Saturday, January 09, 2010

Clueless gym gal

I try to avoid referring to gym newbies as being "clueless." I recognize that we all have to start somewhere, and that it sometimes takes people a while to understand proper form, good workout techniques, and even the fine points of gym etiquette.

However, some people truly are clueless. I was reminded of this when I saw the following on someone's blog:

"Machine Hogs. These people will hog one machine and won't let you work in with them. I can understand if you're using a machine and you leave your towel on it to show it's in use. However, if you are doing lunges up and down the room and the machine is sitting there, you can at least let someone work in while you are lunging. Yes, this goes out to the woman who hogged the leg press machine today - you could have shared. Other people have work outs they need to do too."


Last week, I was trying to use the lat pulldown machine. However, somebody had left her gym back and water bottle on the seat. That wasn't very nice, but I figured that this person might simply be between sets. I waited around, even trying out a cable row machine in the meantime. The bag just sat there.

I tried to work around this by using other machines. I also tried to stand behind the seat and use the lat pulldown machine that way. Eventually, the owner of the bad did show up. She said, "Sorry, I should have moved my stuff."

YA THINK!?!?!? Apparently, she had been using this machine as a table while she worked out on another station. I wanted to give her a piece of my mind; instead, I said, "Yes, that wasn't very nice. Other people want to use these machines too, you know."

Now that is just pure cluelessness. I can understand someone not understanding how to use the machines properly. I can understand them not being familiar with how to get an effective workout. However, how can you possibly think that it's okay to dump your stuff on one machine while you work out somewhere else? Do you think that you're the only person who could want to use the machine in question?

I think that my reply to her was quite restrained. What I really wanted to say is that she was being very rude. I wanted to say, "You do not own this machine, lady. Don't treat it like it's your personal property."