Drop your weird sightings here.
This was an outdoor gym in San Diego (Grinder Gym) where we were having a strongman competition, but I feel like it still counts.
A homeless dude came by while we had some downtime. He looked like he was pretty heavy into meth: skinny as a rail, but wiry strength, because he just went up to one of the barbells that was loaded for warm ups and started cleaning and pressing it just for funsies.
Eventually, the contest promoter told him to put the weights down and buzz off. I felt bad for the dude, pulled out a fiver and said “Hey man, there’s a Carl’s Jr a block down the road: go get some lunch”. Because, I mean, Carl’s Jr is awesome, and dude looked like he could use a burger.
The dude sees the bill, eyes go wide, he gives me a big bro elbow, and proceeds to do five BACK HANDSPRINGS in a row in order to exit the competition venue before full on sprinting toward the Carl’s Jr.
It was literally the most athletic thing I’d ever seen in a strongman competition.
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I still think about it.
Gold’s Gym, Abilene, Tx – I’m training near a woman using the seated row machine. A guy walks into the gym and hands her a brown paper bag. They don’t say a word.
She reaches into the bag and pulls out a pair of knee-high, black latex boots, puts them on, and stomps around. Then she pulls out a huge leather bullwhip. She proceeds to walk around the gym in her bad-girl boots, cracking the whip. She and Bag Guy still haven’t said a word.
She hands everything back to the guy and nods. He leaves the gym and she finishes her set as if nothing had happened.
What was happening?
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Celebrities working out.
I was a personal trainer in Orlando in the early 2000/2010’s at this time. Tiger woods came in and everyone was under orders not to even look at him. He had that martini-glass (not lightbulb) physique, but he was focused on his workouts. Shaq came in later in the evening with a group of about 8 guys and would just take over the free-weight are and dick around for a couple hours. That guy is huge btw - I’m 6’ 3" 235 lbs, and he could palm my skull like a basketball if he wanted to. Justin Timberlake was my favorite. He showed up, tried to use the hamstring machine to do a bicep curl, and looked a little confused, so a 5’2" female bodybuilder trainer (with abs you could use as a coffee grinder,) walked up to him and kindly offered to give him a tour and answer any questions about the facilities. He got offended, went to an empty aerobics room and did dance moves for half an hour.
Group Day Passes
Had a period of about 3 months where a (I’m assuming) local youth pastor would bring a group of kids and work out while quoting bible stories about Samson and Gideon while he out-bench pressed them as some “your body is a temple” convoluted spiritual lesson.
A corporate team-building event where all of them were in office wear and had to do athletic drills while drinking soda or water to prove some sales/motivational thing.
Different gym - some jacked guys came in with ICP masks spray painted (not makeup) on their faces, but you could tell they had tried to scrub it off. They were quiet, had a solid workout, and left.
Who did this?
As a trainer, part of my job was to clean some of the equipment. One day the smith machine had two black dripping handprints, about the width of someone squatting, and small puddles on the floor underneath. 99% sure it was motor oil.
The smoke alarm went off and everyone had to evacuate - it turned out to be someone who decided it would be funny to piss on the rocks in the sauna.
Someone found a lost gun in a shower stall (men’s locker room.) No one claimed it as far as I know.
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Ok, these first 3 posts ruined it for everyone else who thought of posting! 
How tf we gonna compete with any of that?
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Last I heard, he trains privately with T Nation contributor Ben Bruno now and is apparently a hard worker. I’m actually surprised he was able to go to a public gym, even in the early 2000s.
My only “celebrity” sightings came from a trip to Gold’s Gym Venice. Lots of pro wrestlers and actors there at the time. I want to say that one of them was John Cena, but honestly can’t remember.
Same trip: I used the urinal next to a guy who turned out to be Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue.
This one time…EVERYONE was training REALLY hard! No texting/standing around, jibber-jabbering in between sets of texting bros…just training!
BOOYAH!!!
Always weird when this happens:
I used to have a friend who would take all the dumb bells and move them off their racks, then put them all back on. That was his workout. He didn’t want to squat and bench with us (there were three of us that would go), he wanted to do that instead.
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Happened to me one time…I’ll bet we were at the same gym.
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This reminds me of one guy at my gym. I often train late, sometimes until the gym closes. Everytime, this guys shows up late. Not sure if he has trained or not. He spends an hour or so, adjusting weights at every rack and other locations, so it becomes sorted/adjusted like it should be in a perfect world. This is odd behaviour, though he once reacted upon me benching heavy, and stood prepared to watch me if I failed. I thanked him, as he continued his sorting out. He’s not an employee. I’m thinking OCD here.