Sweating The Small Stuff

In the gym, it's good to remember your manners

IT HAPPENED 15 years or so ago, but I'm still traumatized.

I was perspiring in a Seattle athletic-club sauna when this shriveled old man walked in and sat down. Before I knew it, he began shaving. I didn't say anything. I was too close to gagging. Besides, it is best to keep your mouth shut in such close quarters, and I felt he should get a pass because of his age. So I just left. He did it again about a week later. I just left.

Eventually, he brought his lunch, armed with a knife and a slab of pepperoni and something in a plastic bag. Unsettling. I finked on him so fast that I was still sweating by the time I got to the front desk.

Management shamed him, but I stopped my sauna ritual.

While consternation over poor gym etiquette is nothing new, it does seem to be gaining renewed attention as the oblivious, boorish and just plain stressed make their presence known like never before.

Industry expert Brenda Abdilla, who counsels health-club operators on how to run their businesses, says things have changed. She used to counsel a customer-is-always-right policy, but says bad behavior has escalated to such a point that clubs have to actively deal with it.

"I think it is getting worse because people are so stressed out," she says. "It's not a matter of more incidents, but more angry ones."

In fact, temperamental outbursts — yelling and screaming over small issues — seem to have overtaken the wearing of stinky clothes as the No. 1 issue now. A former general manager for a Colorado club, Abdilla saw an executive "go ballistic" when someone was in her tanning booth. In another incident, a woman left her stuff on a treadmill while she went to the bathroom. Apparently deciding she had been gone too long, a male member moved her stuff off the machine and started using it. Loud bickering ensued. He capped it off by sneering at her can of pop and blurting out, "Who drinks Diet Coke while they exercise anyway?"

Abdilla says failing to wipe your sweat off machines is still a common irritant and etiquette misstep. So is grunting, yelling and shouting, leaving your stuff spread out for people to step (and trip) over and using cell phones (remember they take pictures now, too) in the locker room. She also sees more members using the health club as a pickup joint, and men are no longer the sole offenders.

Some poor etiquette is caused by not knowing any better. "Walking through the club doors is the first step, but building your comfort zone at the gym starts with respecting others around you," says Cedric Bryant, chief exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise.

Much of it is common sense: It is rude to hang out on or hog exercise machines. Nobody wants to hear you sing, hum or shout. And they hate your cell-phone ring.

Cell phones can be especially irritating, says Tija Petrovich, owner of Seattle Fitness near Pioneer Square.

"Try teaching a class to 20 participants, cueing, music volume up, choreography and movements, correcting form, motivating people, all to have an annoying cell phone go off and have a participant actually answer it and have a conversation."

Because exercising is such a single-minded, ego-driven activity, good manners are easily forgotten, says Mary Mitchell, a Seattle-based civility expert. She devoted a chapter to workout behavior in her latest book, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Etiquette." Some of her good-behavior tips:

• Don't expect, let alone demand, the same spot each time you do a group class.

• Don't make a fuss if you blow a shot while playing a court sport. Move on.

• Respect locker-room space. Most people are self-conscious nude, so keep your gaze at eye-level.

• Pick up after yourself and don't hog mirrors, sinks or showers.

• Be on time to a yoga class. Arriving late can jar others already in the process of chilling.

Richard Seven is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff writer. He can be reached at rseven@seattletimes.com. Susan Jouflas is The Seattle Times' assistant art director, features.