I'm Not Here To Make Friends

[prefect42]

I workout at a university gym and am continually amazed by how chatty it can be, even at 6 AM. You got up at 5:30 for this. Don't you want to, you know, work out? I know this comes up often enough, but I've noticed it often enough at my gym (and with people who I'm pretty sure have only come to know one another via the gym) that I'm left to wonder: is it me? Am I breaking some sort of early morning workout code whereby we congratulate ourselves for getting the gym when it opens by not actually working out once we're there?

But then I just invoke perhaps the greatest of reality TV show tropes:

[Kain]

haha, I actually watched that whole video. Do you wear headphones are listen to music? It usually throws people off when you quickly and annoyingly take out your earphones to listen to them speak.

[Crooked]

I feel this way all the time. When I'm at the gym at 6 in the morning and there are a bunch of people standing around chatting in the weight room, I am baffled. If you're willing to drag yourself out of bed to get in an early workout, why would you waste that time talking?

@Kain, I do that instinctively (the earbud thing) when I'm working out and surprised that someone is talking to me, and I realized it's very off-putting to people ... so I kept doing it.

[shinigamiPUNCH]

When I go to the gym I'm usually pretty silent, but then again I'm incredibly shy. Sometimes I'll smile at people and say hi, but nothing more than that. I don't generally want people to know I'm there.

I used to go with my boyfriend and I would talk at him the entire time he was lifting weights (and then be silent when it was my turn) but I think that's kind of different. And it probably annoyed him to no end.

I really want to click that link, but I'm at work on break and that might not go over too well...

[Kain]

I used to go with my boyfriend and I would talk at him the entire time he was lifting weights (and then be silent when it was my turn) but I think that's kind of different. And it probably annoyed him to no end.

Don't worry, he probably wasn't listening. lol.

[sumdawgtwigg]

My gym if nothing but older women in the morning and when I walk in they just stare at me. So, I don't really have this problem.

[Drakenator]

I don't go so early, but I do see only a few select people being chatty, but they are still working out and not taking up any space unnecessarily. The locker room is silent except between good friends chatting. But again, they are moving towards a goal, to the shower, from the shower, out the door etc.

When I used to work out at the college gym it seemed a bit more social.

[mpbstereo]

I started training at a CrossFit box owned and operated by a high school buddy of mine who also lives in my building. Training there (or most boxes in general) is a very community oriented environment, great for motivation.

However, I really really place a premium on training as "me time", so to speak, so I train in the gym in my building (has about 80% of the stuff i'd need for a CF WOD, the other 20% i kind of improvise with a little imagination, depending on the WOD), and am fortunate that my building sits on the back end of the city park, which has a nice running trail that's 2.32 miles around, lots of inclines and declines. There's almost never anyone at the gym, but I still plug my headphones in and zone out of the world and into my training.

[SpeedRacer]

I'm not generally fussed. Tonight a bunch of AFL players were working out together were talking about the three musketeers, I joined in the conversation in the middle of my set. There was no pause involved and I didn't lose anything from my routine, and I knew about the book so... why not? It also didn't bother their sets.

Also, for a brief period when I had a gym partner, we used to talk all the time about culture and entertainment. We only stopped talking on the last set.

I only reach for my mp3 player when I recognise a bunch of tools who'll endlessly go on about the club and their ability to drink.

[Deis]

I don't do the early morning gym thing, but in Krav, I will sometimes ask my training partner how his week was...while kicking him in the balls. I can multi-task.

No, I'm kidding, it's a bad habit.

[afflictionreckoning]

A little conversation is okay. I go to the gym at my school so sometimes I might see someone I haven't seen for awhile and we may set a meet up date or something. But I know how annoying it is if people are chilling out on the equipment or in the middle of the gym chatting and laughing loudly. Nope, that isn't cool.

[Crooked]

I didn't mean to imply that I'm totally anti-talking in the gym. I've have a few really nice (brief) conversations with some of the male weight-lifters at my gym between sets, mostly about what kind of fitness we're both into. What gets me is when I see people sitting on weight machines chatting or draping themselves over the squat rack having a 10-minute conversation about their weekends. If you were willing to drag yourself out of bed and to the gym, why sabotage that by wasting the time you've given yourself? Maybe I'm just not part of their community, but it always strikes me as odd.

[bigm141414]

chatting or draping themselves over the squat rack having a 10-minute conversation about their weekends

This happens quite a lot at my gym since it is located on the same campus as my job. Everyone talks shop for 20 min while taking up the weights. I think they do this to drag out the time they can be social outside of work. When I am working out, I get in, do my thing, get it done, so I can either start the work day or go home and relax.

[SpeedRacer]

I know the characters you mean. I certainly see them too. I see them as like cartoon characters or a character from some silent, black and white slapstick film. One I see a lot at my gym is a character I know as "Lifty McBiceps", it takes poor Lifty 20 minutes to do his 2-3 sets of concentration curls because he keeps getting distracted by his phone, friends, ipod or whatever, then he goes to the pec dec.

[shinigamiPUNCH]

One I see a lot at my gym is a character I know as "Lifty McBiceps", it takes poor Lifty 20 minutes to do his 2-3 sets of concentration curls because he keeps getting distracted by his phone, friends, ipod or whatever, then he goes to the pec dec.

I love that - Lifty McBiceps! Awesome name!

[mpbstereo]

I don't do the early morning gym thing, but in Krav, I will sometimes ask my training partner how his week was...while kicking him in the balls. I can multi-task.

No, I'm kidding, it's a bad habit.

you said balls. *snicker*

[prefect42]

Oh yeah, I'm not anti-talking either, just find the level of conversation amusing, especially early in the morning. But maybe that's because I roll in and am barely coherent enough to add up the proper plates for my working weight.

[afflictionreckoning]

I didn't mean to imply that I'm totally anti-talking in the gym. I've have a few really nice (brief) conversations with some of the male weight-lifters at my gym between sets, mostly about what kind of fitness we're both into. What gets me is when I see people sitting on weight machines chatting or draping themselves over the squat rack having a 10-minute conversation about their weekends. If you were willing to drag yourself out of bed and to the gym, why sabotage that by wasting the time you've given yourself? Maybe I'm just not part of their community, but it always strikes me as odd.

I completely agree. There's a fine line between being friendly and brief and being absolutely obnoxious to everyone around you.

[Lasombra]

I don't see a whole lot of obnoxious at my gym, which is kind of surprising because it's a big Gold's. There's the occasional flirty soon-to-be couple, or text-for-10-minutes-between-sets guy, but meh. Once I have my rack, I kind of stop paying attention!

I'm definitely in the friendly and brief camp. I only have an hour in there at most, and I need to be working!

[CapN_Tommy_Sunshine]

Yeah, I am totally with you here. I am there to lift heavy things, and get on with my day. There are a few regulars that talk to each other constantly. Their rest breaks between sets have got to be 10 minutes long. I think that they have realized that I am there to do my workout, and get the hell out of there, as they basically nod in my general direction when I claim the squat rack as my own (no one has ever used it besides myself and "curl in the squat rack" guy (fortunately, I was done with my workout by then).

[CasiLeigh]

Funny stuff, right here. I am definitely not anti-social when I work out but I DO like to focus. I always notice these aforementioned individuals around my haunts, too. I teach yoga, run & cycle on a city trail, and work part time at a tennis & fitness club so I see it EVERY where. My favorite is the overweight, out of shape ladies who pay a pro for lessons and schedule court time only to waste upward of 10 minutes between each serve just jawing over the net, then they crab off the courts about how "tennis just isn't enough of a workout, I'm seeing ZERO results." Well.....DUH. You have ZERO input, babe.

I've toyed with the idea of starting up my own wellness coaching clinic after finishing my dietitian certification and I always joke with my fiance that I fully intend to name this establishment, "Shut The Hell Up & Sweat."

[prefect42]

I've toyed with the idea of starting up my own wellness coaching clinic after finishing my dietitian certification and I always joke with my fiance that I fully intend to name this establishment, "Shut The Hell Up & Sweat."

I would frequent that establishment.

[tsuchinoko92]

I would actually go to a gym named like that.

[Crooked]

I've toyed with the idea of starting up my own wellness coaching clinic after finishing my dietitian certification and I always joke with my fiance that I fully intend to name this establishment, "Shut The Hell Up & Sweat."

Why are you only joking? I'd join

[CasiLeigh]

HAH, awesome. I knew I was going to love it here.