Gym Etiquette: Don’t Be That Guy
This Week at Mars Ascend Men’s Health: No Hormones, No Peptides—Just Public Service
This time, we’re not talking testosterone, peptides, or biohacking your mitochondria. We’re talking mental health.
Not your mental health—but the mental health of your fellow gym brother who could be one inconsiderate rep away from felony charges.
Follow these rules and you’ll improve not only the gym environment—but your odds of surviving your next work-out.
GYM ETIQUETTE RULES:
Don’t use the squat rack for curls, shrugs, upright rows, interpretive dance, or whatever TikTok told you to do today.
The squat rack is sacred ground. It’s for squats, presses, and things that require a barbell, safety catch and gravity. If you’re curling there, you should be stripped of gym privileges, publicly shamed, and permanently relocated to the Yoga studio. MOVE.
Don’t stand directly in front of the dumbbell rack while doing curls or shrugs.
Step back. No one wants to ask you to move mid-set, and you shouldn’t block 200 lbs of dumbbells like you’re guarding the gates of Mordor.
Bonus rule: if you can’t carry the dumbbells a few steps without nearly amputating your toes, you’re lifting with your ego—not your musculature.Don’t walk directly in front of someone staring intensely into the mirror.
That man isn’t admiring himself. He’s checking form - bar path, spinal neutrality, and trying not to herniate a disc. You casually strolling through his reflection is how form breaks and friendships end.
Don’t sit on a machine scrolling Facebook, Instagram, or texting your mom about dinner.
Rest periods are fine. Social media camping is not. If your heart rate is under 80 and you’re three reels deep, you’ve lost your right to the equipment. Move along.
Don’t use one side of the dual cable fly station when a single cable is wide open.
This is peak gym selfishness. It’s the equivalent of parking diagonally across two spots—only more stupid.
Additional Gym Crimes Worth Mentioning
Re-rack your weights.
If you can lift it, you can put it back. Failure to re-rack suggests weakness or poor upbringing. Possibly both.
The gym isn’t a sterile field—stop scrubbing like it is.
If the bench is soaked in sweat—sure, wipe it down. That’s just basic decency. But obsessively disinfecting a perfectly dry seat like you’re prepping for surgery is absurd. Humans are not sterile lab mice. We shake hands, hug people, touch door handles, and somehow survive. Sitting on a bench after another person doesn’t suddenly expose you to an exotic plague. Relax. Lift. Build an immune system while you’re at it.
Don’t drop weights unless you’re Olympic lifting—or genuinely failing a heavy set.
Dropping your weights after a dumbbell bench doesn’t make you intense., it makes you loud and insecure. Unless your doing Olympic lifts on a proper platform or genuinely aborting a failed set (in which case you should have spotters and safety rack in place), CONTROL your weights.
Respect personal space.
If I can feel your breath during my set, you’re too close. Back up, champ.
Headphones on = do not disturb.
If someone is locked in, don’t interrupt to discuss protein powder or your PR from 2017.
Final Thoughts from Mars Ascend Men’s Health
The gym is a shared ecosystem. We’re all there to build muscle, resilience, and maybe a little confidence. Following basic etiquette keeps the environment productive—and prevents unnecessary rage-induced cortisol spikes and wasted money on bail.
Train hard. Lift heavy. Be disciplined.
And for the love of all things anabolic—Don’t curl in the squat rack.