No Grunting, They Told Him, and He Was at Gym

By ANAHAD O’CONNOR

WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y., Nov. 13 — Albert Argibay, a bodybuilder and a state correction officer, was at a Planet Fitness gym with 500 pounds of weight on his shoulders one afternoon this month when the club manager walked over and told him it was time to leave. Mr. Argibay, the manager explained, had violated one of the club’s most sacred and strictly enforced rules: He was grunting.

“I said to her, ‘I’m not grunting, I’m breathing heavy,’ ” recalled Mr. Argibay, 40, an energetic man with the hulking appearance of a pro linebacker. “I guess she didn’t like the fact that I challenged her, because she said to me, ‘Meet me up front; I’m canceling your membership.’ ”

He continued lifting, but soon was surrounded by town police officers, who told him to drop the weight slowly and pack his bag, then escorted him from the gym. Now Mr. Argibay is considering suing the club, claiming the notoriety the incident earned him in this cozy 5,000-person town 75 miles north of Manhattan is tantamount to defamation. Mr. Argibay said he has endured ridicule from colleagues who call him and make grunting noises, and he fears that inmates will lose respect for him.

Grunting, rude as it may be, has been commonplace in gyms for as long as weights have been lifted. At most health clubs, grunts elicit little more than annoyed looks or sighs of irritation. But at Planet Fitness, a national chain with 120 locations, it is a matter not only of etiquette, but also of club policy: one too many offending noises can get a membership revoked in the time it takes to do a sit-up. Nationwide, the chain expels roughly two members a month for various reasons, most commonly grunting and dropping weights.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/18/nyregion/18grunt.html?ei=5094&en=a0008339aaa891c3&hp=&ex=1163826000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

Expelled for grunting. :eyes:

Isn't grunting a natural reaction when lifting such heavy weight? I don't lift that much weight, but at the 24 Hour fitness I go to, plenty of other people do. Their heavy breathing or grunting don't warrant so much as even a glance from anyone where I'm at.

Fuck me, where did America go?

Redstone

... for things as trivial as this. What ever happened to "the customer is always right, even when he's wrong"? Have we gotten to the point that business is so in bed with government at all levels that business - particularly a national chain (i.e. corporation) - "aims to please" politicians on the take and not the customer?

We seem to have taken the 'agricultural' model (stake out the territory) and applied it at all levels. Wal*Mart dominates many regions to the point of exclusivity. Cable companies have been doing this for years now - don't like 'em? Do without. Telecomm is that way - but doesn't need to be. Monopoly government in cahoots with monopoly business - 'choice' is becoming obsolete ... a 20th century anachronism.

are they taken out back and shot?

:yoiks:

He's BACK!!! :hug:

:spray:

'tis good to be back, thanks! :pals:

DU is not really an addiction; it's a home. I post elsewhere and it's not quite the same.

Plus, DU has the best forum UI ever devised.

Awww man!!

at least a little bit then they're not lifting any significant weight.

This gym is clearly for intended for pretty people to socialize, not for serious weight lifting.

At Planet Fitness gyms, grunters and other rule-breakers are treated to an ear-rattling siren with flashing blue lights and a public scolding. The “lunk alarm,” as the club calls it, is so jarring it can bring the entire floor to a standstill. (A lunk is defined, on a poster, as “one who grunts, drops weights, or judges.”)

Tim Gunther, a 6-foot, 200-pound firefighter in Poughkeepsie, said he and his colleagues were frequently harassed for “making noises that can’t be avoided” and compared the alarm to a nuclear war siren. “The first time I heard that thing it scared the heck out of me,” he said. “I thought there was a fire, and I’m a fireman. Without exaggeration, I’ve seen them set that thing off on people just for breathing too loud.”

This is no gym! I would think it better to enforce against those who hog machines, or just sit on them and chat, or don't wipe off their sweat from the equipment. I'd never join a Planet Fitness. They are gym nazis!

Oh, right, ya still gotta worry about the secondhand grunting...