I go to a fairly large gym in my city – it’s one of those chain gyms akin to Planet Fitness. It was an old grocery store repurposed into a gym.
After my workouts, I love going to the sauna for about 15-20 minutes. It feels good to get a good sweat and it’s dark and relaxing. Recently, there have been some people at my gym who take it upon themselves to not have consideration for others in the sauna and either exercise or talk loudly on the phone.
The first situation has been an issue of mine for a while. There is an older gentleman, I would say 50s or 60s, who will exercise in the sauna by the jumping up and down in place. I don’t mind if someone does some light stretching if the sauna is near empty, I sometimes do, but this man will jump up and down for minutes on end, wearing the squeakiest slides/rubber sandals that have ever existed. Even if I try to look away, I can still see him out of the corner of my eye, jumping away. When I turn my noise-canceling headphones all the way up, I can still hear his shoes squeaking. I have brought this up to gym staff only once about two months ago, and they said they weren’t aware of the problem and would try to do something.
A few days ago, I go back into the sauna after my workout and it’s fuller than I expected, so I stand in the corner since no spots on the benches are available. Nobody is talking, so it’s pretty quiet. The first man I mentioned stands up and starts jumping up and down again. I am quietly frustrated, since I can hear him through my headphones until I notice the woman who is sitting next to me livestreaming on her TikTok and answering questions from her viewers. I know she wasn’t on the phone since I was standing while she was sitting and was able to see her phone and her camera on her face. At this point I turn my headphones all the way up and am silently furious. Out of the 12 or so people in the sauna, they were the only two making noise. Not even the TV in the sauna has its volume turned on. I noticed one woman was staring down both of these people and looking around to see if others were bothered. It didn’t seem to me like others were, or maybe they just weren’t showing it.
WIBTA if I were to tell these people off for being loud and obnoxious in the sauna, where everybody else is clearly silent?
No.
Asking someone if they would mind being quite or exercising out of the room does not seem like a big ask.
If they blow you off, then I would ask if management would put up a sign asking people to not have any audio or talking on a cell in there. Keep still during their enjoyment of the sauna so others are not disturbed.
If none of those work, you might want to try another time you go
To gym. Bouncy man is probably at the end of his work out, so if you see him a lot, you can try and schedule around him.
Are there sauna “rules” overtly, as in posted somewhere, or agreed to by contract, which explicitly state one must be quiet and stationary in the sauna, or is it that technically people are ALLOWED to exercise or watch loud videos, but USUALLY one does not do this – akin to not being conversational with strangers in an elevator?
If no to the above, then while it may bother your expectations, you really have no standing to tell anyone to be quiet or stop their “noisy” activities at all, and if you did YWBTA.
I’d get with the management and ask what the official or unofficial rules are for the sauna, and ask that those be posted outside and inside the unit(s). If they say there are none, then you cannot enforce your own, regardless of how normal or expected they may be.
I would have to double check but from the top of my head, there is a sign that says “No weights in the sauna” which I have never seen happen, but I have seen left-behind weights in there even with the posting. As for the contract, I am unsure what it says exactly.
I have asked management before, that one time I mentioned in the post, about posting something about exercising so I might have to push again. And I do wanna make clear, I don’t mind if it’s a few people in there and one or two are having some conversation, or if there’s a lot of people in there and most are having a conversation – but those are very different than being in a room full of people that are quiet and being the person breaking that silence.
Unfortunately, that would not be your call – it’s a public place, it is NOT a library, and if one person wants to break the silence absent any posted rules that require them to be silent, you have NO standing to tell them otherwise and YTA if you do.
Wait.. someone was *livestreaming* from a sauna?? That seems like a way bigger issue than someone making noise.
Yes, in my gym there are signs saying no cell phone usage allowed in locker rooms.
To be clear, the sauna is not in the locker rooms – it is a coed sauna that is easily accessible through the pool. But I still think it’s crazy to be livestreaming from the sauna, even if the camera is not focused on anybody else.
NTA. She was live streaming in a sauna where I suspect others were half dressed?? I’d lose my mind.
You are going to a chain gym and suprised people are being obnoxious? I’d say YWBTA