While I would not consider myself someone who “calls the gym my home”, working out is something that I view as a sort of painful and laborious meditation. It is a place where people can go to relieve stress and work to better themselves through excercise. It is a communal space where people of all shapes and sizes can work towards their own benchmarks of self image. Again, this place is not our home. So why is it so often that we see people at the gym exuding the most deplorable behavior while working out like no one else is watching? I’m looking at you — the guy who spits on the floor after he is done suatting. You — the woman who dances sideways while walking up the stair machine. The list goes on and on. Here are a couple of great Grumbles about people at the gym.
People at the gym — Where to begin …
For starters, let’s talk about the people at the gym who sit idly on machines or workout equipment looking at their phones while you are waiting to use them…
The gym is for working out … not surfing the web!
I understand people use their phone to listen to their music when they work out. What I don't understand is when people just sit at a machine and stay on their phone. I seen people on the weight machine and do one rep and then sit there for 10 minutes on their phone and the cycle goes on and on. If you are just going to be on your phone then just stay home then. I could be using the machine, but now I have to wait or ask them are they done yet? If people think just being at the gym is going to make them stay healthy or fit, it doesn't work that way if they just spend more then half their time on their phone.
By Liza M., Metro US reader
And what about the people at the gym who treat the locker room like it is their bathroom at home?
Disgusting gym habits
This habit that some people have disgusts me to no end. There are people at the gym that I go to a few times a week who don't seem to have any home training. I've noticed when I'm in the locker room that once in a while I hear someone "clearing their nose" in the shower. You can't mistake the sound, a sharp hiss of a nostril projectile. They are doing this in a shower where other people go to wash up after a workout. I know that we as men sometime have gross habits, but to spray mucus in a public facility is beyond disgusting. These guys could just as easily grab a paper towel or piece of toilet paper and blow their nose. How difficult is that? The lack of consideration is what really angers me. Keep your nose bacteria to yourself!
Greg Evans, Metro Philly reader
"Keep looking forward. Don't pay attention to that grunting man next to me. People at the gym are the worst." - Your new workout mantra. Photo: iStock.
As we constantly say on The Grumble page, it really doesn't have to be this way! As a sollution, maybe we should stand up and point this kind of activity out to people who work at our gyms in order to set some boundraries. The gym can be a place where we can get away from the madness of our everyday lives. Hopefully the people at the gym who drag it into the darkest depths of humanity will understand.
If you have any more Grumbles about people at the gym, feel free to send us an email to grumble@metro.us or visit our new Facebook page!
