Gyms are back and so are the grunters

There are a couple of types of people that are quite annoying in the gym. There are the wanderers who think that they can occupy multiple machines at once for their own catered workout, there are the phone sitters who apparently came to the gym not to work out but to play around on their phones for 10 minutes between sets while occupying one of the few benches in the dumbbell section, and then we have the worst of them all: The grunters.

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Now if you play for a college football team (like the guy above does) and you are in your team's private gym I would imagine that grunting and even screaming on every rep is probably encouraged but that's not where I work out. I work out in a gym that anyone with some money can work out in and there are a few people that go there that when I see them, I know exactly what is going to happen.

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It shouldn't be a surprise that these are the same people that are always walking around the gym with an intimidating swagger like they are there looking for a fight. They slam their weights down no matter what it is that they are doing and even though almost everyone in the place has headphones on, you can hear this guy making loud noises on almost every rep beyond the 2nd one.

Is there some sort of advantage that these guys think they are getting from doing this? There isn't any evidence to suggest that it does any more than a strong exhale does and mostly I feel as though these loons are looking for attention. It would be one thing if all of the people I see who are guilty of this were ripped as hell, but they aren't. Sometimes they are guys that are using improper form and lifting a lot more than they should be and are probably headed for chronic injury if they keep this up.

Oh and I think this says a lot about the sexes too because I have never seen a woman who does this or even heard of it happening elsewhere. Yet, for men, it seems as though there are at least one of these guys in any gym, no matter where you go.

If this is something that you or someone you know does in the gym first off... stop it. You aren't impressing anyone. You are actually encouraging us to loathe you and you ruin the overall experience for everyone around you. We mock you and avoid you.

This has been an issue that was annoying enough to patrons of Planet Fitness that they actually installed something they called a "lunk alarm" that would activate and sounded like an air raid siren if someone was grunting too loud in the gym. They also warned and would deny entry to repeat offenders. I applaud this decision on their part.

While there might be some science behind the grunting and shouting and getting that last rep in - I don't care enough to check because even if there is, the annoyance it causes to other patrons far outweighs the benefit to the individual.