ALL of my favorite instructors are away for the summer and the subs STINK!
(thank you so much for giving me the forum to vent about this!! )

I hate that we have to sign up for the cardio equipment even when there is NO ONE there. I work a lot of Saturdays and Sundays and when I go to the gym after work on those days, the place is deserted and I still have to sign up for the machines. Plus, I find it mildly annoying that we have to sign in to the gym when we get there using our punch codes so they can verify that we're employees and not just a person from the hospital that wants to work out for free or something. Oh, and I hate that we don't have Spinning classes. Otherwise, I like my gym pretty well.

This is silly but I HATE the parking at my gym!!! People park all crooked or make up their own parking spaces! Also the Zumba class gets so packed, you can't even move!!

I don't like that my gym doesn't have a tap to fill your water bottle. The sinks are too shallow so you can't do it there, so you have to use the drinking fountain while a line of semi-annoyed people stand there wanting a drink! My boyfriend's gym has a tap on each drinking fountain for filling your bottle and it's so much faster and more convenient. How hard would it really be to add those?

My gym canceled all classes for three weeks so they could renovate the studio room. They canceled it for the same three weeks at the other nearby location. While I appreciate the fact that they're improving the place, I'm still paying the same monthly amount for only 1 week of classes and have to find a new way to keep up my exercise routine. Wish they could have renovated the two gyms at different times.

People talking on their cellphones while strolling on treadmills at a snail's pace. Hang up and work-out or get off so other people can use the machine! Oh, and don't hang out on the weight equipment chatting up your fellow meat-head.

All gyms should have automatic sink faucets. My gym has an automatic soap dispenser, but not one for the water itself. If it was all automatic, we wouldn't have to touch the handles and get extra dirty from those germs, plus, a whole lot of water would be saved!

The yoga instructors... there was one really excellent instructor and she just left since her husband is transferring to another city for his job. And one if them is REALLY bad. She is super nice, but has the most annoyinggggg, slow, nails-down-a-chalkboard voice and just is kind-of clueless as to how to lead a real yoga class. They keep giving her additional classes too. I could teach better than her and it's really frustrating!

I hate how the paper towel holders never have paper towels in them and the disinfectant bottles are always empty. If you want us to wipe off our machines after we use them, give us something to wipe them off with!!!!

Good call, Fit...I despise the "dumbbell dropper!"

I almost changed my mind about my gym when I took my first shower there. The water pressure hurts SO BAD. It's, like, hail. I've tried adjusting and trying the other shower stalls, but no dice. So now I shower at home, which is annoying, but oh well.

There are only two things that annoy me about my gym - 1) No sign ups for equipment so sometimes you can be waiting 10 minutes for a treadmill, only to have someone cut in front of you claiming they were waiting across the floor 2) No fans on the floor to help circulate the air, especially during peak hours when it gets really hot. My old gym did this and it made such a huge difference in air temp, keeping it from getting too hot or two cold.

There's this one guy @ the downtown SD gym who, while on the stair machine, will grunt and scream every once in awhile. It's not only disturbing but irritating.

Aside from that one guy, I really dislike people who fart. lol

Nothing! I love my gym. I'm very lucky

lack of air circulation in the group exercise rooms. i'm an instructor, and it can get so muggy in those rooms!

as someone who also worked the front desk at a gym, i HATE the dumbbell dropper! scares me every time.

I'm lucky that people will get off the cardio machines if someone is waiting, and it's been 20 minutes. However, I really hate that men sweat all over the equipment and don't do a proper wipe down. And I hate that the popular machines are constantly out of order for maintenance, and they take days to get around to fixing it

I feel very lucky!!! My gym is excellent and actually responds to complaints and suggestions. I just hope that they continue to do a great job and keep the programs that they have now.
There is one really annoying, very out of shape body pump instructor who screams into the microphone and doesn't do half of the exercises. She bugs me so I stopped going to that class.

I love the people at my gym but the gym itself need to make some improvements, it is older and starting to get run down:
1) The womens restrooms are out of toilet paper 75% of the time
2) The plumbing is always problematic, there is a sink that is almost always out of order and just yesterday the drinking fountain broke in the weight room and it was hotter than hell and the nearest drinking fountain is down the hall about a half a football fields length away
3) In summer they usually keep the temp in the gym around 85 degrees which is brutally hot when you are doing cardio because everyone sweating makes it incredibly humid.
4) when it rains the roof leaks and they put buckets everywhere

Those are my biggest gripes but what I get for putting up with that is a non pretentious gym that is far from being the meat market that are most chain gyms that i have ever been to seem to be. I also never have to wait for anything, even at peak times, so it is well worth those mild inconveniences.

At least your gym has disinfectant bottles, kapow22! My gym, a metropolitan branch of a major national chain that must not be named, DOESN'T EVEN HAVE DISINFECTANT SPRAY!

Also, in an effort to minimally affect their rates (so I was told), they laid off their housekeeping staff and stopped offering towel service. So now not only is disinfectant of any kind unavailable, the staffers I used to (sometimes!) see cleaning machines, the bathrooms, etc. are now no longer there AND I have to lug a towel to and from the gym!

I commute from NJ to Manhattan and the gym is located SO conveniently close to my office that it's almost impossible to switch locations and actually go. I also swim in the heavily chlorinated pool for at least half of my workouts, so the grossness of everything else doesn't always affect me ALL the time. Otherwise, I'd be OUT of there! But you know what, even as I'm typing this, I'm thinking I'd better start looking into a new gym.... GROSS!

I hate that there will only be 1 fan for 2 or 3 rows of machines, and so sometimes when I'm on an elliptical in the second row, some majorly stinky dude will get on the stair stepper right in front of the fan, and the rest of the people behind him have to withstand a face-full of stink! Usually, I'd say just leave, but it just kills me when I've got 10 minutes of a hour long workout left. UGH!!!

My gym has the smallest mat area for stretching/abs, it is under the stairs and can fit three people tops. The rest of the gym is fine, I just wait and stretch at home.

I have a new gym that I absolutely LOVE!! Prior to this one, I worked out in the gym at my apartment complex. It was disgustingly dirty, hot and stunk. I didn't go very often because it gave me the heebie jeebies.

Creepy muscle dudes. The worst.

I love my gym except for one thing, no one uses the circuit right. When I go with my husband and he goes first, no issue. Every time I go first someone gets ahead of me and doesn't move when the light switches I have to ask them to move, some move some argue, and I really hate that it makes me lose my time on the machines and breaks up my circuit. There are even signs posted because they have a designated circuit area and I guess people just don't look or don't care.

I don't go to a gym regularly, but my two big dislikes about the last gym I went to were 1) it was way too hot, and 2) the place was so packed with machines that there was no room to use the dumbbells.

My old gym used to host a summer camp for kids. Screaming, obnoxious kids that were EVERYWHERE. It made me want to jump off of a cliff.

Well I use my own gym so the worst thing is that it's fricken freezing in there!

But when I used the local gym I WAS the dumbell dropping, cell phone talking, mirror posing, back sweating, ego pressing, user.. I don't see why people have a problem with it though.

They have thick rubber mats to drop the dumbells on. And if you were dumbell pressing the 100 pounders you would rather drop them than squash yourself by trying to sit back up with them.

Mobile phones are supposed to be carried and used anywhere.. I'm not getting in anyone's way by talking on the phone.

Every wall in the place is a mirror, and bodybuilding just so happens to include looking at your body in the mirror...

I don't put my towel on the gym equipment because it'll get dirty, so if I DO leave a bit of sweat there I wipe it off with my pants.

And here's the funniest one. Women who dislike the big bulky guys who march around the gym loading up ridiculous weights and acting like they own the place. EVEN if they don't say a word to eachother and stay out of eachother's way, the women still have a problem with it. I don't get that one....

But the most annoying thing about the local gym......

Guys who try to pick up YOUR GIRLFRIEND while you're doing weights and she's doing cardio. Now THAT'S a joke. And seeing their reaction when she points over to her boyfriend who's lifting this idiots body weight on a dumbell. I had to teach my girlfriend how to ignore guys and how to get rid of them quickly, otherwise they'd distract her from her cardio by walking up and telling her to take out her earphones to talk to them.

I use the gym of my apartment, and a couple weeks ago I would say the fact that they don't have a treadmill, but they finally got one! Now I don't have a problem with it except for the fact that there aren't any fans, so it's just stale air.

My boyfriend works out with my sometimes and he doesn't like the fact that it doesn't have free weights (it's small, so they just have weight machines). I don't lift weights though, so it doesn't bother me!

Getting the steroid stare-down when I'm in the weight area all by myself. I work out with a trainer and know what I'm doing, but guys always give me the once-over when they see me lifting weights or working on the machines.

The class times. I can't make it to the gym until 6:30 or 7:00 on most days after work, and by that time all of the classes have started or are over.

Nothing. I love my gym.

Since I live in a small town here in Lapland (in Finland) there's not too many people in the gym (for the most of the time) so that's not a problmen. Though sometimes the whole town seems to be there at the same time - I hate a crowded gym, there's no room to do anything. Another thing that annoys me is the girls/women who seem to come there just to chat and gossip instead of working out. And just one more thing... The guys who want to show off by lifting as heavy weights as possible - some day I'm gonna tell them how stupid that is, they're doing all the moves wrong and they're seriously gonna hurt themselves.

I go to a great gym where people aren't allowed to drop weights, they don't cator to body builders, so no one stares at you, and there are a lot of older people and people who are just doing cardio or trying to lose weight. You don't have to sign up for machines, but there are two cardio sections so it's never that packed, the only problem I have with it is that they don't provide any towels like my last gym did, you have to bring your own. Some of the machines are out of order on a regular basis too, but that really doesn't affect me. I have a great gym.

My last gym didn't offer classes, which was a shame. I still kept going there for years, though, because the trainers were wonderful. They really knew their stuff - e.g. they loved taching people how to work around injuries, and would always tip people off who were doing exercises wrong. Best of all though, they were always cheery and motivating, plus the trainer that was your "buddy" (there was a whole buddy system thingy) would know the last time you came in, compliment you on progress, remember what was going on in your life if you had mentioned it (like they would always say good luck before big exams etc).

Too bad I moved away... My new gym I only started a week ago, so no big annoyances yet.

You should do a things I love about my gym post too!

At my gym there's this one woman who "works out" wearing her jeans and loafers and a regular top. It drives me crazy! I know she's not bothering me but the mere presence of her! It just brings the moral down! A gym is to work out and I also thought my gym had a policy about outside clothes but they don't enforce it, so that annoys me. One time, I kid you not, I saw her in the locker room all showered up wrapped in a towel putting lipstick on, so I figured that she was done with her paltry work out and was on her way our. Then not ten minutes later I see her, freshly washed in lipstick and wet hair in jeans and loafers on the treadmill!

My gym seems to have them all though:
The guy who works out in PJ pants and a outdoor puffy vest, even in summer.

The woman who sets up a whole breakfast station complete with banana, coffee, bagel, at the treadmill/bike with her cell phone and chats and eats while "working out"

The two women who chat loudly to each other while running and won't shut the frig up no matter what.

The one guy who never wipes off the machine and leave droplets of sweat all over it.

The one guy who is so greased up and so tanned that he looks like a strip of bacon. I have mentally dubbed him "Bacon Bits" whenever I see him.

And many more....

My last gym played really loud music, all the time. Even with my mp3 player at max volume, I'd still hear the music in the background almost as well as my mp3! And the worst part is that the music was extremely bad, my brain hurt after half an hour there!

How about the fact that my gym is CLOSED right now, due to the Toronto garbage strike! Stupid government-operated community gym!

my gym is really good i am ridiculosly lucky. I do not like the small area there is downstairs for free weights because its pressed for space if you wanna lift you gotta confine yourself to the space infront of the mats or a the back of a machine. I also hate how guys walk around all buff giving you a once over as if you aren't looking at them. its really hard lifting wieghts when some guy is 3 feet away doing his abbs on the floor. I think all gyms have intimidating men though, so I am extremly lucky!!

My gym really isn't so bad for the most part, but a couple things that get me: when they are out of disinfectant wipes and/or paper towels and spray to clean the machines. NYC is a germy place people! And it can get SO hot in there. I sweat enough exercising, I don't need to be in a 85 degree room. Lastly, yesterday I saw a woman on the Elliptical wearing a dress, cropped pants and heels. I know this has nothing to do with my gym in particular but it was so inappropriate, and dangerous(?). I think a "sneakers only" rule should be instated.

1. The cardio room is upstairs and its like a sauna up there... the A/C hardly ever works
2. The warm water in the water fountaind
3. All the modern good cardio machines are always the ones broken.

Since my gym keeps overselling memberships, there are too many people at my gym. There's been some relief now that it's summer, but it won't last. Also the garage SUCKS. There isn't enough parking for everyone. I end up stalking people walking to their cars to get a spot. It's horrible! I've ended up missing classes because of it. And all the really good classes are before 6:30pm.

I like my gym a lot and I'll mention it by name--Cheetah in Edgewater, Chicago. I never have to wait for cardio machines, they have free towel (and cool-down towel) service, I love my trainer, tvs for nearly every machine, etc etc etc. Sometimes I get annoyed when all the parking spots are taken up but there is ample street parking too (and now that it's nice out I just walk anyway half the time). No regular complaints.

our gym only has two elliptical machines with TVs on them! i don't know why they don't get TVs for all the equipment but its hard to find an open one, especially if you're working out with a friend. and i can't stand when there are people on the ellipticals with the TV that aren't even watching anythigg! please be courteous and let someone who wants to watch use that machine

I have no issues with my gym at all?! I guess I miss the spa area at the same gym chain in my old town but the one at my new gym is OK.

Oh! I don't like women who come into the sauna naked or who come in and strip off. Eww! They usually put a towel down but it's just gross. I don't need to see your boobs!!

kclulu, it sounds like we go to the same gym. We have similar issues, but my biggest one is when there is NO air circulation in the building. At least turn on the fans.. they are up there for a reason!
And yeah, sometimes the slamming down of the equipment is annoying.
And yes, having someone gabbing away on their cell phone is distracting and annoying. I would hate to be the person you are talking to.. panting away and chatting. Esp. if the person in the gym is doing a lot of laughing, very distracting.
Also, there is a guy who thinks he is cool and does the elliptical machine with one leg.. uh helloo, that's how those things break...
Okay I guess I have more complaints than I thought, but its not really about the gym, mroe about the people I guess.!

I love my gym for the most part. I wish they'd turn down the music though, sometimes it's so loud I can barely hear the music on my iPod. I also hate that when they got new equipment for the weight room they got rid of the power cage for yet another useless Smith Machine.

The are some in my gym

1) the screamer (he really annoys me)
2) the scented woman (why does she wear Shalimar???)
3) the several stinkers (and I mean it, the gym smells like hell)
4) the guy who spends almost an hour with the same machine

Family swim... some of the parents don't know how to control their kids. The locker room gets really loud with naked kids running around with their mom yelling at them.

I can never seem to get there in time for good classes. Most of them are during the day, when people work. And there's only 1 or 2 at night, but even those are at 5:30, and it's hard to get there, get changed, and be ready for a class if you get out of work at 5. Oh, and those night classes? One is always spin and the other is pilates twice a week.
Also, now my gym is stocked with all these high-school age kids. My gym does a special summer membership for people 16 - 21. So I get limited in what I can use. the girls take over all the cardio (and stay on it while talking on their cells or the friends next to them) and the boys try to lift weights.

I go to a womens only gym and it is excellent. Always clean, lots of spray disinfectant handy when you're done w/ a machine and very polite helpful staff. One thing that is irritating is ladies talking on their cell phone walking slower than a chihuahua when someone is waiting to use a machine. Respect goes a long way.

Nothing at all wrong with my gym. If there was then I wouldn't go! I think a lot of people are just nitpicking about some of this stuff. Obviously this is a public place and there will be people and things that you just don't agree with. I think the only thing that semi bothers me is when people don't unload the weight rack. But I just see it as another opportunity to move around and lift some weights!