Actually, in my gym, the "Old" gym members are at least as likely to do this as the new gym members. Partly apparently because they feel it's their territory and they therefore have the right to be obnoxious.

You have a point.

Aw, man, I'm never gonna live down the "goat" thing! In my defense, I didn't make it up, lol.

As for CFers in a regular gym, I tend to agree with whomever said you can't expect to tie up multiple pieces of equipment just because your workout is timed. If you've got a pair of DB bars and weight plates, somewhere to do pull-ups, you can pretty much do CF or close enough to get by at home. I did that for six months before I joined a CF gym.

@Bill, I had to laugh about putting back the DBs. I clean the CF gym I go to on weekends, and almost every weekend, somebody has pulled out one of the freaking 120 and/or 110# DBs, and they put them back on the stack all willy-nilly, which usually means every other DB can't be put back right, so I have to move about 600# of DBs before I can get to the 100+ DBs to fix the one DB that started it all, then restack the rest. To me, one on top of the other and "put it back where you got it" doesn't seem that hard a concept, but for some, it's a real challenge, apparently. I'm lucky in that, for the most part, people do put their equipment away, or try to. At least I'm not hauling the 120# DB from the other end of the gym, right? Mostly, it irks me, I think, because I KNOW they're not using it for lifting, they're using it to anchor their freaking feet for sit-ups, when seriously, a 45# would work just fine, or how about tucking your toes under the knob of one of the three big tractor tires that are already on the floor, or man-up and quit anchoring your feet? Of course, I can't say any of that, since I don't know who's doing it, plus it wouldn't be PC, so I just keep restacking the stack and hope I don't smash my fingers (again...sigh).

Cheryl,
I was just going to ask about the goat. Can you elaborate please? :-)

Hey Alena!

At Crossfit, they use the term "goat" to refer to an exercise or skill you haven't mastered (like double-unders with a jumprope), or something that just is hard for you because of your build or body type (like running is often a goat for the strongman types at our gym, because they're just heavy with muscle, and it's harder to run fast when you're lugging 230 lbs, even if you're lean at that weight). So, I posted that I wanted to be the boss of some of my goats this year, like anything gymnastics/BW related, double-unders, and stringing kipping pull-ups together (which is actually due to a weak grip, not technique), and everybody thought that was funny because of the goat term.

As I've mentioned before in other threads, I am a member in a gym that caters to British and Australian amateur rugby players ... and they are TERRIBLE about standing around a bench (that one of them is seated on) and gossiping. Like those gaggles of ladies at Curves who are not burning very many calories, only with shaved heads, linebacker shoulders, and full-back tattoos. I actually find it secretly a little funny. And they are all very good-natured despite their sometimes rather terrifying looks, so I don't mind that much, I just work around them. They help each other do assisted pull-ups, too, so I hope when I get to that stage there's one around to ask.

In the last couple of years I've been going to the gym in the evening around 7pm... at that time there are a lot of boys/men 18-30 yrs old who think they have a mother/wife picking up after them - NOT!! They leave their 3 plates of 45lbs on racks and just walk away grrrrrr....

One older lady at our gym never wears a bra whether she is weight training or doing a cardio class ... She also wears short sleeves with large arm holes ... I shake my head everytime I see her ... She's very hippy-ish, maybe that says it all

I work out without my glasses (my vision is only 20/40, mostly they're for driving and reading chalkboards) or contacts because they are a pain when I sweat. This means I have to get close to tell what weight those dumbells are. There is one pair of 17.5# in the entire gym, the 15 is too easy and the 20s make me use bad form. So PLEASE stop hiding them! I get quite embarrassed when I walk up and down the long weight rack, then wander through the entire area searching for where some idiot left them. It makes me look stupid. So please, you return everything else!

Ah, yes, the old "hide the dumbbell" trick. Forgot about that one, but it goes along with someone's addition of putting the dumbbells in the right place!

Did anyone else notice that the Wall Street Journal stole my idea (kidding -- it's not that original of an idea) and put an article about New Years Resolutioners in it's "A" section on the front page? Their article was mostly about newbies in the cardio area, which is a whole 'nother post. And about music. Seems in NYC, some people still use boom boxes while working out, so one little vignette was about dueling music / boom boxes. How quaint.

//b. strong

Are you KIDDING ME! Boom Boxes...? wow.