Heather Marr is an N.Y.C.-based personal trainer and The Model Trainer Method creator, whose A-list client roster includes some of the world’s most famous supermodels. Ahead, she shares a list of actions that are considered no-no’s at the gym. Keep reading to see if you’ve been committing them.
At the end of the day, gym etiquette really just boils down to using common sense and having common courtesy. Below are ten faux pas that we should all be avoiding to make the gym a safe, enjoyable place for everyone.
1. Not Putting Your Weights Away
After you are finished using your dumbbells, put them back in the rack where they belong. When you finish using the leg press, an olympic bar, the smith machine, etc., remove your plates for the next person to use.
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2. Saying No to “Working In”
If someone asks to “work in,” let them. “Work in” means to basically share the equipment. While you’re breaking between sets, they are using the equipment and vice versa.
3. Wearing Overpowering Perfume or Cologne
This is extremely rude but also quite common. Some people have allergies, can get headaches from the scents and find it harder to breathe while they’re trying to workout.
4. Not Cleaning Off Your Workout Area
Wipe your sweat off of the machines, benches and cardio equipment you use so they’re ready for the next person to use. No one wants to lay on a bench covered in your sweat.
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5. Offering Unsolicited Workout Advice
This is one of my personal pet peeves. Mind your own business at the gym and focus on your own workout. If a member needs advice, there is qualified staff available for them to hire. Without knowing their goals, nutrition plan, injuries and past history, you are simply interrupting/bothering them and wasting their time.
6. Disrespecting People’s Mirror Space
If you see someone using the mirror to check their form, don’t go and stand or walk in between them and the mirror. Either wait until their set is finished or walk around.
7. Walking Too Close to Someone Mid-Set
Not only is this very distracting for the person exercising, it’s also dangerous for both people involved. If you see someone doing heavy reverse lunges for example, don’t walk right behind them where they are stepping. Be respectful and wait the few seconds until they are finished their set or simply walk around them.
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8. Talking On the Phone
Quick emergency phone calls are one thing, but having a 30-minute conversation that no one working out in your area wants to hear is not appreciated. Leave the gym floor in that case or communicate over text.
9. Staying Too Close to the Gym Member Next to You
If there are ten treadmills in the gym don’t choose the treadmill directly beside someone else if there are other free machines. Obviously at peak hours when the machines are all in use people will be working out beside each other but otherwise give your neighbor some space.
10. Treating the Maintenance Staff Like They Work for You
Don’t leave used towels strewn all over the floor and counters. Put your towels in the bins where they belong when you are finished with them. You wouldn’t do this in your homes so don’t do it at the gym.
