A fellow blogger posted on bathroom and treadmill etiquette today and I thought I'd take a moment to chime in with my own comments on gym etiquette. This is something that has been bugging me pretty much since the day I joined my gym. I will leave the name out to protect the innocent, I mean, the gym didn't do anything wrong! I will however, say it is a part of a national chain. My gym has a special weights area labeled the 30 minute workout area. Now this isn't the only place in the gym with weights and weight machines, it is just set up to allow people on a time crunch to get in and out quickly while allowing up to 20 people to workout at the same time! I think the concept is great, and I use this area for my strength training workouts. There's even a list of "rules" for using the area, basically explaining the setup of the area and how it is intended to be used.
It's a really simple concept. There are 10 weight machines and 10 steps, you alternate between weights and whatever aerobic thing you want to do on the step. There are 2 lights at the front of the room, a green light, and a red light. The green light stays green for 1 minute, the red light stays red for 30 seconds. You do your weights or step thing when the light is green, you move between stations when the light is red. I know that it was designed so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand how to use it. Yet I can't tell you how many times people have blatantly ignored the rules of the area and the other people working out in the area!
I totally understand if you want to skip the aerobic part and only do the weights (well...I guess I do...like I said, there are more of the same machines in other parts of the gym but I guess they can be busy some days) or spend extra time on a machine or workout through the red light, whatever floats your boat as long as it doesn't interfere with the people who are there to follow the rules!! Maybe I'm selfish/judgey/whatever, but I feel like it's a common courtesy! You know there are rules for the area and if you choose to not follow them, the least you could do is work around the people who are there to follow the rules! I'm not amused when you start 3 stations behind me and choose to skip the step part and catch up to me and use the machine I'm getting ready to use! Not cool people! Just cool your jets and or skip that machine and come back to it instead of ruining my workout! I know I can easily alter my workout to accommodate them, and most time I do, but it doesn't make it any less annoying and rude! And don't even get me started about the people who sit on a machine not moving any muscle but their mouth!
Ok, so that's the end of my rant.
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