Making consistent daily trips to the gym can be challenging for many people. It’s very common for people who have the heart to transform their body to quit physically going to the gym but not cancel their payments because they don’t want to admit they’ve given up. One simple thing you can do to make the process easier is to make sure your gym experience is comfortable, motivating, safe and inspiring so that people can concentrate intently on the challenging task they have ahead. They don't need any unsuspecting and unexpected variables from other gym members to make them dread going to the gym day after day until they eventually give up. Here are 9 things to never to do at the gym to make the experience help yourself and your fellow gym patrons.
1. Leaving Heavy Weights on the Floor.
It can be very annoying to be exhausted from your workout then have to pick up restack someone else’s weight before you can do your next workout because they were too lazy to do it themselves. It only takes a minute or less to take weights off the bar, put dumbbells back on the rack and put yoga mats and other equipment back where it belongs so others can find it. Being tidy, having good manners and keeping the place clean goes without saying but you also want to keep the area safe so that someone else doesn't trip over weights and get hurt which could cause them to have second thoughts about their next trip to the gym.
You may not realize it, but most people really need to motivate themselves to go to the gym and if a gym is messy and they always need to pick up after others, it not only makes it hard to stay motivated, but it also could cause people not to want to go - or even cancel their membership. Picking up someone else's weights isn't the same as picking up after your roommate. Weights are heavy and just because you might be big and strong doesn't mean the slim petite woman using the equipment after you can easily move the weight or wants to ask someone to move it for her. You may be tired and absolutely exhausted yourself from a set of demanding deadlifts, so you can put a positive spin on picking up the weights and think of it as burning a few more calories.
2. Hogging up all the equipment.
Circuit training is a great way to get results fast. It saves a lot of time, it's super intense, it builds muscle and you do cardio and resistance training at the same time. Circuit training is where you do multiple exercises at the same time without taking a break. For example, you may do 1 set of shoulder presses, followed by 1 set of bench presses followed by a set of dumbbell squats followed by a few other exercises covering other muscle groups without taking breaks in between. The problem with circuit training at a public gym is that you could be hogging multiple pieces of equipment forcing others to wait. You be occupying 3 or 4 sets of dumbbells at various popular weights, a swiss-ball an EZ bar and perhaps the TRX bands making all your other fellow gym members stand in frustration with nothing to do. Not a good way to make new friends but a great way to make enemies.
There is a way you can do a circuit at a gym where you're not hogging up all the equipment. You could either do your entire circuit using machines instead of dumbbells so that as soon as you get off one machine, someone else can get on or if you insist on using dumbbells, just use one set of dumbbells at a time and leave the others on the rack, and if someone else happens to grab those dumbbells just skip that exercise and complete the next exercise on your lists and come back when they're done.
3. Yelling Screaming and Grunting Loudly
it always grabs my attention when I hear someone yelling while lifting weights. It's a sign that someone is working hard and it makes you seem manly and masculine. But when I turn my head and see someone doing it just for the sake of sounding masculine and trying to impress the girls, it just gets annoying. Also, if you're yelling and screaming like an idiot and the weights you're lifting are actually light, you're not going to look very masculine and manly at all. You're going to reveal to others how weak you are. You’ll just be breaking the concentration of others. Yelling doesn’t make you stronger and cursing is completely unnecessary. I'm not saying it's not okay to grunt but grunt only if you need to and not because you think you have something to prove.
4. Leaving Your Sweat on the equipment
Most gyms have rules requiring you to wipe off equipment but signs on the walls don’t mean everyone follows the rules. It's absolutely disgusting and unsanitary when other people don't wipe off their sweat. When sweat dries it leaves a gooey sticky substance on handles and equipment. It can make others sick and it’s hard to see until you touch it and have to go wash your hands. I hate getting on an elliptical machine and as soon as I tough the handles I have to stop and go look for a bottle of windex and towels to clean up someone else’s mess. Sweat build up also ruin vinyl benches eventually causing them to crack and cause permanent damage. Most gyms tell you to bring a towel to wipe off sweat but no one wants to use their personal towel on someone else’s sweat.
5. Interrupting Someone Else’s Workout
if someone is in the middle of a workout it can be dangerous to interrupt them before they finish. They could lose proper form and get injured if they're lifting heavy weight or accidentally drop the weights on themselves, especially on certain demanding exercises like shoulder presses, scull crushers or bench press. it's also very unprofessional to interrupt someone and break their concentration because they could lose count on their reps. Just because you're not taking your workout seriously doesn't mean the other people in the gym has the same mindset. Many people - including myself always lift weights until failure and write down our reps so the last thing we want to do is lose count and skew our results. Even if you interrupt someone between sets most people are timing themselves to avoid cooling down too much. The average time between sets is only one to two minutes.
In some cases, it can be really tempting to interrupt someone if they're using bad form. You don't want them to get hurt but your interrupting can be the very thing to cause them to get hurt. Just wait until they finish their reps and make a quick comment during their rest and let them get back to work. If you truly have a lot of information that you'd like to share with someone that you think could improve their results just wait until they've completely finished their workout or approach them in the locker room.
6. Texting While Exercising.
I absolutely hate it when I see someone texting in the middle of an exercise. Some people are absolutely obsessed with their smart phones and can't leave it in the locker while exercise. I've seen girls do a few reps just to receive a text message and they don't even wait until they're finished with a single set and they'll stop and answer the text. It's very annoying when to waiting for someone to finish texting because they’ve completely forgotten they’re at a public gym and they’re using the only smith machine. Skipping an exercise and coming back to it doesn’t bother me at all but there have been multiple times where I've been able to all other exercises for the entire day while waiting for them to finish texting. Take you exercises seriously and don’t be distracted by your phone. The only time I bring my smart phone with me is if I’m listening to music or an audiobook.
7. Spotting Without Permission.
It can be very hard for me to retain my emotions when someone sees me struggling to complete a rep and comes over to my work area and physically helps me without my permission. The only time you should physically help someone without first asking if they’re in imminent danger of getting hurt. For example, if they’re squatting and forgot to put a collar on one size and the plate begins to slide off. Struggling is par for the course and the only way you’ll build muscle is to push yourself to your limits. I have personally been a victim of someone spotting without permission on dumbbell bench press and shoulder press where I was in perfect position to drop the weight if it got too tough. Spotting someone to prefers to lift until failure will cause them not to know their failure rep nor what to aim for during their next workout of the same exercise. Most exercises don't need a spotter for safety because you can drop the weight once you reach failure. It’s your responsibility to ask for a spotter on more dangerous exercises such as barbell bench press.
8. Walking Around Naked in the Locker Room.
It is perfectly understandable that you're in a locker room full of adults but not everyone is comfortable with adult strangers walking around in a public facility with no clothes. This is the very thing that could cause people who are either ashamed with their own body or struggle with going to the gym every day to find reasons to skip the trip or cancel their membership. Be polite and wear a towel and cover your private areas while walking around in the locker room. Just because you've been successful at transforming your body doesn't mean you should walk around and brag about it. Save it for your spouse and show respect for strangers.
9. Taking Pictures of yourself.
This final reason causes the same problems as texting while exercising but it’s another pet-peeve which so I’ve listed it separately in this article. if you're proud of yourself and your results or just have a lot of online social media friends, don’t inconvenience everyone else and ruin their concentration by making them wait and watch you take pictures of yourself. Taking selfies for Facebook and Instagram is fine but do it at a time when less people are there, and you have less of a chance of being an eye sour to others while you use gym equipment as picture props. You’ll also get less unsuspecting strangers in the background of your selfies.
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