Gym etiquette

Summer has snuck up on us once again and the suddenly hot and steamy temperatures mean only one thing: it is time to put on the bathing suit.

Which, unfortunately, means another thing: time to start working out.

Last year at an upscale gym in New York City, a man was thrown from his spinning bike by an angry classmate after he screamed and grunted too loud during class.

Don’t want to be aerobic rode kill? Perhaps you should brush up on your gym etiquette before throwing on that thong leotard and hopping on the elliptical.

The biggest work out no-no across the Detroit area is the use of cell phones at the gym.

“I really shouldn’t have to hear the guy next to me ordering his dinner when I am running on the treadmill,” says Natalie, a member of the Birmingham YMCA.

Not only is it disrespectful to those around you – especially when it rings during a relaxing yoga session – but, if you can talk on the phone you aren’t working out hard enough. So, either turn up the intensity of your workout, or take that call elsewhere.

But phone calls aren’t the only things gym-goers don’t want to hear: “Nothing annoys me more than grunting men [heard] over my workout mix,” says Tracy, who gets her workout on at Lifetime in Shelby Township.

She is not alone in this one. People everywhere are constantly complaining about (and, sometimes, assaulting) grunters and screamers. There is a time and a place for everything, but despite how heavy that bench press is, a busy fitness center is not the place for noises like that.

Gym members aren’t the only ones with complaints; in fact, it is the people that work at the clubs that find themselves with the most gripes.

Matt Munson, a trainer at the World Gym in Royal Oak, notes cleaning up as a major issue. “[It] drives me nuts. A lot of people get done with their weights or magazines on cardio equipment and just leave it there.”

Or, even grosser, people who don’t wipe down their machines. “Wipe down the bench if you are getting sweat everywhere,” Matt says.

Amen, brother. Amen.

Health clubs and gyms may not post their rules on the wall, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. When you head to the gym, be courteous to those around you. Don’t save a spinning bike and come to class 30 minutes late. Don’t ogle at the old naked dude in the locker room. And don’t, for the love of God, get on the last treadmill in the room and try to pick up the hot girl next to you.

When people work out and the adrenaline starts pumping, there is no saying what they might do if you push them. So, keep to the rules and no one will get hurt; beyond the morning-after muscle-aches, of course.