Even if you work hard for the title of most polite and down-to-earth person in the history of the universe, it’s a pretty safe bet someone’s going to find you annoying at some point or another. Even more so if that someone happens to work in an industry that’s based on service.
Meaning: Your waiter at dinner last night, the floor manager at your gym, the guy who collects your dry cleaning, the receptionist at your doctor’s office—they all very well could have rolled their eyes at you thanks to something you explicitly did or said, your body language, your tone, and a laundry list of other reasons which may not register on your radar as particularly irritating, but are serious pet peeves of those hired to help you.
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Still, they say the customer’s always right, which means you probably have no idea your actions are pissing people off in a big way, so we’re here to bring you the facts straight from the sources.
First up: Two trainers at Crunch Fitness, who want you to know their biggest gym pet peeves. Read and learn, folks.
You don’t return equipment to its rightful place.
It might sound intuitive, but you’d be shocked at the amount of people who use equipment at the gym and drop it wherever they please when they’re through. “Always replace equipment when you’re done using it,” said Rowdy Yates, a Crunch district fitness manager. “This includes putting dumbbells in their correct spots, and putting weight plates on the racks—not leaned on machines or walls.”
You do your ab series wherever you feel like.
Believe it or not, the gym isn’t a free space for you to do whatever you want, wherever you want. Yates says it’s incredibly annoying when patrons use functional training areas—spaces designated for use of things like TRX and Kettlebells—for your ab work. “Try to stick to the mat area or take a personal mat to a less trafficked area,” he said.
One word: Sweat.
If you’re not sweating at the gym, you’re not working hard enough, but one of the most annoying and inconsiderate things you can do is sweat all over the place and not wipe it up, said Crunch district fitness manager Michael Spiegel. “There are disinfectant wipes throughout the gym, so you can clean off the machine for the next member.” Basically, your gym couldn’t make it easier for you to tend to your perspiration.
You hog the popular machines.
Unless you work out at a gym that holds a capacity of one (i.e., the treadmill in your basement), it’s safe to assume someone will always want a turn on the machine you’re using. While some fitness facilties have strict signs limiting equipment times, others don’t—which doesn’t give you a pass to use it for two hours.
A good way around it? Yates suggests planning a superset—when you combine two exercises back to back—so while you’re working on number two, someone else could use the equipment you were using during exercise one. This way, “people can work in on a popular machine while also intensifying your own workout,” he said.
You preen in front of the dumbbell racks.
One of the most annoying things you can do at the gym? Stand right in front of the dumbbell rack to lift. “Etiquette is to step back at least five feet so that people can access weights easily during their set,” said Spiegel, who added: “The worst offender: People who do bicep curls in the squat rack.” Squats can only be done here where as curls can be done anywhere in the gym with a multitude of equipment, he pointed out.
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