because the other members, particularly the new-since-Xmas members are so annoying.  Some things they do that are really starting to tick me off:
1.  Take sabbaticals, not breaks, between sets thereby monopolizing equipment far longer than necessary.
2.  Even though there are signs everywhere saying "no chalk" there is chalk all over everything in the free weights area.
3.  Take a frigging bath in linement.  The place reeks of it, they sweat it all over the eqipment, get in the whirlpool/sauna/steamroom without showering and contaminate those areas with it.
4.  Have shouted conversations the whole frigging way across the room with their friends.  Men do this a lot.  I guess they are trying to recapture the feeling of being in high school sports.
5.  Slamming weights.  If you can't control it and use good form, you're using too much weight.  We aren't talking hundreds of pounds here, either.
6.  Way too much loud power grunting.  If they put as much effort into doing the lift right as they do these little dramatic performances, they'd be scary.
7.  Stroll two abreast and chatter on an indoor running track that is only 2 lanes wide.
8.  Run around the locker room naked, dripping wet and w/o shower shoes.  The next one I see standing up on a bench, barefoot, in the lockerroom while he dresses is going to have the whole rest of his day spoiled.

Before I moved to the town where I live now, I frequented a weightlifting gym patronized mainly by powerlifters and body builders.  They were altogether a quieter, more focused, more polite group.  The Bally's I go to now seems to be more of a socializing place than a gym to a majority of its members.

In general, I find that the shabbier a gym is, the better it is. Too shiny means the owners spend too much time on image.

A month or 2 and all will be back to normal[:D],I like the ones that bring their cell phones into the exercise area and hold 'deep' conversatations concerning their workouts.[rolleyes]

Calm down bro! Your going to have a stroke. 99% of them will be gone in 2 more weeks as they go back to happily munching potatochips in front of the TV as their form of exercise. The ones that remain will act like the rest of you.

Q. How many weight lifters does it take to change a light bulb?

A.3, one to screw in the bulb and two to chant "your looking huge man"!

I can identify.  I've been at one gym for 15 years now, but hit others from time to time when traveling or with a friend.  Every gym has its own personality.

My "home" gym is clean and well-equipted, and has no sauna, hot tub, racquet ball, etc.  We got iron, we got mirrors, we got music. That's all.  As a result, most everyone there is serious, focused and polite.  

Get our share of New Year's Resolutions, but they're all gone by February anyway.

I for one would never go to a gym that is frequented by only a bunch of sweaty grunting men. I must have scores of fine looking chicks to stare at and babble with. I may be in it for the social aspect but am fully prepared to live with my mistakes.

My turn...my turn!!!
(Rant mode now on) [soapbox]

I'm an amateur competitive powerlifter, so my squat hovers around 625 right now.  Currently I am at home for break from classes, so I go to the gym I used to frequent.

Working up to about 450 on the squat, and the "gym attendant" says that I must put some plates back.  Why?

1) I might hurt myself (yes you nanny imbecile!)
2) Other people might want to use the 45 pound plates.

What happened?  Why?  This place "used" to be the home of serious people, and now?

GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!  [pissed]

Okay, done.

The Gym Nazi...  hehe

This drives me nuts more than anything else.  At the last gym I belonged to, guys would stand naked (in the _middle_ of the sink area no less) and shave!  Hello retard, this is not your goldarn bathroom.  I was getting awfully tempted to toss a 25lb plate at them like a frisbee...

Working up to about 450 on the squat, and the "gym attendant" says that I must put some plates back. Why?

1) I might hurt myself (yes you nanny imbecile!)
2) Other people might want to use the 45 pound plates
---yup been there, I was always getting yelled at for putting extra weight on the machines...sorry but I need at least 800 lbs....
And how can you have a gym with only 26...45 lb plates? I ask you...that is sad...

I'll agree with Ed here. You DO need a different gym.

However, these same issues could be addressed in any gym I've ever been to...

WTF?  Did you do it?  I might do it then when he walked away stack on the plates again. Then again I am not squatting over 400.  If he continues to hassle you just wait two weeks and he’ll probably be gone or talk to the manager.  It is Bull$hit that he would even interrupt your workout.  

-Velveeta

Chalk is a good thing.  Dropping a few hundred pounds of weight because the bar slips from your sweaty hands is not a good thing.  The problem is most likely that the lazy gym personel don't clean-up the excess.  That's the real problem.

I'm up to 435#'s squats so I'm nervous about lifting at home without a power rack or squat rack, especially at my age.  I'm working hard to hit 500# before I die or get too old to lift.  My wife can't pickup a 45# plate, much less help if something happened with what I lift.  So, I visited a couple of gyms.  Every single one of them I went to had no chalk rules.  The first two didn't allow squats.  I wasn't even polite to the salescritters there.  The best one in town requires a full physical for anyone my age before joining.  The only time I've seen a doctor in the past 60 years was when the army made me, and I'm not going to go and waste money just to go to a gym.

Golgo-13, if you're looking for help with gyms, then misc.fitness.weights is the place to hang-out.z

The gym I go to, people actually brign their cellphones with them and have conversation in the midst of working out. WTF

"Excuse me, but if you're not going to use this piece of equipment, then please get your fat, sweaty ass off of it so the other paying members can use it."  This was a rule at my previous gym, and everyone followed it.  If you're not using it, get off it.



This is one of the main reasons I quit going to the gym I used to go to.  Guys using way too much weight, power grunting, and yelling all the time.  It was all posturing and very little substance.  It was always funny to see one of those guys overextend themselves and need help or get hurt.  The bad part was they always worked out in packs, so even if one went down there were at least two left behind to make up for it.



yes, power lifters as a whole tend to be much more serious to work out with, and they hate pretense or bullshit.  However, they have their bad seeds as well, especially when they're doing roids.

It is probably the reason they have the no chalk rules, because people slather it all over the place and expect other people to clean up after them.  If they had to clean up after themselves they probably would be a little neater.

Good job!  I got up to 385 before it started making all my clothes not fit, so I do not do heavy squats.  
It is OK to be rude to people because you do not like the rules of the place they are employed at?  They probably have no input on the rules.

That will show them!  I assume they make people do this for insurance reasons and because a lot of people overlook it when they start to get back into lifting.


-Velveeta

Though not a pet peeve I will mention it here.  Have you ever noticed the girls that get “dressed-up” for the gym? I am talking makeup, nails, hair and perfume! WTF?  It is a GYM not a damn nightclub sweetheart!  Some of them look better at the Gym than for work!

-Velveeta

You go to a Bally's gym?  Just looking at their commercials would tell you they are pushing it as a skank pick-up joint.  Mostly hooker looking white chicks with black males...don't quite know who they are trying to attract, but they sure have the "most likely to give you a communicable disease" people in their ads.