Pt. 2

So last week I touched on gym safety, this week I’m going to brush the surface of gym etiquette.

Probably the most annoying thing for me at the gym are the grunts that are, in all likelihood, audible from space.  The expenditure of air from your lungs while you’re in the middle of a strenuous push/pull is very important.  Not only does breathing correctly help maintain your strength levels when involved in the movements, it also helps you keep a rhythm and zone out, in a manner of speaking.  All of that said, please don’t expel the air from your lungs in a way that makes babies cry.

Clamps and weights.  If you see a person or set of people either working out on or hovering around a particular machine, don’t just cruise up and take something from the racks.  There have been a couple of instances where I would finish up on a bench and help change the weight for my wife and someone would just roll up and take the clamps or the weights (I must confess that I almost went after someone once or twice – I blame the testosterone) that I had been using.  Unfortunately there’s nothing common about common courtesy… but it is still considered to be polite to ask if the items are being used, regardless of what the people are doing.

While this doesn’t really have to do with etiquette, I still find it annoying and funny at the same time.  At that gym that I frequent there are a couple of people who, in a given hour, spend about 15 minutes actually lifting weights, and spend the other 45 minutes strutting around the rooms as if they’re God’s go mankind.  I mean seriously, if you’re there to work out, then do it.  I’m ranting.  Whatever.