Shortly after the gym attendance boom of the new year, one popular Dublin gym group noted a drop off in the decorum of attendees.
West Wood Club wrote an email to the members of its gyms noting “a significant decline in adherence to basic gym etiquette standards”.
The email laid out examples of “expected gym etiquette”, which included: refraining from unnecessary grunting or shouting; limiting phone use; no scrolling on mobile devices; wearing appropriate and fresh gym attire; and carrying a towel during workouts.
Independent personal trainer Erik Ferrer thinks all gyms should set out a list of rules and gym etiquette clearly for members when they are signing up.
“It’s not going to solve everything but at least people should be aware of what they are signing,” he says.
Ferrer has worked in gyms for more than 14 years, both in Brazil and Ireland, and he believes behaviour at the facilities is definitely “getting worse”.
“The use of cell phones is making people blind to the world, they are not paying attention to people around them. They are so deep inside their phones, scrolling.
“You see people taking video calls in the gym while sitting on the equipment, and they just don’t pay attention to the needs of other people around them.”
Ferrer says “hygiene is a problem as well”. “Especially in male toilets,” he says.
“In a gym where I worked, one day a guy was just wringing a wet towel out on to the floor, and then we had to put up a sign saying: ‘Don’t wring wet towels on to the floor.’
“I did not think it was necessary to put a sign up, but what’s obvious to me is not what is obvious for you.
“Another day I saw a guy shaving in the steam room. I am a transgender man and I saw different things in the female toilets and changing rooms in comparison to the male changing rooms.
“The ladies’ changing rooms were a very clean environment, and then when you switch it’s like you switch into a different reality.
“It’s like men are not used to cleaning up after themselves. It’s both men and women who do this, but it’s mostly men because they usually have someone who cleans up after them.
“A set of clear rules on how to behave would be great.”
But Niamh Doherty, a 23-year-old marketing executive, believes sending an email detailing proper gym etiquette is “excessive” and could feel intimidating for people who might be new to fitness.
“If gyms are sending out emails that are so stern, I can see how that would be offputting to someone who isn’t a consistent gym-goer,” she says.
“For someone like me who is a consistent gym-goer, I would be put off by that. I would be self-conscious about being on my phone, looking at my plan, or if I forgot my towel. You are creating an atmosphere that is not a welcoming environment.”
Doherty has been going to the gym, not a West Wood one, since she was 15, after completing a teen programme with her mother. She now attends three to four times a week.
“The gym is supposed to be a place of positivity, so to kind of assume that people are on their phone to be lazy or just to be on their phone for the sake of it is unfair.
“A lot of people have online personal trainers and have their workout on their phone, so they are not necessarily scrolling on TikTok or Instagram or just texting their friends. They could well be looking at what their next exercise is.”
She reflects on how attitudes to fitness have evolved and expresses concern that complaints about behaviour are exclusively targeted at younger gym users: “Saunas, swims and coffees, that’s how the current generation is going,” she says.
“The drinking culture has gone down, and self-care culture has gone up. People are going out less, looking after themselves more. I definitely think a lot more people are going to the gym.
“It’s very easy to just paint young people with this brush that they are always on their phone … .
“Rules are needed everywhere. I am not saying we should be free to do as we please, but I think it just comes down to common human decency.
“As long as you are going to the gym, and wiping down your equipment after use – whether it be with a towel or a disposable wipe – and you put the weights back, I think that’s all you can really ask. That to me is common decency.”
The member experience manager of West Wood Clubs, Luke Heapes, says the feedback to the email has been “positive”, particularly from members who are over 35.
“The marked difference is so clear to see as 95 per cent of members are now carrying sweat towels. Its like the towel is representing the communal consensus on how the members treat the gym,” he says.
“There is also a noticeable improvement on people cleaning up after themselves and wiping down equipment.”
Heapes says the email was sent to members “to highlight the falling standards of a very small amount of our members in terms of general and social etiquette in the club.
“It ranges from wearing proper clothing, to footwear, to wiping down machines after use, to carrying a sweat towel. Some of it was around equipment and treating it with respect, and treating the space like you would your home.”
Heapes points to a new wave of gym-goers and younger members who might be unfamiliar with traditional gym etiquette.
“I think over the last number of years, since Covid, going to the gym has shot up – which is brilliant, and I think there are a lot of younger members using the clubs.”
He also cites the growth in new training facilities, such as boxing clubs or CrossFit, as a reason for the decline in gym etiquette, as behaviour which might be appropriate in one facility is not in another.
“I feel like the lines have been blurred on what the standardised gym etiquette is,” Heapes says.
West Wood Club, where gym memberships range from €69 to €149 per month, describes itself as a premium health club. “When you pay a high price, you expect a certain standard to come with that,” Heapes says.
He compares the etiquette surrounding gyms to dining courtesy, where certain rules are implied based on the kind of establishment.
“If you go into a restaurant and you pay €20 for a starter and €50 for a main course, you’re expecting a certain level of service and a certain level of social etiquette between everyone else who is using that restaurant.
“You wouldn’t expect someone with six kids coming in screaming and shouting and you wouldn’t expect someone to come in gym gear when it’s an evening meal. There’s a certain level of social standard you expect of that and it’s the same for us.
“If I go into a KFC, when we are finished we take up all the rubbish off the table and put it in the bin. We make sure the table is left clear. We don’t have to do that – I am sure someone might come over and clear the table for us – but I just wouldn’t ask any service member to clear up after myself and I expect people to do the exact same in a gym environment.”