It's rant time again! The gym is SO ANNOYING...

...and by "the gym" I really mean the people at the gym.

I have written about people at the gym who annoy me before, but it's time to revisit the topic.

Ready... set.... RANT!

First of all, Planet Fitness gets a lot of hate but it has everything I need in a gym. All the dumbbells, weight machines, and cable machines that I personally need, cardio equipment, and an area where I can jump around and do plyometrics like a crazy person. It's 24 hours and it's $10 a month. The perfect gym for me.

I normally workout at Planet Fitness anywhere between 5:45am-7:30am. This is when the normal and courteous people go to the gym. The ones who understand gym etiquette and dress like normal people. Not idiots.

During winter break, Planet Fitness gets an ONSLAUGHT (I love that word) of college kids. It's mostly young boys who appear to be anywhere between 18-23. I get it, they're home from college on break and they're working out. I made the unfortunate mistake (several times in the past two weeks) of not hitting the gym until mid day. (Hey, I'm on winter break too, and this teacher needs her beauty rest!!) It's during this time of day that the gym is SUPER crowded, and it's generally those college boys who do not know gym etiquette!!!!! 

Example #1: Boy who sits on the only stability ball not being used while waiting 

for his friend to finish doing sit ups. He wasn't using the ball. He was just chillin' on it. 

And of course he does this when I wanted to use the ball for push ups. Oh well, it forced 

me to do normal push ups, which isn't a bad thing at all.

Example #2: Boy who does 10 pull ups on the assisted pull up machine, then sits 

on the stoop of it in between sets while he rests anywhere between 2-3 minutes. I wanted to

scream, "STEP AWAY FROM THE MACHINE AND LET OTHERS USE IT DURING 

YOUR REST PERIODS. IT'S THE ONLY ASSISTED PULL UP MACHINE!!"

But I did not.

Example #3: Middle aged man (Finally, not a college boy committing an infraction!) 

sitting on a weight bench in between sets on the Smith machine. He's not using the

 weight bench for his workout, he's just sitting on it to rest. All the other weight benches

were being used. It would have been nice if he wasn't hogging the last one.

I am sure you see a pattern here. These people are gym hogs. And I'm sure you're wondering, "Well, why didn't you speak up? Why didn't you ask for the stability ball? Why didn't you ask to 'work in' with the guy chillin' on the assisted pull up machine? Why didn't you ask the lovely gentleman if he was using the bench?" Because I'm a wuss, that's why.

Image by Nik Eakle

Changing gears...

Now let's talk about the people who dress like idiots at the gym. Again, it's usually the college age men. And what makes them look like douche bags is that they are trying too hard to look cool. It's just so obvious they think their shit doesn't stink by the way they walk around like they own the place. I saw my absolute favorite outfit last week. (And by favorite, I mean it won the douche bag award.) With the magic of Google Images, I shall recreate the outfit for you...

Yes, it is now en vogue to wear knit caps to the gym and walk around like your shit ain't stanky. You know, I've seen people at Planet Fitness in Tweety Bird pajamas. But that doesn't bother me. Because those people OWN it and don't give a shit what other people think of them. It's the people that try waaaaay too hard to be cool that annoy me. As my husband would say, "Pajama people at least stay out of your way and stick to mainly the recumbent bikes."

Disclaimer:

I realize I just made sweeping generalizations about college age boys that attend Planet Fitness. If you are a college age male who does not hog equipment and does not wear knit caps to the gym and does not walk around like The Lord of Planet Fitness, then I sincerely apologize. Though I will be surprised if any men of the aforementioned age are reading my blog. I'm not sure my content lends itself to that demographic...

In conclusion...

I am definitely enjoying winter break, not working, and sleeping in. But it will soon come to an end and it will be back to getting up at 5am. The good part is, the gym will not be nearly as crowded, and the people that are there that early will dress like normal people and won't hog the equipment!

Do you get annoyed when the gym is crowded?

Most annoying gym etiquette infraction you ever witnessed?

What is the stupidest thing you ever saw someone wearing at the gym?

5 people at the gym who annoy me and 1 who makes me sad.

I really want my blog to be a POSITIVE place, but sometimes I will go on a rant. I will try to make the rant funny and not hateful. I want people to be laughing after reading it, not wondering why I am a bitch who takes herself too seriously- because I'm not! And if I ever am... please just call me out on it!

I'm usually never annoyed at the gym, but once in awhile I run across one of these people! Luckily my gym is pretty big so I can usually avoid the wackos. But I thought it would be fun to list the types of people that irritate me, and consequently, probably make me work harder! (I get my best workouts in when I'm angry/annoyed.)

5 People Who Annoy Me

1. The person who sniffs their nose or makes disgusting throat clearning sounds on the treadmill next to me. This would typically annoy me anywhere, but at least I could walk away (presuming it was a stranger). When I'm doing sprints on a treadmill, it would totally kill my mojo to move to another machine. Though you could argue that if I have enough energy to focus on the gross noises the person beside me is making, then I'm not sprinting hard enough...

2. The person who "claims" a weight bench. You've seen it. There is a water bottle sitting beside a bench, yet no one is in sight. There's a sweat rag draped across it but no one is there. And the worst of the worst- someone leaves a pair of dumbbells by a bench, staking their claim. This person is not just hogging a bench but DUMBBELLS too! If you're using the bench, fine, but that means you are actually on it, or maybe just switching out your dumbbells and you'll be back in a second. But don't go over to a whole other part of the gym and feel like the bench is reserved for you for when you get back to it in 5 minutes.

3. The person who just chills out on a machine between sets. Technically, I guess I could go up and ask if I can work in, but I don't like talking to strangers. Plus they could get annoyed with me. They could write a blog post about the people in the gym they find annoying, and #1 could be "The girl in the bandanna who asks to work in during my sets."

4. The slow walker. I like to keep my heart pumping at the gym. If I bang out a set of pull ups and need to head over to the mats for planks, I don't like to take my good old time about it. In fact, if I could jog over without looking like an idiot, I would do that! But sometimes I get behind someone just taking there good..... old..... time..... getting..... to..... their.... next..... OKAY LET'S STOP THE MADNESS. They're walking slow and I get stuck behind them. I hate that!

5. The advice giver. Otherwise known as The Douche Bag. I had a sad encounter with one of these a few months ago at Planet Fitness. I was doing my push ups, minding my own business, when a guy who I saw around the gym quite a lot approached me. He gestured for me to take my headphones out of my ears. Oh great, I thought. This can't be good. He proceeded to tell me I should keep my head up during push ups, not look at the ground. Apparently, he had to see a chiropractor to correct a neck problem he had developed due to not having proper head placement during push ups. This made me wonder, how many push ups was this guy actually doing that he needed to see a chiro due to the fact he didn't hold his head correctly!? At the time, I was only doing 45 push ups ONCE a WEEK and never experienced any risidual pain from them. Needless to say, I was super pissed this guy interrupted my workout so I didn't even respond. I put my headphones back on and continued with my workout. Then of course, when I got to work, I googled "Should your head be up or down during a push up?". Mostly everything I read said your whole body should be in a perfect line from your feet to your head, with your head slightly up. But it's okay to look down if it helps you concentrate more. It didn't say anything about neck injuries, and I really actually had to FISH for someone to say something about the head. The most important things are not letting your hips sag and not letting your elbows flail out. The fact that I wrote a huge paragraph about the advice giver clearly shows I am not over the incident!

and..............

1 Person Who Makes Me Sad

1. The dangerously thin girl speed walking uphill on the treadmill. You know who I am talking about. She is clearly 30 lbs underweight. Her thighs are as thin as your forearms. She is hanging onto the console of that treadmill for dear life, trying to burn off every single calorie she has ever consumed and then some. It makes me very sad when I see girls like this. I know they are lost and in a lot of pain. Then I wonder, how many other people in the gym are suffering an eating disorder, just like this girl, but we don't notice because they are not so severely underweight? Maybe they are a normal weight or even obese. Just because someone isn't dangerously thin does NOT mean they don't suffer from an eating disorder.