Gym “Ehhh” tiquette
Like anywhere else, when you frequent a gym you start to get a feel for the people and the everyday rhythms in the environment.
Many of them are good: I am pretty friendly with the staff at my gym, and they all seem to be affable, gregarious people who are dedicated to their jobs.
There are also, of course and unfortunately, the assholes. These are the people who never re-rack their equipment, who have no qualms with leaving pools of their own sweat lying around for others to clean up, and/or who offer unsolicited advice as though they are some kind of expert on the subject of your body.
And then, there are the little acts that allow a glimpse into really strange personality types. In the interest of brevity, I will just delve into one here today. Please look at the image below:
The other day, I placed my green lock on a tall locker in an often desolate corner of the locker room because I know that I need space when I am done. I pack extra clothes and shower etc, so it is desirous to have some space to spread out and place the various personal hygiene and clothing items that I bring.
Almost without fail, some bizarre human being enters the locker room and, eschewing multiple available lockers, puts their lock on the one directly next to mine!
I can’t imagine what possesses someone with any kind of understanding of a locker room to do such a thing. I could understand if the locker room was packed, but, as you can see in the picture, there was a free locker directly next to the one where this contemptuous mutt decided to place his gear. On this particular day, in fact, I got in at an off hour and there were DOZENS of available lockers.
So, why would someone do this? Of course, it could just be cluelessness and that is annoying but understandable. But I can’t help but wonder if it is some sort of OCD manifestation. Perhaps this individual has a irrepressible desire for this particular locker, and he was annoyed at the presence of MY lock even though I was there first. It also could be some weird form of passive aggressiveness I suppose. There is this one guy who seems to delight at re-racking MY weights if I leave for a second even if there is a similar apparatus that is free and clear nearby. I have had words with him before, but nothing serious. He was in the gym on this day, so I suppose he may have done this to be a jerk, but I confess that this line of thinking reveals a certain amount of narcissism on my part- I doubt anyone cares that much about me to do a thing like that.
I know that if you read this far, many of you are probably like “Get over it dude”, and I am over it. It is just funny how the most simple things can bring up speculations about what motivates people.
I got a mental AND physical workout this day. And, in fairness, whoever the mystery lock guy was never showed up or impeded me during my exit routine.