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Fascinating story in the NY Times about a man's gym membership being canceled after he grunted at a Planet Fitness gym. Apparently national chain Planet Fitness is trying to crack down on behavior, and grunting is a violation of club policy! While the gym's manager says she mainly revoked Albert Argibay's membership because he was being hostile, she did admit that grunting wasn't welcome.
A sportsclub trade group notes that the fastest growing segment of health club membership growth are the once-or-twice a week baby boomers, so many clubs are trying to make their facilities less intimidating. But does that mean shooing away the bodybuilders? The Times also speaks to a professor of physical therapy who says some people grunt because they are trying to stabilize their spines. Take that, Planet Fitness!
While grunting can be annoying at the gym (and we sometimes suspects there are show-grunters - people who grunt for attention), it's hardly the worst thing. What about the people who are heavily breathers - should they be reprimanded? More annoying are the people who just chit-chat and gossip or sit on a weight machine while reading a magazine and barely use it. Or the people who hog the treadmills or ellipitcal trainers. The list goes on, and grunting isn't really near the top. What are your gym pet peeves?
And Argibay's lawyer created a website called boycottplanetfitness and uploaded a WCBS 2 segment about Argibay's plight to YouTube.
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all gyms want fat people. They don't want 1.bodybuilders cause they scare away the fat people. 2. they actually use their membership to the fullest. they want fat people cause 1. they are stupid and want to lose weight so they'll pay for the extra classes but 2. they never show up to the gym after the first 2 weeks even after they've paid a full membershipt and 3. they are too embarrassed and guilt ridden to come back and ask for money back and they are easily duped into signing again.
As a wussy guy who sometimes grunts when I'm running, I read the story with interest. My conclusion - Planet Fitness sounds like a bullshit gym. (I mean, seriously, what kind of place would promote itself by creating a "lunk alarm"?) Happily, it is the suburbs and it is probably easy to find a better place.
My gym pet peeve (which actually keeps me out of the gym and on the free streets) - loud, crappy music that makes it impossible to use my own walkman.
Loud obnoxious music is definitely a peeve. Also members with really bad B.O.. I mean, I know we are all sweating, and I am sure up close none of us smells like a bouquet, but dude, I should not be able to smell you from 6 feet away.
the once-or-twice a week baby boomers...who just chit-chat and gossip or sit on a weight machine while reading a magazine and barely use it
I hate when they cold call you to ask if you want a free session with a private trainer. I also hate the free sessions -- they inevitably turn into the trainer harassing you to sign up with him (or her, as the case may be) for weekly sessions. This happened to me once even after I told the guy who called me that I'd take the free session as long as the trainer didn't try to sell me on taking weekly sessions. The "trainer" also told me that what I was doing as a work-out (swimming a mile three or four times a week) wasn't doing me any good. Yeah, right.
It's all about the noise. Music is bad, loud music is worse, loud music with a heavy base line is the worst. Talking on cell phones. Talking loudly. Standing around talking with others. Running or walking on a treadmill so that your toe hits the machine. Playing your ipod so I can hear the lyrics. Clanking weights, and yes, grunting.
wow DC, you must be a real pleasure
I'm sorry, but i'm a grunter. Not one of the obnoxiously loud ones, you probably won't hear me if you're 10 or more feet away. The people who complain about grunting most likely have never lifted anything over 20lbs at the gym. Its part of working out, deal with it. Wear an ipod if it bugs you so much. I don't complain about the damn yoga people monopolizing the abs area.
my gym pet peeve is loud, crappy music. Especially when it's the radio and they leave it blasting loud when the commercial comes on, or maybe worse, it's the same CD for a YEAR! I abandoned my $300 a year neighborhood gym in Sunset Park because of the loud music and switched to paying over $1000 at the YMCA near my office in Manhattan because they don't play any music at all. Quiet is so rare, I'm willing to pay more than $1000 instead of $300.
Ha ha, sometimes I am a treadmill toe-hitter, too.
So seriously, anybody got a QUIET (no music or low music) gym in Brooklyn that they could recommend?
Planet Fitness bases its no-grunting rule and similar strictures on a false premise. The idea is that serious lifters - the sort who grunt, deadlift, use chalk or chains, and use dumbbells over 85 pounds, all taboo - will be "judgmental" of people who aren't in the best of shape and create an intimidating atmosphere.
It is a false premise because serious lifters are not judgmental and in fact don't pay any attention to most other gymgoers. They are focused on their own activities and have nothing to prove by making fun of anyone else. The people who are judgmental of others are anything but hard-core: the douche bags who do endless sets of pathetically light biceps curls thinking they'll get huge arms and drive the girls crazy; or the 100-pound young women who spend hours on the treadmill trying to work off the calories of the decaf skinny latte they had in the morning. And needless to say, people like that are welcomed at Planet Fitness.
I don't get it. How does someone run/walk on the treadmill so that your toes hit the machine? I thought it was designed that you can't actually do that unless you are RIGHT at the absolute front of the machine. Please explain.
As for noise, my gym plays shitty rap music ad nauseam. I wear my iPod and just tune everything out. The only pet peeve I have is people who monopolize the weights/machines for an extended period of time doing super sets or whatever. If you are as thinned skinned as this DC person, then don't go to the gym. Ride your bike or run.
Yeah, exactly, you catch up with the machine so that you are as far forward as you can go, and the front of your sneaker starts to grab a little stationary metal from time to time. It's a pleasant sensation, especially for a loser like me who is usually in the back half of the treadmill, reaching desperately for the "down" button.
How about that guy at the New York Sports Club on Mercer Street who talks to himself during his entire workout (locker room included). Sometimes it's a string of explitives, sometimes even somewhat intelligent monologues. Either way, I gotta say...a little distracting.
Well I grunt sometimes when I'm on the can taking a dump . It's better to grunt , Then curse up a storm !