By Dani Frank
When I go to the Rec Center to work out, I hand over my card, drop off my purse and walk past the weight room upstairs to the cardio machines. Why? I, as well as many other girls I have spoken with, don’t feel comfortable going in the weight room. That is not to say that the weight room is entirely populated by males. I do see some girls in there lifting weights or using the machines. However, I feel that it is a small amount in comparison to the boys that utilize it. I think the main problem is that everyone has forgotten what it is to have “gym etiquette.”
From my own experiences and those of friends, I have heard many complaints about the weight room that would make me refrain from using it. I again want to make clear that these are not meant as a shot at the entire male population. These comments are only against those who make girls feel unwelcome when trying to exercise in the weight room. First of all, boys will often watch girls while they are working out. Many girls, as well as boys, go to the gym because they do not like how they look and want to make a change. To be stared at while you are trying to improve your body and physical fitness is embarrassing and unfair.
Another common complaint that I myself have experienced is when you are using a machine and someone chooses to sit right across from you and wait until you are done with it. There is no other machine you can use until I finish? You need to sit right there? I don’t think so. A machine is typically allowed to be used for thirty minutes. I am pretty sure that the machines in the weight room are not even used for that long, so the fact that another gym-goer feels it necessary to wait until you are done is unnerving and incredibly rude. If they wanted to use the machine so bad, maybe they should have arrived a little earlier!
Also, there almost seems to be segregation between the upstairs cardio machines and the downstairs weight room. If boys feel similar with the cardio machines as girls feel with the weight room then a serious change is in order. I do not appreciate that I feel unwelcome and uncomfortable in the weight room, and would like to enter and incorporate the machines into my workout. I can only speak from a girl’s perspective, but if boys do in fact feel uncomfortable in the weight room, probably for different reasons, than I would like to extend an open invitation to come upstairs. Jog on the elliptical machine. It’s pretty enjoyable.
All in all, in our quest to have the most toned, in-shape body possible, I think we have all forgotten our gym etiquette. Don’t stare at your fellow gym-goers, give everyone the designated amount of time on the machine they have chosen, don’t make anyone feel uncomfortable or unwelcome, and, of course, clean off your machines after using them. In the scale of problems occurring in the world today, this is not too pressing, but it is evident that this is an easily fixable one. I would love to enter the Rec Center next time I feel like working out and see more of a mixed gender population in both the weight room and the cardio room.
Dani Frank is a freshman print journalism student. You may e-mail her at [email protected].