Gym Pet Peeves: Thas that sh*t I dont like!

Just about every time I’m at the gym someone tries to pull me aside and proceed to talk to me for 10 minutes or more…while I’m between sets…walking from one station to another…with my headphones on and music on full blast…when I clearly don’t wanna be bothered….

This might be my biggest gym pet peeve and today while I was recalling this it got me to wondering “what other kinds of things make people mad at the gym?” so I decided to probe the interwebz, ask my friends and family, and even the people I work with and This is what I came up with, in no particular order.

The Towel Guy - You know who I’m talking about, that guy who leaves his towel on a machine to claim is as he bangs out a set or two on another machine. I admit, I’m a little guilty of this but with my water jug instead of a towel. You don’t know how many times I've walked away from the squat rack and come back to some dude pulling my plates off so he can do straight bar curls, which leads me into my next pet peeve

Curling in the Squat Rack – Just don’t do it. Squat racks are for squatting. If you want to curl there is a wall full of dumbells, a rack full of ez-curl bars, and at least 2 preacher curl stations, so GTF outta the rack!

The Gym Bag Guy – This is the guy who although the club has gone through all the trouble to provide its customers with beautiful, functional locker rooms, he carries his stankin ass gym bag around with him from station to station, machine to machine and no matter where he puts it, somehow it manages to get in someone’s way…come on son, do better.

Dropping Weights –Now If ur deadlifting 300 plus, then you have EVERY right to drop the weight once you finish that last rep on that last set, I do it myself. But if you’re isolation curling 20 lb dumbells and taking 5 minutes between sets to flex ur guns in the mirror, I will not hesitate to tell you that ur doin too much. It doesn’t make you look cool, it just makes you look like a tool.

The creepy gym guy – Now don’t get me wrong, I am all for meeting a girl at the gym. What would be better than to meet someone that shares a similar passion for health and fitness that you do? The couple that works out together looks hot together, period. But don’t try and talk to every girl you see walk past you in a pair of yoga pants and nike frees. And definitely don’t be that stalker dude that looks for the same girl every time she comes in and then go talk to her for 20 minutes. She is after all, there to get a workout in just like everyone else, so let her do her thang, then talk to her.

Doin too much – I see far too many guys trying to lift too much weight, using horrible form, and using his whole body to do curls. Odds are, if you weight a buck-thirty, ur probably not gonna be strong enough to curl 80 lbs dumbells. Leave ur ego at the door and drop the weights down man. That girl that you think ur impressing by slangin around all those plates isn’t even lookin at you. I have yet to meet a girl that was really impressed by how much weight I was throwin around anyway, it’s usually only dudes.

Grunting – now this is a sensitive topic for me because I grunt, quite a bit. But there are two kinds of grunters: the guy who grunts because he’s really putting in work and makin gains. Like I said with weight dropping, if you’re doing a heavy compound movement with a lot of weight (because ur actually strong enough to do it) and ur tryna power up ur one rep max, then grunt by all means. In fact, scientifically speaking the exhalation that occurs during grunting cam enables ur body to produce 3-5% more power, helping you reach that personal best; if you don’t believe me, google it. But, if you’re that guy who again, is curling 20 lb dumbells and staring at urself in the mirror, just exhale, don’t grunt.

The dapper dude – if u take a shower, put on cologne, put gel in ur hair, and lay out ur outfit before you hit the gym, just stay home…seriously. If ur shoes match ur shorts, thas fine. If u already look made up because ur coming from work, thas fine too. But if you get ready for the gym like you get ready for the club, don’t even bother coming in, just sit on ur couch and think about what you’ve done.

Talking on ur phone – its fine if you use ur phone as ur music player, but it doesn’t mean you need to tweet, update ur facebook, text and call ur homeboy to find out where ur goin tonight. All that time you spend messing with ur phone while sitting on that bench is time of mine that ur wasting while I’m waiting for you to get done, shut up and lift!

Having conversations in the locker room while ur naked - I dont need to say anything about this, just dont do it. It's bad enough that EVERY old guy walks around but-ass nekkid and for some reason, ALWAYS has to bend over to pick something up, dont make it worse.

So if you’re guilty of more than one of these, STOP. Odds are, ur pissin some people off and they wont be there for you when you need a spot.

Check out this YouTube video to see some more gym no-no's

"No matter how you workout, dont half-ass it. If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you"