Smartphones in gyms?

[Bateluer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/f...usage-in-gyms.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all?src=tp

LIKE movie theaters and libraries, many fitness clubs have insisted for years that their workout areas should be cellphone-free. Their logic is as simple and straightforward as a push-up: they want to prevent people from yakking on their phones and annoying the fitness buffs who want to crank out reps and mileage in relative peace. Safety is another reason, because texting while running on a treadmill can be hazardous to your health.

But what makes sense in theory is becoming harder to police in practice. Gym owners say their members are dividing into two camps, those who can’t stand cellphones on the gym floor and those who see their phones as indispensable to their workouts as a bottle of water.

“Now privacy and security concerns have come into play,” Mr. Rosen said.

In its 92 clubs, Life Time Fitness bans taking photos and videos, and discourages gabbing on the fitness floor. “The last place someone wants to be filmed is working out,” said Karen Jayne Leinberger, a company spokeswoman. “That’s your private time to get a sweat on. It’s not flashy, attractive or sexy, unless you’re Ronnie from ‘Jersey Shore.’ ”

Not to mention, a workout video could end up on YouTube in a blink. Last week, one such video of a woman twirling creatively on a treadmill at a Planet Fitness gym in El Paso passed a million views. The woman, Nicole Harris, said she gave permission to the fellow member to film her.

Maria Daigle, 45, a nurse from Metairie, La., said she has every right to use her cellphone during workouts at her club, Elmwood Fitness.

“At a gym, I don’t think people should have to be quiet,” she said. “I don’t see the difference between two people next to each other screaming over the elliptical to hear each other. It’s not the library, and it’s not a bookstore.”

I can definitely see how your smartphone can aid in your workouts, track data, etc. But its damn annoying when people are yakking away on the phone between sets or walking on the treadmill. And the overweight person with the courage to go to the gym and exercise getting Youtube'd by someone recording their jiggling has every right to drop kick the person doing it.

What say you?

 

[surfsatwerk]

The guy talking to his girlfriend, just chilling on the bench for 20 minutes, needs to be drug out into the street and beaten.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Bought a power rack going to put it in my workshop.

Tired of waiting around while people do curls and shrugs on the squat rack. You can set your bar on the floor! I can't do squats safely anywhere else!

 

[alkemyst]

Man, people who have a problem with someone with a cellphone should go join Curves.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Mine is a music player, tracks milage, I can use it as an ebook reader when I'm not listening to music, and I can check email if it's from somebody important.

You can take my iphone when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.

If I catch somebody recording a jiggling ass to post on youtube, well, I'll hold their arms while the fat guy kicks 'em in the nuts.

 

[Cookie]

Personally I don't take mine to the gym. It's more of a distraction to me than a help and I can live without it for an hour. But I wished I had it with me this week when they started playing depressing Christmas music instead of good workout music. (Seriously, there was a really depressing Christmas song about someone who wanted to buy shoes for his mom for Christmas because she was dying soon)

People on their phones don't bother me any more than the guys grunting and groaning and people having overly loud conversations across the room.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

I think talking on your phone in the gym is tacky, but I don't really mind it. I see some guys come in once in a while sporting their little bluetooth earpiece and I chuckle a little bit to myself and go on with my workout.

I don't personally bring my phone in with me except when I'm on call, and even then I'll send any incoming calls to voicemail and then go return the call from somewhere other than the weight room.

One thing I have considered however is using it to track my lifts. I generally know what weights I'm doing on each respective lift, but I think actually recording it would help me make better progress.

 

[coreyb]

I use my smartphone as my logbook. Plus I txt people between sets to pass the time.

 

[alkemyst]

Unfortunately too many people in the gym are either those unimportant or the few that life's hurdles don't matter.

Sadly it's the former group doing most of the bitching. I'd love to be able to go 1-2 hours every day knowing that I will have no emergencies in them, however; I support a lot of client that need 99.9999+ uptime. We have a help desk, but if they can't fix it and the next guy can't then I have to help. It's usually just email, sometimes a phone call and a drive out at times as well.

No one should have an issue with texting/email on a phone. If you are polite you go outside to handle the calls you get.

Outside of phones though, I have had more issues with members just socializing directly in popular areas blocking use of them excessively.

This kind of junk is just people trying to be more important than they are.

 

[QueBert]

I could be talking loud as hell on my cell in my gym and nobody could hear me over the 80's music they're always blaring. Forget banning cellphones in gyms, ban Bananarama, how the hell are you suppose to get pumped up while you work out if you're listening to Cruel Summer?

 

[Bateluer]

No one should have an issue with texting/email on a phone. If you are polite you go outside to handle the calls you get.

Reading through the article, its clear they meant the people who are talking on the cell phone, not those sending texts and emails between sets. Unless those texters/emailers are blocking use of equipment.

 

[bononos]

How big are those cell phone jammer things?

 

[darkxshade]

Doesn't bother me really... no more than than the feet pounding from the nearby treadmills or that popular tween song that just hit the top of the charts or the couple who's chatting away doing who knows what. Once I begin a lift, I'm too focused to even notice or care about any of it. What does bother me though is if you're on the phone and occupying the one and only machine of that type but that rarely happens and when it does I just ask them nicely if I can have it if they're not going to use it and they always moved along.

 

[arrfep]

Lucky enough to work somewhere that has an onsite, private gym that has anything you'd ever want and essentially no rules beyond "clean up after yourself." I use my phone to video my squats and DLs to analyze form, and occasionally as a music player. I admit that sometimes it distracts me if I'm lifting in the evening when plans are being made. I couldn't care less if people are on their phones at the gym, as long as they're not cutting into my workout by taking time texting, or filming my naked ass in the shower.

 

[Whisper]

Like most other people here I'd imagine, I don't care what anyone else in the gym is doing...so long as they're being considerate and aren't delaying my workout because of it. Want to talk on the phone while you work out? No problem. Texting/emailing between sets? Go for it. But if you're sitting there hogging a bench while you're talking to your friend about being at the gym and how hard you're working, GTFO. Same goes for people who feel the need to use their phone to blare music (sans headphones) because they want to show off whatever song they're listening to.

 

[Spamela]

IMHO, there are other things in the gym that are vastly more irritating.

 

[marvdmartian]

I see plenty of people using their phones as mp3 players, and some that will track their stats with an app. Luckily, where I work out, if they want to talk on their phone for more than a minute, most will step out into a common area, where they're not going to be in anyone's way.

That's just common courtesy......which some people seem to have a lack of.