Everybody has gym pet peeves and yes, even I do. I can come up with so many but these ones are the ones that annoy me the most. I don’t think I ever did this list before but if I did, oh well…

Enjoy:

• People trying to talk with me during my workouts: I don’t really use the gym to socialize. When I’m in the zone and working out, I don’t want to be bothered. Most of the time I’m working out, I have headphones on listening to loud music so I can give people an easy sign that I don’t want to be talked to or be bothered. Yes, people will continue to be rude and want to chat me up anyway by tapping me on the shoulder or something so I can take my headphones off and chat with someone. I don’t want to talk with people during my workouts. I’ll socialize with people before or after my workouts but “during” is a big no no.
• People who hog equipment: When I need to use a certain piece of equipment, there’s always someone taking forever on it. The squat rack, the deadlift platform and the cable machine are good examples. People take forever on these things, it’s crazy. When they complete one workout on a piece of equipment, they’ll do a different workout on the same thing. So annoying and pisses me off. I just keep doing other workouts while waiting to use this equipment I need to use. I hate equipment hoggers!
• People giving me unsolicited advice: This happens once in a while. Some know it all comes over and says I’m doing a workout wrong and this person teaches me to do it his/her own way when I know I’m doing it right. This is a problem at the gym for sure.
• People with bad gym etiquette: There’s a lot of people with bad gym etiquette. People don’t care to put weights back when they’re done, leaving trash behind, leaving benches and other equipment all sweaty, etc. I can go on and on. There are too many people who have no respect for a public and commercial gym. They only care for themselves sadly.
• A real chatty person who goes around talking to “EVERYONE”: You’ll see this at almost every gym in America. There will always be this very chatty guy or woman just going around talking to everyone even if they’re working out and this person will talk to someone in between their sets. Sadly, some will see using the “gym” as a place to socialize, meet new friends and get to know everyone but in my opinion, the gym isn’t a place to socialize. If you want to socialize go to a coffee house or a bar. The gym is a place to get a good workout in.
• Watching people doing workouts in bad form: You see this everywhere in gyms. People doing workouts in bad form. It’s a problem at my local gym. I see it every time I go there. Amazing how many people out there are misinformed with working out. Some people do workouts in good form but most people workout in the gym pretty horribly. Amazing.
• Crappy music being played on the radio: It’s a part of why I bring my own Ipod to the gym so I can listen to my own music. Sometimes my local gym does pick a good radio station like classic rock and metal they sometimes play but my local gym are always playing bad country music, pop and rap music. Sometimes they even crank the radio a bit too loud too. I like my own music.
• When someone asks me if I’m still using something: Happens all the freakin’ time. I’m using something and then I finish, someone will walk up and ask if I’m still using it. Does it look like I’m still using it if no else is? When I wipe something down and walk away it means I’m done, no need to ask me. Some people would assume I’m super setting on two different workouts but I don’t super set. Fucking people. *sigh*
• Seeing a group of young kids bench pressing and watching them do it all wrong and sloppy: Sometimes at the local gym I go to, I would see a bunch of young kids. A group of 4 or 5 kids somewhere around 10 – 15 years old getting together to bench press and take turns. They do it in pretty bad form and sloppy, don’t even know what they’re doing. Sometimes I’ll sit there and watch ’em and I worry about them sometimes. I appreciate young kids looking out for each other in bench press but if a young kid that age going to bench press should be accompanied by a full grown adult who knows what he’s doing. Bench press is dangerous for youngsters that age, in my opinion and someday there’s gonna be a freak accident. I know young kids wanna be cool and look tough bench pressing but I don’t like it. Should be accompanied by an adult.
• Loud weight dropping: Doing deadlifts and slamming the weight down to the floor is okay ’cause you’re doing heavy deadlifts and there’s no way to set it down quietly knowing from my own experience. With dumbbells however is different. Guys dropping heavy dumbbells to the floor loudly and heavily continues to be a problem. Not only that it’s annoying but it’s also very dangerous and could hurt you or someone else. When the dumbbells come down to hit the floor they could hit your leg for sure or worse when someone’s walking by you, you’ll never know that the dumbbell could land on someone’s foot. You could lose your gym membership for that if you hurt someone else. When you finish your set, it’s not that hard to set them down quietly or even better get yourself a spotter when doing dumbbell presses on a bench. I see guys using spotters all the time when dumbbell pressing heavy on the bench. It works. Try it.

There you go. Enjoy.

Kev