The Literal Worst People at The Gym.

Every gym is filled with the same type of people - whether you're a part of an elite-high caliber membership health club, you go to your local YMCA, or frequent Planet Fitness. The only constant that can be found is a list of very specific people you will find across the board. Even in just reading that, you've probably started your own list which I would bet looks something like this:

1. That one guy who grunts like a charging rhino 
2. That one girl who walks around in just a sports bra
3. That one guy who is there just to talk to all the sports-bra-clad women
4. That one girl who sits on the machine and texts the whole time
5. That one guy who never re-racks his weights
6. That one girl who....

I can't argue with you if this is what your mental list looks like, because that was only a very small fraction of mine whenever I verbalize my frustrations. I cannot argue that there are habits at gyms that are irritating and characters that are easily made targets - however there really is only one "worst" type of people at the gym - 

those of us that just made those lists.

We are the literal worst kind of people, myself most definitely included, that can be spotted at the gym. We waste our precious time and energy to stare, judge, and criticize the way a person chooses to work out just because it is 1) different than how you function 2) disruptive to your own workout or 3) makes you insecure about the way you look. We are the worst people because we have taken something that everyone should do and made it nearly impossible for them to want to.

Every person that walks through that door deserves to be there. Every person that squeezes themselves in to those very unforgiving gym clothes and steps out in boldness to work damn well should be able to do so how they please. It is an accomplishment to make a commitment to healthy living - and it is some of the hardest work your body will ever go through. At one point, I was an annoying girl at the gym who felt the eyes of those around her staring because she didn't "look the part" and didn't know what on God's green earth she was doing. How funny it is that we are quick to forget we all started from the bottom (thx Drake).

The world is so quick to snap at whatever is not similar to themselves - whether that be color, sexual orientation, religion, or education level. Why do we have to turn the gym in to another avenue for unnecessary criticism?

Maybe I am alone in this - maybe none of you reading this have an internal monologue of frustrations and irritations when you see specific people at the gym. Maybe I am the only literal worst gym-goer and if that is true, then after today I know that my gym will be a better place. Most, if not all, of the people I have unjustly castigated have no idea they have been a target of my exasperation and if I could apologize to them individually I would. But since I can't I am just gonna put myself on blast on the internet.