Commonly accepted fitness etiquette

To maintain an atmosphere in which all people feel comfortable, you must insist on certain standards of behavior. Promoting gym etiquette can break down barriers that prevent members from using a facility. Enforcing reasonable policies ensures a comfortable, professional environment for everyone.

Most gyms have the primary safety rules posted on the walls. Some of these rules are for safety, others for hygiene, others revolve around common courtesy. Please do your best to follow them.

Commonly accepted fitness etiquette:

1. Sharing equipment
2. Treat equipment with respect
3. Unload your weight bar
4. Putt weights back where you found them
5. Keep your sweat to yourself
6. Keep traffic flowing
7. Don’t be a fountain hog
8. Toting around your gym bag
9. Treating the locker room like your own bathroom

Sharing Equipment

• Weight equipment and dumbbells are considered communal property.
• Don’t sit on a machine or retain possession of the dumbbells while you rest between sets.
• Let someone else sneak in for a set while you rest.

Treat equipment with respect

• Don’t drop weights on floor.
• Lower plates on weight machines gently so not to damage cables and plates.
• Taking proper care of the equipment makes it last longer and prevents it being out of commission for you and others.

Unload your weight bar

• After you finish using a bar, leave it completely empty.
• Don’t assume that everyone can lift the same amount of weight you can. Don’t assume that the next person who comes along has the ability (or desire) to clean up after you.
• This clear-the-bar rule doesn’t just apply to heavy lifters.

Put weights back where you found them

• Never leave dumbbells or barbells on the floor when you’re finished using them. Someone may trip on the weights.
• If you leave dumbbells on the floor between sets, criss-cross them or butt them up against the wall or the bench so that they can’t roll away.

Keep your sweat to yourself

• Carry a towel and wipe off any bench or machine you use it.
• Use the disinfectant that is provided
• If you forget to bring a towel, use your sweatshirt or the paper towels provided by the club.

Keep traffic flowing

• The weight room is for training NOT visiting
• Don’t clog the pathways between machines or congregate with a dozen of your buddies in the free weight area.
• If you block space, someone may walk around you and inadvertently bump someone who’s working out on a machine, causing the person to lose control and to drop a weight. This has happened before with serious consequences.

Don’t be a fountain hog…

• Don’t stand at the drinking fountain trying to catch your breath. Take a drink, and get back in line.
• Better yet, carry a water bottle in the weight room.
• When you do fill up your bottle, let everyone else in line get a drink first.

Toting around your gym bag

• Fitness tend to be crowded with equipment and people.
• The fewer things that are brought into the room…the better.
• You know those large hollowed-out cubes called lockers? That’s where you store your gym bag.

Treating the locker room like your own bathroom

• Don’t take up three lockers and spread your clothing over the entire bench. Share with others. Shut your locker when you leave.
• Clean up after yourself.
• Don’t leave your belongings in lockers overnight unless you have permission to do so.