While the amount of so-called “third spaces” available to the public has diminished, people often forget that the oh-so-humble gym technically qualifies as one. However, at the same time, regular gym-goers know that, depending on where you are and even the time of day, one can run into a very interesting selection of people.
Someone asked “What's the strangest thing you have seen someone do at the gym?” and netizens share the unhinged encounters they’ve had. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to add your own experiences in the comments below.
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I had an older gentleman, late 60s, ESL, from the Phillipines, very thin, come up to me and ask me in broken English if he could watch me workout. So I let him. He followed me to every exercise and would take notes, smile, and say thank you after each set. At the end of my workout he came up to me and asked what days and times I go to the gym. This started getting more weirder by the moment. But I was truthful with him. Fast forward to the next day. There he was doing the exact workout I did the day before. He came up to me and said hello and asked to watch me again. He did this for a few days straight. Basically he had no idea what to do for workouts, or how to ask for help/assistance with them, so he wanted to use mine. Totally creeped out at first. But that dude still goes to the gym to this day and he always says hi to me. He even got the same headphones as me now. And always has a huge smile on his face. Weirdest but most sincere compliments I've ever had at the gym.
I was deadlifting 300 lbs once and this f*****g 3 year old child starts running around the place asking for my attention, I threw the weights down super hard and he started crying and was scared, a few minutes later his mom comes in and starts screeching at me like a banshee, I tell her to f**k off and she just turns away crying like a child, haven’t seen her ever since
F*****g Home gym problems, I swear….
Thank god it went this way. I thought OP was a bit of a D but now it's just funny. My yoga studio has this cat that likes to lick my face. Very annoying but since he's my cat...
😂😂 my home yoga studio has two cats who become very concerned when I start doing poses and feel the need to crawl all over me, I totally feel you
Load More Replies...ew. i hope she divorces you, dude. the way you talk about your family is nasty. the only people who'd find this funny are boomers who would call their wife "the ol' ball and chain" and complain how being married is terrible. do better.
Dude at my gym (YMCA) comes in and does about 20 minutes of normal looking calisthenics before busting out into some extremely vigorous Irish dancing all around the gym. Everyone just stopped what they were doing and watched with their mouths open.
Turns out he works there.
Yup, that would get me to the gym regularly
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One of my first jobs was working in a gym daycare. Honestly a great job.
You could drop your child off for a maximum of 2 hours but we were really relaxed with that rule. Rarely did anyone go over that and if they did it wasn’t a big deal.
Until we got this one mom. She’d drop her baby off and literally leave the gym. She’d be gone for 4 hours sometimes and we had to get the manager involved.
Her husband showed up one day looking for her. Shocker, his baby was there but not his spouse. Turns out she was cheating on him. And I got to witness the confrontation first hand.
I literally just wanted to take care of the kids and babies and somehow got sucked into a love affair.
I know this is not the point of the story, but how do people with small babies find time or energy to have affairs? I can understand the part where she leaves her kids a bit longer than she is supposed to but if that were me, you’d have probably found me in my car asleep or hurriedly responding to email/paying bills/doing taxes and all the other things I had no time or brain space with a baby with me.
Well she’s probably like my ex and didn’t do any of the other stuff.
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I'm always amazed at the number who go to the gym but sit (often on an apparatus) looking at their phones instead of working out.
and then get mad if you ask if they are done with the machine..
Load More Replies...Okay but if you are doing reps and sets of something you have to take a break in between.
Then when someone asks for the machine, you let them during the intervals instead of just sitting there and not moving or saying no. Can I work in with you? Yeah, go ahead. Is that so hard? I did it all the time I had access to my university's gym with both women and men. Never had a gym bro turn me down, especially when I said I just needed 10-15 reps. I would switch the weight back up to where he or she let me in. Has gym etiquette changed that much after covid?
Load More Replies...There was this middle aged Asian guy at a gym I went to who'd come every day at the same time and sit on the exercise bike with a back rest on the seat and he'd bring the day's newspaper, read it while cycling extremely slow on the bike, for about 30min before he'd hit the showers. It was amusing to watch, actually. Especially because he always looked so angry. 🤭
I do that, but just to change the music track as my routine has changed.
Saw an old man in china run 10k on a treadmill in the spa-offered flipflops.
There is a native tribe in northern Mexico that have gained a lot of popularity for their prowess in long distance running. The Tarahumara people. Their runners wear traditional dresses and sandals throughout the marathon races. Honestly freaking badass that they've found this avenue to provide for their families and bring awareness to their culture.
I remember walking around a big city in flip flops for a couple hours once….the skin between my toes was raw and bleeding by the end of it 😅 I can’t imagine running 10K in them!
My gym has a guy in his 50s who brings his VR headset and does (what I’d imagine) boxing classes. There’s also a guy who shows up in a full Wolverine cosplay outfit to workout in. He also has Deadpool and Captain America outfits but usually wears the Wolverine one. And no, he’s not jacked.
You've been waiting for this name to finally have a moment.
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Older man in his 70’s, doing squats in slacks, long sleeve button-up, dress shoes and gardening gloves.
OMG! It had to be my father! It is soooo like him to do things like that! Lol!
Mine too. I’ve never in my life seen my dad in jeans/ track suit or trainers . EVER. He’s 82 and still wears shirt with a tie even if he’s at home . Our dads are pure class x
Load More Replies...There are several older men who go to my gym who wear garden gloves to work out. They say they are cheaper and better than proper weight gloves.
If he's in his 70's and doing squats, that's impressive, regardless of what he's wearing.
My mate does squats in Army boots - like high top ARMY boots! F****r lifts crazy heavy, but army boots????
Well there was the dude who was working hard on his wrist strengthening exercises. but he was doing it in the shower room with the curtain half open, not in the weights section.
My gym is in the Castro (gay neighborhood in San Francisco) and I swear this is gym-sanctioned workout routine with ongoing classes 24/7.
C'mon people . . .it doesn't strengthen your wrists in any way . . . . .it's FLEXIBILITY that you need . . . . .
I didn't see it happen, but I saw the video as my boy was the security at the gym.
Some women working out, and she goes up to get something. A guy runs over and either licks or puts his face in the seat she was in. She must have seen him do this, so she reported him. My friend had to escort him out when he put up a bit of a fight saying why, my boys like man, you know what you did to that women's workout equipment. Didn't even argue just got banned from all major gyms in the city. The same security company manager most gyms in the city.
This is exactly why I hate going to the gym 😅 I bought some home equipment just to avoid this kind of bs
Some guy came in dressed in his gym clothes, walked around with a steel bowl full of chicken and mayo. Ate it and then left.
Or his SO made him and tracked his phone. lol
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At my gym there was a guy who would blindfold himself with his beanie. He pulled it down over his eyes to concentrate. Good coordination but so funny to watch.
Not particularly super strange, but I once watched a women use the elevator to beat the one flight of stairs, to then proceed to hop onto the Stair Master lmfao.
I kind of get this. Stairs are great exercise but most of them are very isolated. As a woman, I understand this.
Honest question: beeing in a small box with a stranger is really better than stairs?
Load More Replies...Always find it funny when people will park as close as possible in their car/truck to the entrance even if it means struggling to get out to then work out and struggle to climb back in when they can park slightly further away and walk maybe 20 metres
Or mow the lawn with a riding mower, and then go to the gym and get on the treadmill.
Load More Replies...In San Francisco, we used to have a 24 Hour Fitness location where the entrance was elevated from the parking lot (buildings on hills) with a set of stairs and an escalator. The irony of going to exercise, but using the short escalator instead of the steps was a constant joke.
my old gym had an escalator on the inside. It was kinda nice as a rest between workouts
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Some dude that kept coming over between sets and taking weights off my bar instead of off the rack next to him, then acting annoyed when I asked him to stop.
Some sort of idiotic, “assert dominance powerplay” he saw on a video, or listened to on a podcast, as he cried himself to sleep, at night.
While quietly sobbing to himself “I’m a f*****g animal, you can’t stop this” 😂😂
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I watched a guy running hard on the treadmill stop after about 5-10 minutes and then immediately go outside and rip a cigarette. Then he came back in and hopped back on the treadmill and repeated this for 2 more sets and left. Training lungs until failure I guess.
NGL when I was a smoker, a cigarette after a workout felt AMAZING. (I know, I know. 😂 I quit years ago and now I get that same thrill from a nice cool shower)
Once trained with a fighter from Laos that did this. Poor guy had no cardio when it came to fight time. When his coach learned what he was doing, let's just say it wasn't pretty.
Ran cross-country with a guy who smoked while he ran. He wasn't bad, either.
Some older dude next to a buddy and I would keep saying s**t to himself while working out. Stuff like:
“Im the lion, I’m not a sheep”.
“I’m a f*****g animal, you can’t stop this”.
Weird stuff like that. It was pretty funny because this dude was locked in and dead serious.
I know fighters that do this while they train. They'll say things like, "Don't b***h out." "C'mon you p***y." Sometimes you need to fight with yourself before you can get in the ring.
I saw a guy once dressed like Wolverine screaming and growling after lifting weights. I think he thought he was alone. I could still hear him when he went to the showers.
Watched some guy crouched on the floor use the treadmill with just his arms.
Worked at college as IT guy. Fixing a computer one day in the gym area and was watching the security monitors. Lady was trying to lift weights, guy posed in the mirror in front of her. She moved, he moved and posed again. This went on for 5 minutes before she left.
My friend and I at the gym, everyone is wearing headphones. We were doing shoulder lifts and we were trying to keep our arms straight, so we are doing this in front of a mirror. A guy comes and stands in front of us. My friend turns to me and says "Well that was rude!" This guy was not wearing headphones. He apologized and moved.
Dude, you couldn't let any worker know about this? It would take maybe two minutes to point out the guy being an idiot and go right back to work.
Yeah I highly doubt that’s what was happening 😂
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There is an older dude I see sometimes that kinda interpretive dances with the elliptical machine. He never just gets on and uses it he hops on one side and does a couple pumps, then hops off and pushes a couple rotations with his hand, then hops on backwards, the hops off and kinda dances. He just keeps going at it for 30 mins or so randomly using the machine in every way except how it was intended to be used.
I have not seen him use another machine, just pace around. I once saw him in the parking lot and he was parked at a very odd angle to a planter bed that was not a parking spot.
Dude is definitely marching to the beat of his own drummer.
Tbf, both my doctor and trainer have told me that elliptical machines are bad for you. The movements are completely unnatural to human movement, seriously bad ergonomics, and you're likely to cause problems on your back, hips & knees by using them (especially if you have issues with any of those). I'd been using mine religiously every day for over a year when I found that out, I also have back/hip/knee issues lol. So this guy's method might actually be safer!
I once watched a woman on the stationary bike ride for an hour. Except she had leopard print legging, matching top and leather jacket on while doing it. The piece do resistance to is all were the aviator sunglasses.
I have a friend who calls it the “pizzu resistance” 😂 like pizza but with a U.
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I have known multiple guys who work out in dress shoes. Like full leather oxfords.
I've seen some people run a full Marathon in dress shoes. And they're pretty fast too!
Interesting, so they are the complete opposite of me who would start the marathon in running shoes at a snail's pace and then just lie down and give up at kilometer 5
Load More Replies...I have a pair of Cole Hahn oxfords that are as comfortable as any sneakers I've ever owned. They had "nike air" on the soles for awhile.
Did this a couple of times in hotels. Tennis shoes take up too much space.
He was just doing a normal leg routine. The strange thing is, that must be all he does. Waste up he looked like a lanky 110 pound kid. Legs down he looked like an absolutely jacked professional hockey player.
A lot of pro cyclists look like this. Upper body like an adolescent and legs like tree trunks.
My 12YO nephew is big on BMX and he’s kind of like this. Top half looks like a normal lanky awkward 12 year old, but his short little legs are like tree trunks. 😂 it’s kind of adorable haha
Load More Replies...Soccer player...I could run a 5min mile and squat 315 for reps and sets; but 95lbs was my 1RPM on bench hahaha. My buddies would laugh at me because I was tiny upstairs but could keep up with or outlift the football players when it came to squats, deadlifts, and hipsled. Edit: can't "math" plates anymore.
I saw bite marks on the pad of a machine right before i was about to start using it.. i picked up my things and went to a similar machine instead lol.
Drink several things of tomato soup over the course of their work out.
Maybe tomato juice? That's something I like in the summer, especially after doing anything sporty. Or as a Bloody Mary.
I’m guilty of doing this a lot 😂 a thing of milk, a thing of laundry soap, and a thing of tomato sauce are all on my grocery list right now
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This one guy on the treadmill was yelling and grunting like a anime character in their training arc 😭.
An awkward gal that carried around a tripod with her phone mounted to it an had someone on FaceTime for all of her workouts. Never could figure out if she was talking to a remote trainer or just what. But she spoke to no one in the gym and acted like it was totally normal.
There is only one person I’ve seen using a tripod to film themselves at my gym and it’s an 80 year old woman who used to be a professional ballet dancer and is still very flexible (way more than me and I’m half her age).
Once had a woman do squats literally less than 2 inches from me while I was on a yoga mat doing stretches. Had no clue if she didn’t see me, was coming on to me, or was some kind of dare, either way was odd.
My wife saw an older lady light up two young girls for taking selfies in the locker room mirrors, that specifically stated “no selfies” on a sticker.
Usually when there’s a “no selfies” sign, it’s because they have problems with people hogging the sinks/mirrors to take photos of themselves while others are waiting to wash their hands or whatever
Or because people don't like being in the background of someone's selfie in the locker room. One badly placed picture going on social media and the gym could get sued.
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Writing an essay at my school gym hahaha. ripped a set then put his laptop on his chest and wrote.
Saw a guy working out with a personal trainer and during his resting period, he would chug from a 2 liter bottle of coke.
If previously he would sit on the couch and chug 2 liters of coke, then he's made a major improvement to his life. You don't need to change all your bad habits at the same time, you can just start with one.
I totally agree :) trying to do a complete 180 all at once is a recipe for failure. Slow, smart and sustainable is the key!
Load More Replies...Two elderly women leaving the men’s room.
Being older, are you sure they just didn't the bathrooms mixed up? I have done that on a very rare occasion.
An eccentric older lady in my neighborhood would regularly be doing the circuit at my gym wearing a fur hat and a short fur coat.
Maybe she has serious issues regulating her body temperature. Some of these entries are about weird/rude people, but having health issues myself, sometimes you have to do a lot of strange physical therapy exercises, stretches, etc., so please don't automatically judge people if they're doing something different than you're used to.
Two girls were using a barbell as a microphone for makeshift karaoke, they were carrying the bar everywhere with them while annoyed gym goers wanted to use it.
High schooler using an old salsa jar as a water bottle.
Besides the fact glass in a gym sounds stupid. The reuse part I can get behind.
I use jars as drink glasses, Raos is the best IMO.
Load More Replies...lol my friend used to use an old ketchup bottle, just for the shock factor I think. It grossed me out pretty bad.
I swim almost every weekday at my Gym. Every other day or so a dude comes into the pool area (its indoor) and goes and its on a box that contains pool tool for the maintenance team and just stares out the window for 5 or 10 minutes. Then hes goes and sits in the hottub.
I worked in a gym. Someone once s**t in the Sauna.
I once worked in a gay sauna, we had people who would shít in the showers. Once had this person who took a dump in the chill out area. He got kicked out, but came back ten minutes later because he’d left his dentures behind!
The place my mind went when I read that he had dentures out in a gay sauna....was not on today's bingo card...
Load More Replies...Theres some dude at my gym that gets on the elliptical and talks very very loudly, border line yelling just weird a*s random s**t for like an hour straight. I got on the machine next to him one time and f**k that was awkward. He was talking about Snoop dogg, homosexuals, the king of england, etc. Just all random and then every few seconds he just laughs real loud. I’m surprised they haven’t kicked him out.
They probably didn't kick him out, because he doesn't do this on purpose.
Used to work with a guy who did this, he was totally unhinged and nuts, would be muttering something random and when you asked what he was saying he would say "it's for a different audience" I saw in our local news that about a year ago he stabbed a security guard at the hospital, he is in psych lock up now.
Actually sad, but we had this lady come in every few days,
she was clearly anorexic, literately skin and bones.
She'd come in, get on the treadmill and jog for 30-40 min and then leave.
This really short dude was once walking around like a bada*s and arguing with multiple people. He would just walk up to you, eye you down, and start saying s**t mid set. What a dork.
Napoleon, and his squeaky voice, read some poorly spelled tract about “alpha males”.
The sushi master. This large older homeless man would sleep on one of the benches. He would snore loudly. When I walked by him, he would jump into reality and offered to move if I needed the bench. He would randomly pull out sushi and eat it in between sets on the bench press.
Wear jeans.
I had a friend that biked in jeans. I find that very uncomfortable.
As a Dutch person, I can only say; I've biked in most clothes that I own, including long dresses ;) ( though if you mean in the gym, that is another story
Load More Replies...I love jeans for work but I feel like the instant I’m in a setting that doesn’t call for them (home, gym etc) I can instantly feel how tight and restricting they are and I need them OFF 😂
2 bodybuilders in the changeroom checking each other's squat poses. Super jacked and checking each other's butt stances.
or maybe just 2 bro's giving each other advise in a private space as opposed to in the gym where people will judge them?
Load More Replies...The fork on the ground in the toilet area. A metal a*s fork. Like which one of you nasty sumbi**hes are eating in the s***ter?
Picking her nose and licking it to taste it then flicking it at the gym mirrors.
💩in the trash can . But all stalls were occupied.
We had a hatch blow out in a massive storm in the bay of biscay on my warship, our gym was in the well deck. So weirdest would be do some damage control and flood prevention techniques.
Not weird for that situation but a weird thing to do in a gym lol.
Watching American Psycho on their ipad on the treadmill with no headphones.
My ex once was with our infant in the waiting room at the pediatricians office and she was watching Game of Thrones on her cell phone with headphones in. It took her far too long to realize the headphones weren't paired and everyone in the pediatrician's waiting room was now listening to Game of Thrones. Whoops
Bridgerton would have been worse maybe?
Load More Replies... Arrive at the same time, hour on the stairmaster, leave.
No deviance. Every. day.
I dont see any thing weird about this. this person likes to do stairs and has a solid schedule
I slipped into a bit of depression during lockdowns, put on 20kg while losing all my muscle tone. I slowly got better and restarted going to the gym. All I could manage was 60 minutes elliptical 6 days a week but was proud of myself that I was at least improving my cardio fitness. Then one day a woman followed me to the toilets, waited for me to pee and started giving me advice about exercise and weight loss while I was washing my hands. She cornered me blocking the door, going on and on about how doing weights would make me lose weight and how elliptical won’t make me lose weight. I was too shocked to say anything, just kept nodding and kinda waited for her to finish and leave. I cried at home and stopped going to that gym because I felt defeated and embarrassed. I am doing better now, still got the extra weight but my mental health has improved, current me would tell her to get the f*ck out of my face and stuff her opinion up her a*se. Please just leave people do whatever they want.
My sympathies, truly. This sounds like an experience I had in my own home when I was pregnant! An apprentice tradesman was working with the master craftsman, Peter (who I actually knew quite well socially), on something in our home. When Peter went out to his vehicle to get something, this apprentice guy cornered me in our kitchen and told me what I shouldn't be eating because I was pregnant (a lovingly prepared home-made vegetarian lasagne, of all things!). I was absolutely shocked as well, particularly in my vulnerable state. I told Peter about it and the apprentice was fired faster than you can say lickity split. Thankfully.
Load More Replies...I don't see anything weird about this. He or she just has a rountine.
Using the assisted pull up machine... As a leg press.
As a Veteran, I think we all have mental scars of the 80 year old retirees in the gym. Out on the floor, they are just talking and resting/napping on the machine you need. In the locker rooms, the horrors begin. They will walk up to you and talk, bare a*s naked. They'll dig around in the locker next to you, the whole time you are getting dressed, with their ancient wrinkled d**k facing you. When you finally leave, you'll see that the locker was empty the whole time. They hike a foot up on the counter and use the hair dryer to blow dry their crusty balls.
Ooh a veteran, with a capital v. Yeah - don’t believe any of it. Even the veteran part
One night I went to the gym and there was an older guy, mid to late 60s, wearing jeans that were about 3 sizes too big and held up with a rope instead of a belt. He was wearing a tight red tanktop and what looked like brown Hush Puppy shoes. He was walking fast on a treadmill and he'd propped up a small radio on the machine that was blaring Hot Blooded by Foreigner. The song repeated over and over the entire time he was walking. I ran for about 45 minutes before leaving. (Thankfully I had noise cancelling headphones but I could still hear the song bleeding through most of the time.) He was still walking and listening to the exact same song when I left.
Well.... it IS an energy boost-y song (if you like the song, of course).
Load More Replies...I feel like some of these crazy things are dares. or pranks . Some of this stuff sounds like something you would see on Impractical Jokers . lol
One night I went to the gym and there was an older guy, mid to late 60s, wearing jeans that were about 3 sizes too big and held up with a rope instead of a belt. He was wearing a tight red tanktop and what looked like brown Hush Puppy shoes. He was walking fast on a treadmill and he'd propped up a small radio on the machine that was blaring Hot Blooded by Foreigner. The song repeated over and over the entire time he was walking. I ran for about 45 minutes before leaving. (Thankfully I had noise cancelling headphones but I could still hear the song bleeding through most of the time.) He was still walking and listening to the exact same song when I left.
Well.... it IS an energy boost-y song (if you like the song, of course).
Load More Replies...I feel like some of these crazy things are dares. or pranks . Some of this stuff sounds like something you would see on Impractical Jokers . lol
