Gym Etiquette: When Patience Runs Thin

Why is basic gym etiquette so challenging? I dive into my own run-ins with impatience and interruptions that often creep into my workout routines in this bite-sized episode.

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Transcript

Intro

Speaker 1 0:14

This is Shamron, and you're listening to Open Hearts, Hidden Truths. What kind of a gym goer are you? Are you the type of person at the gym who politely waits their turn when a piece of equipment is occupied? Or are you the type to go up to the person, interrupt them, and ask how many more sets they have? I definitely fall into the former category. It just seems like common courtesy. You wait your turn, when the person's done, you're obviously gonna know they're done because they're not gonna be sitting there anymore. And then when the piece of equipment isn't occupied, that means that it's my turn. Just seems like a really basic philosophy. But I I'm a little surprised how many people seem to fall into the latter category. The etiquette there is just really lacking. Maybe it's a big city thing. I was at the gym the other day. And I was on a leg press. And there's this guy that approached me. East Coast. Really aggressive. And he was standing over me. And he said, How many more you got? I had just sat down. I knocked one set out. I had gone to look at my phone while I was resting. I had been there no longer than maybe a minute, minute and a half. And I said, I just sat down. And he said, Well, can I work in? I said no. He kinda got huffy. He said, Oh yeah. That's why you're just you're on your phone, right? I'm like, oh okay, so now he wants to debate me. He can't take no for an answer, so now he wants to debate me about why I'm not giving him what he wants. Rather than just politely wait his turn, now he wants to volley with me. I said, I just sat down. I'm taking a brief break. You'll know I'm done when my ass is up walking around. I don't need to give you an excuse. Now get out of here. I was aggressive to him right back. Maybe a little unnecessarily aggressive, but he started it, so I put my ear pods back in. I just ignored him. He was muttering some things under his breath as he walked away, probably calling me some nasty name. I wasn't in the mood. It's all about how you approach someone. Had he approached me in a polite, courteous way, I mean, maybe I would have let him share it with me. Probably not, though. I don't really like sharing. I'm not a big sharer, especially at the gym. This is a this is a solo effort. It's not a a group effort. You know, you're just in your zone. Just leave me alone. The gym is my happy place. I've got my resting bitch face on. I mean, truth be told, I probably usually have that face on, but I especially have that face on at the gym because I don't want to be bothered. So it just kind of sets me off when someone even, you know, barges in and just like, just wait your turn. I'm not going to be on here forever. I'm going to be on here for maybe 10, 15 minutes. Just wait. But this guy was the type that was used to getting his way. He's probably used to getting his way with a woman, also. Maybe a lot of people would have said, oh yeah, sure. Even if they didn't want to share with him, they felt compelled to share just because the guy was aggressive and they didn't want to make a stink about things. I don't care. I'll dish it right back to you. I don't want to talk to you. You're intruding on my space. You're intruding on my zone. And no, I don't want to share with you. This type of thing used to happen to me at my old gym in Beverly Hills. There was an LA fitness in Beverly Hills. This gym was pretty awful. But it was really close to where I lived at the time. So this gym was packed full of old people. That's what the media doesn't really understand. Beverly Hills is not this glamorous place. Beverly Hills is full of entitled, pissed off old people. And a lot of these pissed-off, entitled old people had their social hour at the gym there. That's what it felt like. It felt like social hour. They were there chatting with their friends, maybe they were walking a little on the treadmill. Occasionally they would do a set or two of really, you know, lightweights on a machine, but it was they weren't serious about working out. I would always get interrupted by various older people, men and women. So this type of behavior doesn't have any barriers with gender, age, any of that. This is this is a little phenomenon that all people seem to uh partake in. The impatience, you know, the the rush, rush, rush, me, me, me. So I would always have these older people come up to me and ask me, how many more sets? How much longer? And they didn't want to take no for an answer. They they never liked the answer that I gave them, which was, oh, I've got five more, or I just sat down, which was often the case. And they would want to volley. They would want to volley back and forth. This one woman, I could see her coming towards me out of the corner of my eye. And she just had this angry look on her face, and I ignored her. I was listening to my music. I took a break. I had just done a set, and she interrupted me. And she got right up in my face. She said, How much longer are you gonna be? I said, I just got here. She said, No, you didn't. You got here when I got here. Another one, so she wanted to to go back and forth. Maybe she was bored. I think a lot of these people are just bored, especially at that gym. But I wasn't in the mood to argue. I wasn't gonna give her my energy, I wasn't gonna give her a volley. I just I wasn't gonna I wasn't gonna engage. So I just looked at her and I said, Okay. Turned my music back up, went back to my sets. She was dripping in Van Cleef. And just bitter, bitter woman. She But again, it's all about how you approach someone. She could have politely approached me. She could have been jovial. Decent. She could have been decent at the bare minimum. Excuse me, I'm sorry to interrupt. Are you gonna be a whole lot longer? Or, you know, something equally simple and nice. But it's just this entitlement that people at the gym have. I don't get it. And then they they want to argue back and forth. I don't know what it is. Maybe everybody's just so impatient. No one wants to wait for anything anymore. But it just feels gross. Like I don't want that kind of energy. Take your angry, nasty self, go away. I don't want to be around any toxic people. That's not what I'm here for. Now it's a little different when people camp out on machines. I get that. If I had been camping out in a machine, that's totally fair to approach me. Because you see those types of people too. They're on their phone, and they're on their phone more than they're actually working out, but they're taking up the machine. Those types of people are really annoying. I'm not one of those types of people. I'm mindful of what I'm doing. I'm efficient. So, yeah, I'm not a camper. So Fit Rated has some interesting stats. They found that 24% of people are annoyed when other people are on a piece of equipment while being on their phone. I was kind of surprised by this number. I thought it would be a lot higher. 24% doesn't seem that high for people who camp. They found that 30% of people get annoyed when others don't wipe down the equipment. So that stat was higher than the camper stat, which I found interesting. I don't get annoyed when people don't wipe down equipment. If I want my equipment extra, extra clean, I have no issue with just wiping it down myself. Doesn't bother me. I kind of look at that as my responsibility. If I want it extra clean, then I take an extra 20 seconds and clean it down. Simple. They also found, fit-rated, that free weights have 362 times more bacteria than a toilet seat. 362 times more bacteria than a toilet seat. That's unsettling. But it makes sense. I never see people wiping down free weights. Ever. That makes a lot of sense. Why is basic etiquette so difficult for some people to abide by? Is it just the space that we're in? Is it is it just culturally we want everything so fast? We're just used to everything being bam, instant. We're all there to feel better, physically, mentally, emotionally. Why make it uncomfortable for other people? I feel like it's such a simple concept, gym etiquette. Really basic stuff. How do you feel when people invade your space? What's the craziest experience you ever had with a gym goer who interrupted you during your workout? Are you the type of person that interrupts others and is always in a rush and aggressive? What are you feeling? Talk to me.

Speaker 1 10:20

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