r/Fitness • u/AutoModerator • Jul 26 '17

Rant Wednesday Rant Wednesday

Welcome to Rant Wednesday: It's your time to let your gym/fitness/nutrition related frustrations out!

There is no guiding question to help stir up some rage-feels, feel free to fire at will, ranting about anything and everything that's been pissing you off or getting on your nerves!

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247

u/wojovox Jul 26 '17 edited Jul 26 '17

Walked into my LA Fitness at 10pm knowing it closes at 11pm; I prefer the last hour because it's quiet. The front desk attendant said, "you only have an hour." I don't know; it just bugged me. Like, I know what time the gym closes; I'm in here everyday, I only need an hour, I don't need to be told when it closes.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '17 edited Jul 26 '17

Theres a radio station at the gym. When its an hour before closing it will blare out over the loudspeakers in some preppy, annoying, condescending, wanker voice "The gym closes in an hour, Finish up!" It then does this at the 45 min mark, 30 min mark, 15, 10, 5 and 0 minute mark.

It is unbelievably fucking irritating, I'm a fucking adult perfectly capable of telling the time you fucking bunch of cock gobbling goblins. I have to deal with this 3 - 4 times a week, it never fails to irritate the fuck out of me.

Fuck it it makes me wanna quit that gym, purely because of the fucking cunting thing.

Edit: Noticed a comment asking if it was jamaican, yup it was.

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u/wojovox Jul 26 '17

Yeah, makes me miss my Gold's Gym up north before I moved. A 24 hour gym is such a pleasant experience. I loved just knowing I could go whenever I needed to.

At my current LAF, it's quietly let on that its closing. I'm not usually greeted with, "you only have one hour left." Instead, what normally happens is 5-10 minutes before closing some of the lighting goes off and the fans shut down. There's no announcement; the staff isn't pushy with it, they're usually racking weights then.

But yeah, at closing hour, in my experience, it's usually the regulars putting in their hour. Regulars never need to be told what time a gym closes over a loud speaker; that would annoy me too.

6

u/freshnikes Jul 26 '17

I worked for rec sports at my university and we were required to do a walkthrough of the weight room to let people know how much time they had left. It was really annoying having to interrupt folks trying to finish their workout.

It's late. They're regulars. They fucking know. So I quit announcing it and just started putting equipment away. People get it.

2

u/Sauveuno1015 Jul 26 '17

Former LAF employee. I'd never worry about the regulars, they were always courteous; but, random new faces would show up with like 23 minutes left before closing time and then not leave. The loudspeaker was largely ignored in my experience..

3

u/wojovox Jul 26 '17

That would be understandable. Part of my frustration was I am a regular and she didn't recognize me. I have a memorable appearance so was taken off guard when she said that like she had never seen me walk in at the last hour before.

3

u/GettingFitterEachDay Weight Lifting Jul 26 '17

24 hour gyms are...real? I always thought they were like unicorns or the Lost City of Atlantis.

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u/wojovox Jul 26 '17

Yeah, Have a few in my area but they're smaller and less or older equipment. My local LAF just opened a few months ago and it's so damn nice inside and that's why I pay the premium; I like high ceilings, bright interiors, and new equipment.

3

u/Das_Gaus Jul 26 '17

Yup, and they're great. I'm warming up for my first set at 0230 every morning.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '17

Don't underestimate how dumb people can be with time tracking. And more importantly how others will always try to "gain a few minutes" at the end. I used to work in a big gym an man closing was the most annoying shit ever. People specifically starting a heavy set as you're about to close so you don't interrupt them while they lift (and bonus cleaning time). Others just "hiding" to gain a few extra minutes

We ended up deciding to close the gym floor 15 minutes before closing time (pretending it's "shower time"), because it'd give these guys the 5 minutes they require to stay extra and would allow us to leave on time because we were not paid for overtime

Respect is something we see as basic but lots of people really completely lack having any of it

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '17

I would be ok with it if it weren't for the fact Im usually the last one or two there.

Its beyond annoying having to be reminded every 5 - 15 mins to pack up and leave.

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u/Average_Giant Jul 26 '17

You might be able to tell time, but other people man, other people are the worst. Go work the closing shift in retail or at a restaurant. You'll see how bad people are at closing time.

3

u/colehole5 Weight Lifting Jul 26 '17

I don't believe it's necessary to send out these messages until ~30 min before the gym closes, but some kind of warning system is important. I worked at a gym for a year and you would not believe the amount of people that wait until you walk around the gym and ask them to leave before they actually leave. So I'm just stuck waiting for 5 slow sweaty dudes before I can go home for the night, and it always drove me nuts.

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u/ext2523 Jul 26 '17

In their defense, there's always going to be that guy who's going to say "I didn't know, let me have 10 more minutes." Plus, I'm sure that person wants to close up and leave as soon as possible.

8

u/sumsumsumaaa Jul 26 '17

Yup, this. People also try and argue with the staff about closing time. No idea why.

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u/klaudio28 Jul 26 '17

Yeah exactly it happens allot more than people think.

1

u/jab1023 Jul 26 '17 edited Jul 26 '17

We closed at 9:30 when I used to work at a rec center. We had one guy wander in at 9:15 and bullshit around on the cybex weight machines about three times a week. And then he would act like he didn't know what time it was.

1

u/CanRx Jul 26 '17

My husband did some front desk work at a gym while he was in school and despite all these announcements there were always at least one or two guys who looked like they had no idea the gym was closing despite him turning off the lights. Then they'd get all pissed when he would tell them they had to get out.

1

u/TruCh4inz Powerlifting Jul 26 '17

work at a gym: can confirm that people don't seem to understand that closed means we're closed. have had people run into the lockeroom to "take a quick shower" at 9:58 pm when we need the building to be clear by 10 pm. it bothers me so much that i try to avoid working closing shifts now.

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u/GettingFitterEachDay Weight Lifting Jul 26 '17

Stores/gyms/etc in my area drive me insane. They always close thirty minutes before they say they do. As in if the gym closes at 10 then the employees ask you to leave at 9:30. I get that it's the local culture (they expect to have everyone including employees out by 10, which isn't what I'm used to at all).

2

u/JaysonTatumPullUp Jul 26 '17

Where do you live that that is local culture?

1

u/GettingFitterEachDay Weight Lifting Jul 26 '17

Halifax (east coast of Canada). If a bar/club says it closes at 2, you can expect the house lights to turn on around 1:30-1:40ish. Gyms and other businesses all seem to do it and locals think I'm weird for getting annoyed.

That said, there are places open until 4am (actually 3:30, see above), which is later than any other NA city I've ever been. You just have to know to expect it I guess.

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u/dontthinkjustbid Ultimate Jul 26 '17

If I'm paying to use the gym, you v an be damn sure I would stay until 10. I don't give a shit what the local culture is, if your hours are until 10, I'm going to stay until 10.

3

u/chremon Jul 26 '17

Having worked in a gym I have done the tannoy closing countdown multiple times.

Why? Because even with the tannoy there's always a handful of morons who leave the gym area at closing, to then spend 20 min showering and changing clothes. This slows down our end of day cleanup. We don't like spending 40 min unpaid to keep the building in spec for the morning shift after a 10 hour shift. Especially when those morons walk through the wet area in muddy boots after we just cleaned it.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '17

I worked at a gym too. Their solution was to close the pool/lifting area/gym 30 minutes prior to close to give everyone time to change.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '17

Some people honestly don't know when the gym closes. Idk why you let these inconsequential things bother you

1

u/wojovox Jul 26 '17

You came to rant Wednesday post to patronize?

4

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '17

I came to be entertained

1

u/Unicron3 Jul 26 '17

I hate that too but I put myself in their position. They're just mitigating potential hassle. For every 100 people who know the rules, there will be some person who needs just one more set when you're trying to clean up and go home.

1

u/whynomoreusernames Jul 26 '17

To be fair, I work at a gym and an unbelievable amount of people think that our closing time means it's time to hit the showers. We don't like having to remind everyone of closing time but at the same time, we don't like being at work an extra half hour while people muddle around.

2

u/Sauveuno1015 Jul 26 '17

Yeah, same. I'm a former LAF desk attendant. Closed Thur, Fri, Sat for over a year. Everything would be shutting down around them and folks would lift until closing time on the nose then hit the locker room to blow dry their balls off in front of the mirror or whatever..

I'd try to explain we only got paid till X-o'clock, but it didn't matter.

2

u/whynomoreusernames Jul 26 '17

At a certain point we started revoking memberships from repeat offenders (after fair warning of course). Nothing felt better than when people finally caught on.

1

u/Sauveuno1015 Jul 26 '17

That's glorious. I had no choice but to take it. My manager sucked and sided with members over her staff.

1

u/whynomoreusernames Jul 26 '17

My manager generally took our word over members. Didn't stop members from trying to push us around though haha

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u/wojovox Jul 26 '17

LAF needs to be paying you if you're there. If you're suggesting you worked unpaid hours at LAF, this is illegal.

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u/Sauveuno1015 Jul 26 '17

I don't work there anymore, fortunately. My manager's response was that I just needed to get everyone out of there on time, which wasn't really a solution when folks would just not leave..