I’ve been lifting in gyms for more than 25 years. Until very recently (excluding COVID) I’ve never had issues working in with folks when a piece of equipment I wanted to use was in use.
In the last several months, however, I’ve asked someone if I could work in 5-6 times and been told no all but once. Today really took the cake – the guy who I asked to work in on the leg press told me he “had another 10 minutes left” and “really just wanted to sit here and do his thing” as the reason he didn’t want me to work in. And then proceeded to never get up from the leg press during his rest periods – just sat there on his phone. I’m at a loss – I always let people work in and make it a point to offer if someone ever asks me how many more sets I have.
This is a big part of it. People need to leave the God damn phones in the locker room and concentrate on lifting. Easy to let a guy work in if you get off your phone in between sets and get your head out of your ass.
I haven’t lifted at a public gym for about 8 years. I just recently started going to the YMCA (kids want to swim) and it supplements the barbell work I do at home. The gym culture has definitely shifted a little. I did some box squats the other day and used a bench from across the room. When I was done I stripped the weights and put the bench back where it belonged. The employee thanked me several times which I thought odd. He said, “you’d be surprised how rare it is for people to put stuff back.” Hell, I’ve worked out in places where if you didn’t strip your weights off a 45 would come flying across the room.
Maybe a problem with the atmosphere at your gym? Some gyms just have and tolerate a lot of douchey behavior. The proliferation of social media has contributed to the problem. People who come to the gym to create “content” are always a pain in the ass.
Since I’ve gotten into Olympic lifting, I workout in my home setup, and I’ve never looked back. It’s the way to go if you have the space.
The current generation of E-lifters has new ideas about gym etiquette, and now they considered it rude to ask to share equipment.
And these young punks love to teach the older people, who they love to piss off anyway, a lesson by refusing. It’s becoming a whole thing for them, like your not a serious gym goer these days until you experience and refuse the work-in request. So we can probably expect more of this.
Also, there have just always been people who didn’t like to share. Former bench press world record holder Jim Williams invented the Rest/Pause method because he didn’t want to get up and let other guys use the bench between his sets.
You know, I’m going to throw this out in the spirit of discussion, and understand this does not need to be normalized, but I hope it helps with clarity.
Sometimes I want to ramp up. Sometimes I decide my rest pauses and they change based on how I feel and what techniques I use. That’s my workout, not anything to do with you since we pay the same.
If you have a time crunch, I’ll be respectful, but you need to have a plan b. I understand you organized your gym time, but I organized my work and family time. I don’t owe you a set.
Whatever respect you think you deserve needs to be shown to anyone else at the gym.
Gym culture has changed quite a bit and seems to echo a sort of reclused vibe in general that is difficult to define. Life in general has become very transactional and digitally oriented, safe spaces are a thing and I get the impression Covid shutdowns and isolation permanently altered public interaction perceptions, even if subtly.
That said, gyms still exist with an old school culture. People work in and even become friends, squat racks are respected et cetera. Usually these aren’t chains and they exist in warehouse districts in my experience.
However, while I allow people to work in, if it means completely stripping and reloading weights back and forth I’m probably going to say no on certain lifts. If I’m pyramiding up to a 90% working set I don’t have the time or energy to keep moving plates around in between as an example. If we are close in training weight and it’s just a plate or two from either side, or a pin selection machine, then absolutely.
I get this. And I did pivot to something else. But this gym has a single leg press (it’s small) and he was sitting on it using his phone in between sets. There was no rhyme or reason to his rest periods.
Maybe the “if you’re on the phone, you’re dicking off mentality” is just grating to see. Personally, I use my phone to listen to music, biofeedback apps (don’t judge me,) or try to make my time more efficient by responding to work emails, or acknowledging that I have a busy day and the only mental respite that allows my introvert self to recharge is inbetween sets so I can be a decent husband and father.
Some people are jerks and don’t understand “the culture,” but there isn’t one universal one. For some it’s like drinking from a firehose, for someone like me it’s a sanctuary.
With all that said. It does irritate me when the leg press is occupied. My strategy is to do walking lunges next to them as a warmup and stake a claim so no one else steals it.
I thought about standing there staring at him until he finished but then decided I didn’t have the energy for that. Your strategy is one better than what I was thinking of doing!
When the person finishes with the leg press, drop one dumbbell in the seat, return the other, anyone who tries to take the other one back will be slower so you get the press.
Yeah man, totally “a thing.” Experiencing a feeling of Righteous Indignation is a huge milestone for E-Lifters.
Another “thing” to get upset about is someone looking at you. Like the youths set up a camera to film their sets, then review the footage and get pissy and tell their friends about it if they catch someone on camera watching.
