71 Annoying Gym Pet Peeves
What annoys you most when you hit the gym? Cluttered dumbbells and un-racked plates? Members who don't wipe the sweat off machines? Staff trainers that have no understanding of proper lifting form? Or how about locker rooms filled with elderly men walking around nude?
Do they even lift?
We asked for your top gym pet peeves and you responded. If we missed a few of your favorite annoyances, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
To view the forum thread for this community article, click here.
2. Lately my gym has had a huge increase in members, now large groups of guys (around 6-8) and all try to lift together. I'm all about lifting with friends but they tie up benches and machines for 20 minutes so that all can get in there 8 crappy form sets with the worst range of motion I have ever seen.
3. Trainers that do not have a clue what they are doing.
4. Members not racking weights.
6. When you ask to work in and someone refuses to let you.
7. Trainers that have overweight clients try to do HIIT when they can hardly stabilize themselves.
8. Normally people asking to work in is fine with me. This has only happened once, but it's frustrating when someone asks to work in and refuses to load or unload any plates. During deadlifts, I would finish a set and this person would say something like, "I only need two on each side." So I unloaded what I was using. He finishes his set and walks off to get water, I reload the bar with what I need. Repeat this for 4-5 sets.
9. People who leave a ton of sweat on a piece of equipment and don't wipe it down.
10. People who sit on the equipment and don't use it and are busy having conversations with other members.
11. Out of shape trainers who walk around trying to tell people how to train. Then you hear the trainer - who looks like they don't even lift - say you need to take "abc product" to lose weight or build muscle.
12. The person who follows you around the gym when you are trying to train asking you "what are you doing? What should I be doing? Do you like her?"...etc.
14. Anyone in the gym trying to sell me anything! People are here to lift, this isn't Ebay!
15. Lifting dumbbells that are too heavy and then dropping them on their last rep. I'm all for going to failure; but use a spotter so they can help you bring the weight back onto your quads. All the dumbbells at my gym that are 90 pounds and over are bent and no longer feel right when lifted.
16. People who train in groups of 3 or more and take up a portion of the gym all to themselves with their equipment/water bottles/etc. Then they take forever in between sets because they're cracking jokes and fooling around.
17. Almost bone-skinny people who have to flex in the mirror every 5 minutes.
18. People who have no focus and spend 5 minutes in between sets texting or taking selfies.
19. People who come to the gym with no plan and just wing it.
20. Waiting. I hate it.
21. 45 pound plates that aren't standard height.
22. Curling right in front of the dumbbell rack when the gym is not that crowded!
23. People who don't understand how to work in with one another. If the gym is packed people can share, it's not super difficult.
24. The guys that yell and scream excessively (like they are in a CT Fletcher video) while lifting weights that don't warrant any of the noise they are making.
25. The guys that move all of the benches out of the way creating their own personal "box" and proceed to do CrossFit exercises. Please leave that for actual CrossFit boxes!
26. People doing bicep curls in the squat rack! There are a million other stations with barbells that would be perfect for curling, but there's usually only one or two squat racks. For you to be taking up space with bicep curls is wasting yours and everyone else's time.
27. I can't stand it when people try and squat, and they do not even get close to parallel. Drop the weight and get low. They are only cheating themselves.
28. Curls anywhere except the preacher stations or near the dumbbells/small barbells. You don't need a rack to hold the barbell. Use the floor.
29. "Gaggles" of people working out. Less talky - more lifty.
30. Crappy pop music in the gym. It's a requirement in my gym to have headphones. Otherwise I get to lift listening to Taylor Swift or Katy Perry.
31. Unsolicited advice from random people. I don't know everything - but I also didn't ask.
32. Guys who repeatedly ask, "Hey bro, how many more sets you got?"
33. When people above 20% bodyfat go to the gym only to jump from ab machine to ab machine doing crunches and crunches and crunches thinking it will help them get a six pack.
34. People that refuse to listen to anyone except Dr.Oz.
35. When they sit in the sauna for 30 minutes and think they dropped 5 pounds of fat.
36. Trainers with nothing but book smarts that have never lifted telling you you are wrong... but you have the results.
37. My pet peeve is that video going round Facebook of the guy that takes a plate off another guy's bar when he's mid-squat. I'm pretty sure the first one was a joke but i've seen it twice since and those ones look real. People who are that stupid/disrespectful are my pet peeve.
39. When you are supersetting two different machines, cable, or dumbbells and someone asks you if you are using one while your are on the other. You say yes, then they give the STANK face, or try to argue with you over using two different things.
40. Trainers that have their clients doing hippie bullcrap is annoying.
41. For me though my biggest pet peeve is when you have "experienced" lifters teaching new lifters horrible form.
42. Eating Quest bars before or during a workout.
43. Taking down pixie sticks or eating take out food in the locker room right after your last rep.
44. Seeing trainers make people do unilateral work on bosu balls.
45. Having trainers make their clients lunge up and down a gym as a leg workout.
46. The guy who comes in front of you to workout even though the whole gym is available.
47. The guy who head bangs or shadow boxes in between workouts.
48. The girls who just chat and chat and chat in the gym!
49. Girls or guys who are clearly just at the gym trying to hit on someone, or be hit on. You know, the people who literally just come into the gym in EXTREMELY tight fitting clothing, and sit down at stations texting and lifting little to no weight, if at all. I don't care how good your butt looks, I'm there to work. Quit hogging the leg press and save the socializing for later.
51. The guy who cleans every machine before using it by spraying it down with Lysol that he brought from his house. Tired of smelling that bro!
52. Leaving the leg press stacked with plates. Bonus: Not lifting said weight properly. Talking about locking out and not sinking.
53. Folks who collect different dumbbells and barbells, plates, and straps in one location and do one quick set of five and then leave them there after that quick set.
54. Folks that psych themselves up for 15 minutes to do a set of maxed out squats, only to do one rep and then psych themselves out.
55. When someone jumps in to "save" you on bench with a spot for a rep that you can easily do. This happened to me yesterday. If I want a spot I will ask for it.
56. My biggest issue is watching people that have no idea of what they are doing "training" other people. It's sad to watch. I mean come on. If the guy training you looks like crap with zero gainz then that should be a red flag!
57. People who stare.
58. I train at home now but before my biggest pet peeve at the gym was everyone benching on Monday. Just couldn't ever get a bench...oh wait...I was one of them!
59. Anyone who doesn't put weights away, but even worse is when someone puts a 5lb plate in the 45lb spot or any mixing. It's literally a foot difference, just put it in the right spot.
60. The guy that shadow boxes in front of the mirror.
61. When people get in my way while I'm doing heavy farmers walks or walking barbell lunges. Sorry my workout is interrupting your conversation.
62. When people show up, take a selfie, then leave after barely working out.
63. Herbalife members.
64. I think today was the most irritated I have been in awhile. Going in for a late workout on a Friday night so the gym was pretty empty and I had the intention of getting right into my deadlifts. Some guy was standing on the platform we have for deadlifting. He was doing curls with the E-Z curl bar. The fact he was using the E-Z curl bar meant he went out of his way to use that specific spot because he moved the barbell off to the side to place his bar. And did I mention only 2 other people including myself were there to lift, the others were just doing cardio, meaning he had literally every other spot to do those curls. /End of rant
65. My pet peeve is when really skinny guys with no gains wear stringers and walk around like they have the biggest lats in the world.
66. When personal trainers give hippie workouts to overweight clients that honestly won't do them any good. These trainers are extremely vague about how to drop body fat percentage because they actually don't know how to. They don't know what macros are, which training split is best for a specific client, because personal trainers believe it's a one size fits all, which is honestly my biggest pet peeve.
67. People wearing Oakleys while working out.
68. Wearing golf hats like Titleist. For some reason I hate seeing that particular hat. lol.
69. Wearing Gucci shoes.
70. Really fat guys wearing tank tops showing their turkey arms and visible belly.
71. Got a new one! Guy asked to work in with me on bench press. I agreed. He stopped 100 pounds lighter than I pyramid up to. Yet he wanted to do more sets. I hate when people ask to work in knowing it's just going to make things more difficult.
Do they even lift?
We asked for your top gym pet peeves and you responded. If we missed a few of your favorite annoyances, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
To view the forum thread for this community article, click here.
What Are YOUR Top Gym Pet Peeves?
1. My main pet peeve would be people not putting weights back where they should be because I hated searching for plates.2. Lately my gym has had a huge increase in members, now large groups of guys (around 6-8) and all try to lift together. I'm all about lifting with friends but they tie up benches and machines for 20 minutes so that all can get in there 8 crappy form sets with the worst range of motion I have ever seen.
3. Trainers that do not have a clue what they are doing.
4. Members not racking weights.
My biggest gym pet peeve is people who stare at you while you are trying to lift.5. People that Jump onto machines that have a shaker cup or bag on them. Obviously someone is using it.
6. When you ask to work in and someone refuses to let you.
7. Trainers that have overweight clients try to do HIIT when they can hardly stabilize themselves.
8. Normally people asking to work in is fine with me. This has only happened once, but it's frustrating when someone asks to work in and refuses to load or unload any plates. During deadlifts, I would finish a set and this person would say something like, "I only need two on each side." So I unloaded what I was using. He finishes his set and walks off to get water, I reload the bar with what I need. Repeat this for 4-5 sets.
9. People who leave a ton of sweat on a piece of equipment and don't wipe it down.
10. People who sit on the equipment and don't use it and are busy having conversations with other members.
11. Out of shape trainers who walk around trying to tell people how to train. Then you hear the trainer - who looks like they don't even lift - say you need to take "abc product" to lose weight or build muscle.
12. The person who follows you around the gym when you are trying to train asking you "what are you doing? What should I be doing? Do you like her?"...etc.
Girls or guys who are clearly just at the gym to hit on someone. You know, the people who come into the gym in EXTREMELY tight fitting clothing.13. Skinny guy/girl who tells you that if you lift too much weight you could hurt yourself.
14. Anyone in the gym trying to sell me anything! People are here to lift, this isn't Ebay!
15. Lifting dumbbells that are too heavy and then dropping them on their last rep. I'm all for going to failure; but use a spotter so they can help you bring the weight back onto your quads. All the dumbbells at my gym that are 90 pounds and over are bent and no longer feel right when lifted.
16. People who train in groups of 3 or more and take up a portion of the gym all to themselves with their equipment/water bottles/etc. Then they take forever in between sets because they're cracking jokes and fooling around.
17. Almost bone-skinny people who have to flex in the mirror every 5 minutes.
18. People who have no focus and spend 5 minutes in between sets texting or taking selfies.
19. People who come to the gym with no plan and just wing it.
20. Waiting. I hate it.
21. 45 pound plates that aren't standard height.
22. Curling right in front of the dumbbell rack when the gym is not that crowded!
23. People who don't understand how to work in with one another. If the gym is packed people can share, it's not super difficult.24. The guys that yell and scream excessively (like they are in a CT Fletcher video) while lifting weights that don't warrant any of the noise they are making.
25. The guys that move all of the benches out of the way creating their own personal "box" and proceed to do CrossFit exercises. Please leave that for actual CrossFit boxes!
26. People doing bicep curls in the squat rack! There are a million other stations with barbells that would be perfect for curling, but there's usually only one or two squat racks. For you to be taking up space with bicep curls is wasting yours and everyone else's time.
27. I can't stand it when people try and squat, and they do not even get close to parallel. Drop the weight and get low. They are only cheating themselves.
28. Curls anywhere except the preacher stations or near the dumbbells/small barbells. You don't need a rack to hold the barbell. Use the floor.
29. "Gaggles" of people working out. Less talky - more lifty.
30. Crappy pop music in the gym. It's a requirement in my gym to have headphones. Otherwise I get to lift listening to Taylor Swift or Katy Perry.
31. Unsolicited advice from random people. I don't know everything - but I also didn't ask.
32. Guys who repeatedly ask, "Hey bro, how many more sets you got?"
33. When people above 20% bodyfat go to the gym only to jump from ab machine to ab machine doing crunches and crunches and crunches thinking it will help them get a six pack.
34. People that refuse to listen to anyone except Dr.Oz.
35. When they sit in the sauna for 30 minutes and think they dropped 5 pounds of fat.
36. Trainers with nothing but book smarts that have never lifted telling you you are wrong... but you have the results.
37. My pet peeve is that video going round Facebook of the guy that takes a plate off another guy's bar when he's mid-squat. I'm pretty sure the first one was a joke but i've seen it twice since and those ones look real. People who are that stupid/disrespectful are my pet peeve.
When people above 20% bodyfat go to the gym only to jump from ab machine to ab machine doing crunches and crunches and crunches.38. Guys who take one dumbbell out of rack, use it and leave it God knows where (my gym is pretty big). Sometimes it takes a couple minutes to find the missing dumbbell hidden under some machine, and we only have one pair of given weight.
39. When you are supersetting two different machines, cable, or dumbbells and someone asks you if you are using one while your are on the other. You say yes, then they give the STANK face, or try to argue with you over using two different things.
40. Trainers that have their clients doing hippie bullcrap is annoying.
41. For me though my biggest pet peeve is when you have "experienced" lifters teaching new lifters horrible form.
42. Eating Quest bars before or during a workout.
43. Taking down pixie sticks or eating take out food in the locker room right after your last rep.
44. Seeing trainers make people do unilateral work on bosu balls.
45. Having trainers make their clients lunge up and down a gym as a leg workout.
46. The guy who comes in front of you to workout even though the whole gym is available.
47. The guy who head bangs or shadow boxes in between workouts.
48. The girls who just chat and chat and chat in the gym!
49. Girls or guys who are clearly just at the gym trying to hit on someone, or be hit on. You know, the people who literally just come into the gym in EXTREMELY tight fitting clothing, and sit down at stations texting and lifting little to no weight, if at all. I don't care how good your butt looks, I'm there to work. Quit hogging the leg press and save the socializing for later.
When personal trainers give hippie workouts to clients that honestly won't do them any good.50. People interrupting you mid-set, between reps. If you're lifting heavy ass weight, the last thing you need is someone ruining your focus. Wait till I'm finished, and stop being rude.
51. The guy who cleans every machine before using it by spraying it down with Lysol that he brought from his house. Tired of smelling that bro!
52. Leaving the leg press stacked with plates. Bonus: Not lifting said weight properly. Talking about locking out and not sinking.
53. Folks who collect different dumbbells and barbells, plates, and straps in one location and do one quick set of five and then leave them there after that quick set.
54. Folks that psych themselves up for 15 minutes to do a set of maxed out squats, only to do one rep and then psych themselves out.
55. When someone jumps in to "save" you on bench with a spot for a rep that you can easily do. This happened to me yesterday. If I want a spot I will ask for it.
56. My biggest issue is watching people that have no idea of what they are doing "training" other people. It's sad to watch. I mean come on. If the guy training you looks like crap with zero gainz then that should be a red flag!
57. People who stare.58. I train at home now but before my biggest pet peeve at the gym was everyone benching on Monday. Just couldn't ever get a bench...oh wait...I was one of them!
59. Anyone who doesn't put weights away, but even worse is when someone puts a 5lb plate in the 45lb spot or any mixing. It's literally a foot difference, just put it in the right spot.
60. The guy that shadow boxes in front of the mirror.
61. When people get in my way while I'm doing heavy farmers walks or walking barbell lunges. Sorry my workout is interrupting your conversation.
62. When people show up, take a selfie, then leave after barely working out.
63. Herbalife members.
64. I think today was the most irritated I have been in awhile. Going in for a late workout on a Friday night so the gym was pretty empty and I had the intention of getting right into my deadlifts. Some guy was standing on the platform we have for deadlifting. He was doing curls with the E-Z curl bar. The fact he was using the E-Z curl bar meant he went out of his way to use that specific spot because he moved the barbell off to the side to place his bar. And did I mention only 2 other people including myself were there to lift, the others were just doing cardio, meaning he had literally every other spot to do those curls. /End of rant
65. My pet peeve is when really skinny guys with no gains wear stringers and walk around like they have the biggest lats in the world.
66. When personal trainers give hippie workouts to overweight clients that honestly won't do them any good. These trainers are extremely vague about how to drop body fat percentage because they actually don't know how to. They don't know what macros are, which training split is best for a specific client, because personal trainers believe it's a one size fits all, which is honestly my biggest pet peeve.
67. People wearing Oakleys while working out.
68. Wearing golf hats like Titleist. For some reason I hate seeing that particular hat. lol.
69. Wearing Gucci shoes.
70. Really fat guys wearing tank tops showing their turkey arms and visible belly.
71. Got a new one! Guy asked to work in with me on bench press. I agreed. He stopped 100 pounds lighter than I pyramid up to. Yet he wanted to do more sets. I hate when people ask to work in knowing it's just going to make things more difficult.