they appear to even be CLOSE to finishing?
And with the usual answer being NO to all the above, I’ll politely ask “hey, how many sets do you have left on the fly machine?” Just real simple, real to the point. Then, they all look at each other like they’re trying to calculate out a complex math equation, and I’ll see their eyes dart around from one guy to the next, all of them wondering who will actually answer me, and then one guy will tell me the now usual lie “well, I think we’ve got 3, maybe 4 sets each left [and there’s 3 dudes]”
And then they’ll sort of turn away and go about their bullshitting, maybe one guy pretending to start a set like they are actually moving along, which is BS as they’ll inevitably fuck off again. But nowhere in their response will there ever be a line that I almost always heard when I was growing up in the gym back in the 90s; “yeah, I got about 2 or 3 sets left but you’re welcome to work in if you’d like”!
And so you’d usually do so and hell, sometimes you’d either make a new friend/gym friend, maybe lift more weight than you’d been planning or hit more reps than planned, maybe the both of you would just keep working out together and finish hitting back/bi’s that day, etc. But everyone was always willing to let another person work in.
That is by far the biggest change in gym etiquette that I’ve witnessed in my 28 years lifting in many, many gyms. Yes, the cell phones/internet/instagram, influencers, tripods, etc have also become annoying and impeded workouts, but the lack of allowing people to work in, as @Njord so rightfully nailed it, is the biggest change in gym etiquette that pisses me off and is just selfish.
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I think it’s an unfortunate product of the newest generation growing up with safety spaces & safety pins, then entering young adulthood via Covid isolation. Sad when you think about it.
I had an experience last week at a gym I just joined. There were backpacks at two of the machines I wanted to use. I waited, no one using them so I jumped on one of them (rows). I typically do EMOM for two warmup sets and I finished those when a guy showed up and informed me he was on the machine and that he left his stuff there to hold it while he did circuit training on other machines.
Being new, and trying to be better, I didn’t say anything, just moved on. He only had one set left so it wasn’t a big deal.
But, I did want to tell him that you can’t reserve 3-4 machines for circuit training in a crowded gym. Being new, I didn’t want to get into it with another member on my first day, so I just waited.
It all worked out, but if he had more sets, I would have pushed to work in with him. Would that have been wrong?
No.
I personally don’t allow circuits to delay my own lifts. You’re welcome to pick up your circuit between my sets but you can time it around me. Or fuck off. You pick.
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That was my feeling as well. He was explaining that he was 57 years old and doing circuit training to keep up with his grand kids. I wanted to tell him to get on a tread mill but my initial response was the same as yours.
I’m sixty, ride my bike close to thirty five miles a week for transportation, so don’t have a lot of compassion for a guy trying to get circuit training in during peak times in a crowded gym.
I’m also not a fan of circuit training. I get it, but it seems counter productive to me.
I am also much bigger than him, so there is that.
All worked out.
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My take is that it’s more selfish to hog multiple pieces of equipment than to use one while somebody “using it first” is across the room actually using something else. Many ways to make it work, but for me it’s either working in or the other guy is waiting if he feels he must. Specifically for a circuit scenario. Not advocating muscling in on rests between sets or quick trips to the water fountain.
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Trannys are 99.9% sexually or mentally degenerate men. Loads of pedos aswell.
Something like this would
be awesome.
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Probably a little.
If I ever move back to St. Louis area and you open a gym, I am there.
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I’m relocating to Pensacola… but I have a company that’s going to be quite successful, and a one-of-a-kind gym is going to be a thing. I’m so fed up with weak ass commercial gyms and the lack of comradery / old school vibe.
I will be back and forth between there and St Louis.
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I am in FL now but the east coast. Darn.
I would love to open a gym like you mention but it’s hard to take that risk when small kiddos are part of one’s family. Maybe in 10 years or so.
Good luck, @marine77!
Understandable… I have a canned coffee coming out soon. And my clothing line. A lot going on. Its gonna happen and I’ll keep you posted.
Think if there was a gym in Conan’s time… Slayer and Van Halen blasting. No phones allowed. And that’s just the beginning
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Fist bump… thank you
I will buy both.
My kind of place.
That’s greatly appreciated. We are veteran owned and sponsor vets and 1st responders with PTS and disabilities.
We are at Tyr1.com
Would be bad ass to have some T Nation peeps rep our stuff