This just in…while doing a little Sunday morning Web research on spinning (see my previous post), I have ‘breaking news’ when it comes to gym etiquette. Turns out, not all people take my route of being silent and annoyed. In an ABCNews Report, Gym Rage: Spinning Out of Control, Russell Goldman points out that gym rage exists and can happen just about anywhere, to anyone. So maybe I’m not so out of line when it comes to needing a set of universal rules!
At one NYC health club, a man actually spent two-weeks in the hospital suffering from spinal cord damage after another man became so ‘enraged’ by his “whooping.” I’ll let the lawyer explain it himself:
(photo from ABCNews.com) “[Carter] didn’t like the volume at which my client was cheering and getting amped up,” Sugarman’s lawyer Samuel Davis told ABCNEWS.com. “After making some rude expletive-laced comments that my client desist from cheering … he got off his bike and into a linebacker’s position. Then he charged across the room, lifting my client off his bike and smashing his head and neck against a Sheetrock wall.”
Damn. Now I don’t feel so bad about my rant on gym etiquette. So moving forward, what’s a girl to do when she’s faced with a grunter or someone of the sort? The article offers some advice from Jim Bell, president of the Fitness Professionals Association.
“If someone in the gym is annoying you, the proper thing is to do is go through the chain of command. It is better not to confront [a] member that’s annoying you, instead tell a trainer or go to management.”
Yes, because people, as noted by the article, can really get aggressive! My question to you is, so, what are the limits? Spinning, as I noted in an earlier post, puts you in this state of euphoria. You find yourself clapping along to the music and just about everyone yells out at some point – even the instructor approves and asks for this at times.
What’s next, divided classes? Grunters Spinning at 5:45, Silent Spinners at 6:45, In-Betweeners 7:45?
