So remember when I started back at the gym in September with yoga (mon-wed-fri) and pilates (tues-thurs), and added a half-hour on The Bike after each class? Well, I am happy with my personal motivation at getting to the gym five days a week, and I am actually enjoying it. Or … I WAS enjoying it until the kids went back to school and suddenly my pilates class was stuffed full of so-called yummy mummies who think that the 9.30 class is an excuse to chat and act like they’re at a cocktail party. And when I say chat, I mean TALK LIKE THIS at ear-splitting volume … during the class!!! It’s unbelievable. Oh, and with mobile phones constantly ringing. The other day one woman’s phone went of 3 times! I mean, WTF.
I could go to the 11.00 o’clock class, which isn’t as crowded and has a better class of attendees, but the timing isn’t so great. It really cuts the morning in half and I wouldn’t get home until almost 1 o’clock (instead of 11.30).
This never happens at yoga, perhaps because those classes are at 8.30 in the morning and the mummies can’t get to the gym that early as they are busy getting their 2.5 children ready for school. I am really starting to despise these women.
It’s always something …
casa azahar 
Have you tried talking to the instructor, let her know how distracting the phone calls are? If she made a general comment at the beginning of class reminding people to shut their phones off and be considerate it may lessen the behavior. I know my yoga teacher does this and a few people commented on how they HAD to have their phones on because of their kids, etc. The teacher smiled and said something like…”I have two teen aged kids…in high school and you know what? Never…in all these years has there been an emergency so desperate that it couldn’t wait 45 minutes. If its important they’ll leave a message and if you can’t turn your phone off maybe you should use the cardio equipment outside.” The ladies that were complaining just nodded and shut their phones off. LOVED IT!!!
Good luck-
Anamaria
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Gym yackos are a special pet hate of mine, and more have emerged since my gym went all out to recruit. I think it’s time to bring back this old favorite among gym t shirt slogans:
http://shop.cafepress.com/design/17029401
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Funny, just this morning I was thinking of blogging on comparing my yoga and pilates classes here to what I used to have in Spain. I would have had a lot of your same complaints about the classes back in Spain. Hope you find a solution and keep up your working out!!
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Yep, I vote to ask the instructor to mention it, too. It completely ruins the vibe.
I’d be fuming if it happened in my class!
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It’s like people who pay to go to a movie and sit there and yack all the way through it… or pay a $20 cover to see a musician, sit right up front and then don’t shut up for the whole show. Not only is it disrespectful to the person singing (or, in this case leading the class) but disrespectful to all the others who spent good money to actually GET something out of it.
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Hi Annamaria, and welcome! The thing about the woman with the three phone calls is that the third time she didn’t even bother to answer it, just let it ring until the caller gave up (!!!) so it clearly wasn’t about her kids. Even if it was, the only excuse to leave a phone on would be if a child was sick, in which case the mother should probably be at home and not at the gym anyhow.
My friend Flor did actually speak to the pilates instructor afterwards – it had been her first time taking this class and she was appalled at the amount of chattering going on. He explained to Flor that many of these women had been in class together for the past three years and it was also a social thing for them and he didn’t want to be a “party pooper”. Duh? So I guess the rest of us don’t count then.
I spoke to the people at the front desk about the phones and was told they would put up a notice immediately – which I still haven’t seen.
I’d have to get one of those t-shirts in Spanish, Sled, but I have to admit it’s tempting. A couple of the pilates women infiltrated the weight room the other day and got on the bikes next to me … and OMG! I was so glad I was almost finished my half-hour because they did not stop talking the whole time and one of them has the most annoying and LOUD voice ever. Grrr…
No, I won’t let this interfere with going to the gym, but I may have to switch pilates classes for the later one. What a difference polite and serious people make, because it’s the same instructor. And it actually ends up being a better class because everyone is concentrating on what’s going on and we don’t lose 10 minutes of class time listening to inane chatter and pathetic flirting with the (most likely gay) male instructor.
Time for yoga class – gotta run!
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My biggst fume in the gym this entire year came from a couple of women who were on the warmup bikes discussing their whole agenda for their kids’ school at top volume. Personally, I consider mommy discussions of kids OFF LIMITS in any public place. I am sick beyond description of women who think their place in the world revolves around their having excreted a kid and been involved with it thereafter. when they should have actually been fined a punitive annual sum for adding to the already exploding population — and then we have to HEAR about every development in the little wretch’s life over and over as if it were the negotiations at the UN?
A little spray can full of helium would be perfect. Just a few short bursts right in the face.
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If those women are more interested in chatting than pilates – they should go to the coffee shop. Simples.
And your instructor should grow some.
Loving the Tshirts and am thinking they could be applied to all sorts of situations …
STFU and turn off your phone
STFU and get on with your work
STFU and serve some customers
STFU and listen for a change
STFU and get out of the quiet carriage
STFU and piss off
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Sometimes I’d love to have a t-shirt while walking at the lab stating “STFU and WORK!!!” The staff here is great but… there is too much of a social club, especially after lunch…
I just hate when people talk during training classes. I stopped attending classes where a woman a know uses to go. She just couldn’t stop talking to me regardless of the Look, grunting and general avoiding.. She couldn’t accept “in class no talking to me, outside class OK to chat”.
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I’m with Anamaria, and with the idea that the instructor and gym need to take some responsibility. Dog training classes turn into social gatherings, too — but NOT while I’m teaching if I’m the instructor!
I’d be switching out, I’m afraid.
Or wait – why not CALL their phones during class, go directly to voice mail and leave them a TURN YOUR DAMN PHONE OFF or WILL YOU PLEASE SHUT UP message?
Ooops, did I type that in my outside voice? 😉
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Unfortunately my idea to switch to the later class just got the kibosh as one of my students (and I only have three right now!) can only come on Thursdays at 12.00. So damn. That’s when the later class finishes.
I’m not really surprised that the instructor isn’t being as responsible as he should be – I think he likes the attention.
I think I might suggest they do the first pilates class at 8.30 (like yoga) instead of 9.30, which ought to weed out most of the “mummies” …
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Cripes… How about getting one of those air horns and blasting it?
“I’m sorry, I thought this was a free-for-all…”
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I don’t know what a “yummy mummy” is, but I think your request is very reasonable.
Cell phones seem to be as important to some people as oxygen and bread. I enjoy not having to be hooked to one for work anymore.
I spent a great deal of my career in Sys. Admin on-call. I got the support calls at all hours and often had to drive into the city at absurd hours to fix computer problems. I loved my job — support calls included.
I can’t think of a single time I ever took my phone into the gym, but I can’t think of a single time I’ve not seen people on the phone at the gym. It’s as if cell phones and gyms go together.
I went out of my way to make sure that my pager/cell phone wasn’t a distraction for others. It could be set for buzz. I could leave a number at another phone that I’d call and regularly check for messages. I’d leave my phone in the car and check it during breaks.
Church services were no-cell zones for me, but I cleared the use of the phone and message machine at the parish hall. This worked well for years.
Once someone from the church office brought the mobile phone into the church near the end of a service. She handed it to me and said “It’s an emergency.”
I asked the guy who called me: “Have you been to church this morning?”
“Me? No.”
“Well, you’re in church now.” I held the phone towards the choir for a few seconds.
I never had anyone from the office demand (I mean DEMAND) to talk to me during services again. They just left messages for me to call back.
I’d discuss the work issue with college profs. (I went back to college later in life) and never once did I have a problem with taking periodic walks out to my car (parked close by fortunately) to check for messages from the office. I never had a cell phone ring in the middle of a lecture and my making this effort to prevent such a mishap was genuinely appreciated.
Good luck with this. Cell phones at the gym, like cell phones and driving, like cell phones every possible place they can be used, seem to have become a constitutional right.
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Definition of a Yummy Mummy:
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I usually start my lectures by taking up my mobile phone, showing it to the audience and turn it off. Then I kindly demand them to do the same, unless they have family members in death beds they might be called to any minute or if they’re doctors on call, required to respond immediately at an emergency.
Since most of my students are 2nd or 3rd year Med School students neither of these scenarios are frequent and they can turn off their mobile phones.
There are very few occasions anyone need to be immediately reachable, mostly things can wait until later.
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To be honest, I find the inane LOUD chattering more annoying and distruptive – and disrespectful – than the phones.
And yes, it is ultimately up to the instructor to lay down the law.
There are some of the same people in yoga class, but I think the demeanor of our very gentle instructor sets the tone. The very few times the clique tried doing the “cocktail party” thing Ana didn’t have to say a word – she just stood in the centre of the room being QUIET and I think this shamed them into silence.
I wish the pilates instructor would do the same, but as I say, I think he likes the attention. Oh well, it’s only twice a week…
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