Alex Buscemi
The gym is supposed to be a place for gains, but sometimes, it’s also a front-row seat to some truly bizarre behavior.
From people treating the treadmill like a dance floor to questionable outfit choices and workout routines that defy both physics and logic, there’s no shortage of weirdness happening between reps.
Reddit users have shared some of the funniest and strangest things they’ve ever witnessed during a workout, and let’s just say, some of these stories will make you rethink your next gym visit.
Keep going for the best replies.
1.
I had an older gentleman, late 60s, ESL, from the Philippines, 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 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, so he wanted to use mine. Totally creeped out at first. But that dude still goes to the gym to this day and 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.
2.
I was deadlifting 300 lbs once and this 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 leave me alone and she just turns away crying like a child. Haven’t seen her ever since.
Home gym problems, I swear…
3.
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.
4.
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 firsthand.
I literally just wanted to take care of the kids and babies and somehow got sucked into a love affair.
5.
Saw an old man in China run 10k on a treadmill in the spa-offered flip-flops.
6.
Older man in his 70s, doing squats in slacks, long sleeve button-up, dress shoes, and gardening gloves.
7.
I’m always amazed at the number of people who go to the gym but sit (often on an apparatus) looking at their phones instead of working out.
8.
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 work out in. He also has Deadpool and Captain America outfits but usually wears the Wolverine one. And no, he’s not jacked.
9.
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.
10.
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.
11.
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.
12.
Watched some guy crouched on the floor use the treadmill with just his arms.
13.
I didn’t see it happen, but I saw the video as my friend was security at the gym.
Some woman was 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. Security told him, “You know what you did.” Didn’t even argue, just got banned from all major gyms in the city.
14.
Some older dude next to a buddy and I would keep saying things to himself while working out. Stuff like:
“I’m the lion, I’m not a sheep.”
“I’m an animal, you can’t stop this.”Weird stuff like that. It was pretty funny because this dude was locked in and dead serious.
15.
Not particularly super strange, but I once watched a woman use the elevator to beat the one flight of stairs, to then proceed to hop onto the StairMaster.
16.
Some dude 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.
17.
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, hopped back on the treadmill, and repeated this for two more sets before leaving. Training lungs until failure, I guess.
18.
Worked at college as an IT guy. Fixing a computer one day in the gym area and was watching the security monitors.
A lady was trying to lift weights, but a 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.
19.
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 of pumps, then hops off and pushes a couple of rotations with his hand, then hops on backward, then hops off and kinda dances.
He just keeps going at it for 30 minutes or so, randomly using the machine in every way except how it was intended to be used.
20.
This one guy on the treadmill was yelling and grunting like an anime character in their training arc.
21.
I have known multiple guys who work out in dress shoes. Like full leather oxfords.
22.
He was just doing a normal leg routine. The strange thing is, that must be all he does. Waist up, he looked like a lanky 110-pound kid. Legs down, he looked like an absolutely jacked professional hockey player.
23.
I once watched a woman on the stationary bike ride for an hour. Except she had leopard print leggings, a matching top, and a leather jacket on while doing it. The pièce de résistance was the aviator sunglasses.
24.
Someone drank several bottles of tomato soup over the course of their workout.
25.
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.
26.
A woman carried around a tripod with her phone mounted to it and 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.
27.
Someone at my school gym ripped a set, then put their laptop on their chest and started writing an essay.
28.
Once had a woman do squats literally less than two 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 if it was some kind of dare. Either way, it was odd.
29.
Saw a guy working out with a personal trainer and during his rest period, he would chug from a 2-liter bottle of Coke.
30.
Using a leg press… with their arms? I dunno, man.
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