Rude behavior at the Y last night

[TXlib]

There's this girl I see at the Y most evenings I go; she gets there about the same time I do, and likes to use the elliptical machines. She's probably 18-20.

Last night, she was desperately trying to get on an elliptical machine, but was blocked every time. The first time, she approached this 15-ish yo boy who was standing backwards on the machine, surveying the room. She asked him if he was just getting on, or just getting off. He said he was just getting on. She walked away, and within 30 seconds, he dismounted and left. She tried to claim it, but somebody else got there first.

So, she used one of the stairmasters against the wall, which face the rest of the gym, and she watched the ellipticals to see if one opened up. The one to my left opened up, and she gathered her things and approached. Just before she got there, this fat, sweaty pig of a man jumped on. He had just walked into the gym, and hadn't been waiting. She told him she had been waiting for 15 minutes to use a machine. He said, "Honey, I don't care. I'll get off when I'm good and ready." I turned to him and told him she had indeed been waiting, and pointed to show him other people ahead of him who were waiting their turn. He told me to mind my own business. I had half a mind to ask him to step outside the gym so we could "discuss" his manners. She went back to her stairmaster. Suddenly, I saw two ellipticals open up in the front. She didn't see it. I waved and got her attention, and pointed them out to her, and she finally got her machine. And the fat piggy man next to me? He got off the machine after about 90 seconds.

:grr:

Is it just me or do the fat man and the 15-yo boy both deserve a serious smackdown? The fat guy was outrageously obnoxious, but the 15-yo boy was solipsistically selfish: If you tell somebody you're going to use the machine, then dismount within 30 seconds, allowing somebody else (other than the one who just asked) to jump on, that's just RUDE!

And the one or two other people who blocked this girl from using a machine by jumping on before she had a chance to both knew she was waiting, and was heading to the machine as well, and raced her to it. (Unless they just had their heads totally up their asses, but that's another pet peeve...)

[WillParkinson]

1. That was good of you!

I'm glad you didn't beat the crap out of either of them. I doubt it would have done any good to report it, either. First come, first served is what they'd say, I guess.

[TXlib]

6. No, the Y workers do try to enforce "fair play" when they can

but i didn't see any of them around.

[ithacan]

2. sound like typical Rush Limbaugh listeners

and republican voters.

They are in fact quite pathetic. They feel so much like losers that they pull this kind of BS to "prove" they have power.

Losers.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Just because people's ages are in two digits

doesn't mean their brains (or manners) have developed beyond that of a 3-year-old.....

[GOPisEvil]

4. MEMEMEMEMEMEMEME...I'm important, not you! MEMEMEME!!!

Yeah, there's a serious rise in lack of manners in this world. People like this need a serious attitude adjustment. If the reverse were true, I bet most of them would whine to the management.

[TXlib]

13. Yeah, the MEMEMEME thing is everywhere

At the gym, on the road, etc.

[terrya]

5. Did she complain to the employees?

I hope she does. That kind of rudeness is disgusting. Most people at gyms ARE courteous.

The girl at the Y PAYS for the right to workout there. She shouldn't have to put up with boorish behavior from those two jerks.

Terry

[TXlib]

7. I would've complained, but both offenders were gone when i was done.

[Missy Vixen]

8. God forbid

>Just before she got there, this fat, sweaty pig of a man jumped on.<

I don't agree with his rudeness, but isn't a gym a good place for a "fat, sweaty pig"?

Maybe he should do his exercising somewhere else. After all, you wouldn't want to be forced to look at the "fat, sweaty pig", especially at a gym.

Julie

[TXlib]

10. Sorry, I felt the need to dehumanise him!

:)

I guess the "pig" had more to do with his selfishness than his size.

I would have felt far less contempt for the man if he'd actually worked out instead of grunting, straining and (yuck) farting for 90 seconds, and then leaving. I saw him exit the gym. He hadn't been there 5 minutes. He came just to be a total ass to that girl.

[populistmom]

9. That is pretty rude

I tend to be a very polite, sweet person, but I've been known to chew out those who treat me crappy. If I were this girl, even at that young age, I'd have had some choice words for those two "gentleman".

[TXlib]

12. I really wanted to open up a can of whupass last night.

I got a really good workout by imagining fistfights with freepers.

[nuxvomica]

11. I stopped going to the gym years ago because of this nonsense

So this kind of behavior is not new. People acted the same way in the 1980s and 90s. It gives the person some sort of sense of power to control a station, a sense that they don't get normally in their lives by accomplishing something. People like that aren't just rude they are pathetic.

[BiggJawn]

18. That's why I don't go to the gym.

So I don't work out in the winter, but at least when I am working out, if some ass in an F-350 treats me like the "machine hogs" do at the gym, it's Vehicular Assault....

[SOteric]

14. Yes, those folks

who hogged the machines without regard to others were rude. Yep, yep, yep.

Smackdowns, however deserved though, are not polite. Miss Manners will not be giving you a freepass for that can of whupass. :hi:

[DS1]

15. freepasses, who needs em?

:7

[Fleshdancer]

16. speaking of gym etiquette....

first and foremost, thank you for helping out the girl...hopefully the good you did outweighed the frustration she must have felt from the two jerks.

And here's what else bothers me at the gym: If there's a sign either on the wall or on the actual machine that says "30 minute limit" then abide by it!

Or when people are using the weight machines and they stay on the machine between sets when people are OBVIOUSLY waiting for it...or worse, they're sweaty and yet they don't wipe down the machine! YUCK!

And I know I shouldn't care one way or another but I also get annoyed when people are on the stationary cycle (the one where they sit in a chair and their legs are out in front of them) and they move their legs slowly and read a magazine/book etc. I really don't see how this could be considered working out. If you're attempting to do something aerobic, then shouldn't there be at least a few beads of sweat forming???

[TrogL]

17. There's supposed to be signup boards

In any Y I've been in, there are whiteboads near the various machines, one per type, where you sign up for the next available machine. You put your name and the time you signed the board.

If they aren't there, you should insist they be implemented.

I can give you the phone number of a Y that has them.

[CanuckAmok]

19. "Manners"? What are those?

I see this behaviour constantly, particularly in gyms in which I've been a member. That's one of the reasons I go as late as I can--mst gyms seem to empty out after 9pm or so.

I have two pet peeves:

1) people who use circuit weight machines and it on them for extended periods between sets. When I'm doing curcuit, I try to get through it as fast as possible, with a minimum amount of down-time between exercises. There's always some shlub wo comes in to use just one or two machines, and sits on them, inactive, far longer than he actually uses them. And, more often than not, said shlub is wearing loud headphones, so asking hime "excuse me, may I work in with you" becoomes a huge, elaborate pantomime rivaling the step-clas.

2) (and this may piss off some female DUers). My gym is split into two levels. the main floor is co-ed, and the upper floor, which is an open 'loft-style' mezzanine, is for women only. There are only two eliptical machines on the co-ed floor, and four on the women-only floor. They way the gym is laid out, you can see if anyone is using the women-only elipticals from the main floor. Anyway, there's always a huge line-up for the co-ed elipticals, and a whopping majority of members who use them are women. I'd say, four days out of five, I have to wait over an hour for access to the elipticals, because women are using them, when there are UNUSED elipticals on the women-only floor which I'm not allowed to use.

Not only that, but most of the classes are women-only, including ALL of the aerobic and pilates classes. The only classes open to men (as part of a co-ed group, of course, who would dare to do anything as discriminatory as form a men-only class?), are spin.

So, my pet peeve is the fact that I pay exactly the same membership fees as a woman, and yet have access to less than half the gym's services and equipment.

Technically, that's illegal under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but if I were to make a stink about it, I'd be labled a misogynist, I'll bet.

/end rant...sorry about that, and the thread-jack.