How to Look Like a Tool in the Gym

Author: Roger Almeida | 09/10/2008 | Gym Etiquette

Curling in the squat rack
This is irritating solely because most gyms only have 1 or 2 squat racks and most people can’t curl over 135 for reps (which is what one would consider enough weight as an excuse to use the squat rack for curling). How are you supposed to safely squat heavy weight if some tool is using it for 45 pound curls?

Loud grunting noises
On every rep. It’s only a natural human behavior to let out some emotion on the last 1 or 2 reps on every set if you’re going to failure, but if you’re going to draw attention to yourself by doing it on every rep, then guess what? You’re a tool. It’s unnecessary. Though I don’t condemn grunting to the point where it should br banned like in the case of Planet Fitness vs. Mr. Argibay almost 2 years ago. Planet Fitness is clearly not a real gym.

Working out with 10 of your friends
You probably don’t see this at all unless you work out at a college gym, but college students love to work out in packs. They love to take turns on the bench press and there’s so many of them that they end up hogging it for an hour. They love to work out 1/4 of the time whilst using the other 3/4 talking about how to get bigger biceps, how hot the girl across the room is, or how “easy” all their classes are. They love to form a frontier around the squat rack to watch each other curl. When I go to the gym, I don’t work out; I train. I don’t see how these kids can focus on their training with all those distractions.

Doing partial reps
“I can’t squat too deep; I have bad knees.” This same guy does leg extensions for 3 sets of 20 reps, which is arguably worse for your knees than regular squats (if you really do have bad knees). What about putting less stress on your knees by lowering the weight to do full squats? You win in 2 ways. I see this too often with preacher curls too. Some guys don’t go down nearly enough to be really working their biceps. Why don’t you just lower the weight and do it right?

Cell phones (unless you’re a doctor on call)
Not because it’s rude to use you cell phone in public. In fact, people who think it’s rude to use your cell phone practically everywhere are annoying. It’s a free country. Anyway, cell phone use in the gym is annoying because it encourages machine hogging, and thus you waste my time making me wait for a bench when you’re sitting on it talking on your phone. If you want to talk on the phone, just step aside and let other people use the equipment. I don’t care what you talk about thereafter.

Mr. Spot
“Hello, I am Mr. Spot. I need a spot on every single rep I do, otherwise I can’t pretend I can lift 50 more lbs than what I really should be lifting.” I was once asked to spot this guy who was benching–of course he was. He was “lifting” 225lbs, but he was a really small guy. I knew right away that this was going to be ridiculous. I didn’t even bother to ask how many reps he was planning to do because I knew he wouldn’t even push one. I predicted it too well and his 1-rep-max turned into a deadlift/bent over row for me. Keep your own weight and you won’t need a “spot” for every single rep.

By Roger Almeida