Originally Posted by ActiveTom

I'm a people watcher, so I notice a lot of bad habits!

The one I hate the most if when 3 people take turns doing 1 exercise. One guy is always out of his depth and they take up the weight and station for 10 minutes or more at a time, so no one can use it.

The guys who sit on a machine doing 3 minute breaks between sets and if you ask if you can jump on in between sets, they say no. Usually nursing a bottle of water and watching the tv.

This guy at my gym always comes in at peak times. He will put his towel, water bottle and keys on an adjustable bench and walk off. Do some fit ball crunches and complain if someone is using the bench he had his stuff on when he gets back. If you ask him if hes using the bench he gets arsey and says "my stuff is on it, what do you think that means?" Even then, when I've seen him get back to the bench all he used it for was resting a barbell (pre-set weight ones, not an oly bar) on it for his upright rows!

The people who think its a social club and actually stand in a crowd in the free weights area taking up all the room while just talking to each other.

I dont mind the mobile phones if they dont make a sound. I use mine, but only to write down my reps for each set into it for journal purposes. I also look back at previous workouts to see if I am ready to go up a weight. So while it might look like I am texting, I'm actually logging my work.

Bad spotters. If you ask someone for a spot and they leave you hanging on in there for over 5 seconds before they assist you and even then, they just lift the whole weight rather than coax it up so you get the most from it.