The Different Types of People You Meet in the Gym

During tonight’s gym session, I was pounding away — although if I’m being fair, I wasn’t actually working that hard. I was probably thinking about this website more than I was thinking about training. I’ve mentioned before that when I get zoned into something, I really get zoned in, and at the minute Kravix seems to have taken over half my brain.

My headphones were dead as well, which completely changed the session. Normally I’ve got trance music blasting, I’m in my own world and between sets I’m already getting myself ready to go again. Tonight there was none of that. I was just enjoying being in the gym, looking around between sets and taking in what was going on around me.

I don’t usually train that late either. I had nothing planned, there was nothing on TV and it was one of those typical Monday nights where I thought, fuck it — I’ll go and get some abs done, get a quick shoulder pump, go home and have a bath.

Because I was there at a completely different time, almost none of the people I normally see were there. It felt like the same gym but with a completely different group of people in it, and it got me thinking about how many different types of people actually walk through the doors of a local gym.

Everyone Gets Put Into a Category

You always see those articles about the different types of people you get in a gym.

The strength guy. The peacock. The runner. The newbie. The new mum. The older mum. The old bloke who always starts talking about what things were like “back in my day”. The aspiring fitness model. The aspiring influencer. The social guy. The bloke who has come straight from work and just wants to get his session done.

We all know the stereotypes because most of them are real to some extent.

The thing I was thinking about tonight is that I don’t think any of those people are inherently bad.

The Newbie

The newbie is probably one of the easiest people to spot.

Hands in his pockets, looking around, trying to work out what everything does without making it obvious that he has absolutely no idea what everything does.

Every now and then he’ll give someone a little sideways glance that almost looks like he’s asking something without actually saying it.

Am I doing this right? Does this machine work like I think it does? Is that big fella over there judging me?

The funny thing is, the experienced person he’s worried about might not be judging him at all. He might just remember being exactly like that himself.

Every experienced lifter was new once. Nobody walks into a gym already knowing how to bench, squat, deadlift or set up every machine properly.

We’ve all had that stage where we’re trying not to look lost.

The Strength Guy

Then you’ve got the strength guy.

Headphones in, heavy weight, serious face and probably not much conversation.

People can look at someone like that and assume they’re arrogant or miserable.

I know that because sometimes that’s probably what I look like.

When I’m properly training, my headphones are in, the music is loud and I’m focused on what I’m doing. I’m not trying to look unapproachable. I just don’t really want to stop halfway through a session and have a twenty-minute chat.

The Peacock

Then there’s the peacock.

Always looking in the mirror, checking himself out and maybe having a little flex when he thinks nobody is paying attention.

Again, I’d have to put myself in this category sometimes.

I look in the mirror. Of course I do.

If you’ve spent years changing your body, building muscle, losing fat and trying to improve yourself physically, there are going to be times when you want to look at the result.

There is obviously a point where it becomes ridiculous, but simply looking in the mirror doesn’t make someone a knob.

Sometimes you’re checking progress. Sometimes you just think your shoulders look good that day.

Fair enough.

The Social Guy

You always get the person who seems to know everybody as well.

They do a set, have a chat, do another set and then end up talking to somebody else.

I’m not usually that person, but occasionally I am.

If I click with somebody in the gym and we get talking, somebody watching from the other side of the room could easily think I spend half my session chatting.

On another day I could train for an hour and barely speak to anyone.

The Runner

Then there’s the runner.

Gets on the treadmill and seems to stay there forever.

Some lifters almost treat people who do loads of cardio like they’re in a completely different category, but some days I’m that person too.

There are days where I’ll absolutely smash the cardio.

That doesn’t mean I suddenly stop being someone who likes heavy lifting.

It just means that if somebody sees me on that day, that is the version of me they see.

The Aspiring Influencer

Then you’ve got the aspiring influencer.

Phone out, tripod out, recording sets and checking the footage afterwards.

That one is easy to take the piss out of, but I’ve recorded myself in the gym before.

Does that make me an aspiring influencer? Maybe.

Or maybe I wanted to look at my technique. Maybe I wanted to keep a video of a lift. Maybe now I’ve got this website I’ll eventually want to create proper training videos.

I don’t think filming in a gym is automatically annoying.

It becomes annoying when somebody starts acting like the whole place is their studio and everyone else has to work around them.

The Late-Night Worker

Then there’s the bloke who has clearly had a long day and has come in late because that is the only chance he’s had to train.

He might not look excited. He might not be chasing a PB. He probably just wants to get through it and go home.

Sometimes that’s me.

Not every session needs to be the greatest workout you’ve ever had. Sometimes you’ve got an hour, you get it done and you leave.

That still counts.

The Tired Parent

Then there’s the tired parent.

You can usually see it in their face before they even start.

Maybe they’ve been working all day. Maybe the kids have been climbing all over them since six in the morning. Maybe this is the only hour they’ve had to themselves.

They might not be having the most intense session in the gym, but they still turned up.

I think that matters more than people give it credit for.

The Weird Gym Glance

There’s another little thing I noticed tonight that happens all the time.

That weird glance between men and women in the gym.

They notice each other, then pretend they didn’t. One looks again later, gets caught and looks away.

Nobody says anything because nobody wants to interrupt somebody else’s session or completely misread the situation.

So both people just carry on training while clearly being aware of each other.

It happens all the time and nobody really talks about it.

Different Times Feel Like Different Gyms

Tonight also made me notice how much the gym changes depending on what time you go.

Almost none of the people I normally see were there.

You’ve got the morning crowd, the lunchtime people, the after-work crowd and then the late-night group.

Sometimes it genuinely feels like completely different gyms operating in the same building.

You could train in the same place for years and still barely know half the regulars because they always train two hours before or after you.

When Did Everybody Start Going to the Gym?

I ended up talking to somebody tonight who told me he used to be a personal trainer back in the 1980s.

He said he eventually gave it up because, according to him, hardly anybody trained back then.

That got me thinking about when all of this actually changed.

I remember being a teenager and most of my mates weren’t going to the gym. We were sitting in parks drinking cider.

Yes, different times.

Now you’ve got teenagers talking about protein, creatine, calories, deadlifts and training programmes.

Gyms are cheaper and easier to access than they used to be, fitness has become much more mainstream and social media has clearly played a part as well.

A teenager now can open Instagram, TikTok or YouTube and within seconds see somebody their own age lifting serious weight, talking about protein, showing a transformation or filming their entire training session.

Years ago you had to go looking for that world.

Now it turns up on your phone whether you go looking for it or not.

That has probably encouraged a lot of people to train.

It has probably also given plenty of people completely unrealistic expectations.

But it has definitely made going to the gym feel normal.

The People Nobody Notices

There are plenty of people who don’t fit neatly into one of the funny stereotypes either.

The quiet regular who has trained there for ten years but barely speaks. The older person who is trying to stay mobile. Someone coming back from an injury. Somebody trying to lose weight. Somebody trying to build confidence.

There could also be someone who nearly didn’t bother going in that day at all, or somebody using that hour simply to get away from whatever is happening outside the gym for a while.

You can look at someone and think you know why they’re there.

Most of the time you probably don’t.

What Actually Needs to Change?

The more I thought about it, the more I realised I don’t really dislike any particular type of gym-goer.

I don’t care if you’re the strength guy, the runner, the peacock, the influencer, the newbie, the social guy, the mum squeezing in a session or the old bloke telling everybody how much he benched in 1987.

Be whatever you want.

For me, the problem starts when your behaviour makes the gym worse for everyone else.

Don’t hog equipment for twenty minutes while scrolling through your phone. Put your weights back. Don’t film strangers without thinking about it. Don’t mock the beginner who clearly doesn’t know what they’re doing. Don’t give somebody unwanted advice just because you’ve been training longer than them.

And don’t act like a bench or machine belongs to you because you use it every Tuesday.

You can fit almost any gym stereotype and still be perfectly sound to train around.

So Which One Am I?

This was probably the part I found most interesting.

Where do I actually sit on that list?

I’m definitely the strength guy sometimes. I’m definitely guilty of checking myself in the mirror. I was obviously the newbie once.

I can be the social guy if I happen to get talking to somebody. I’ve filmed myself training before. Some days I’ll spend ages doing cardio. Tonight I was the bloke training late because I had nothing else planned.

And yes, I’ve definitely been the tired parent.

So I don’t think I fit into one category at all.

I probably fit into most of them depending on the day.

Gym Stereotypes Are Snapshots

A good example of this happened to me recently.

I’ve been excited about this website, probably because it finally gives me somewhere to put all the thoughts and accumulated knowledge I normally end up boring non-gym-goers with whenever I’m forced to socialise.

Naturally, I’ve been talking about Kravix in the gym.

I mentioned it to a bloke there and we got chatting for a couple of minutes.

The next day I saw him again and he said, “Mate, I had no idea you were that deep. You don’t look like that at all.”

That immediately got me thinking.

What do I look like?

When I actually thought about it, I could see what he meant.

Most of the time I’ve got my headphones in, cap on, serious face, weights being forced up and probably a bit of grunting going on.

If that’s all somebody sees, then that is what they build their opinion from.

Maybe I’m the strength guy.

Maybe I’m the bloke who looks permanently pissed off.

Maybe I look like somebody who only thinks about lifting weights.

We ended up having a good ten-minute conversation about this exact thing, and I realised how easily people form an impression of somebody from one small part of who they are.

That’s why I think gym stereotypes are really just snapshots.

You might see someone for ten minutes and decide they’re the influencer, the meathead, the cardio guy or the newbie.

But you don’t know what they were doing five years ago. You don’t know what they’ll be doing tomorrow. You don’t know what they’re interested in outside the gym, and you definitely don’t know what is going on in their head just because they’ve got headphones in and a serious face.

Someone could have looked across the gym at me tonight and seen a bloke sitting there between shoulder sets looking around the room.

They had no idea I was thinking about writing this article.

The stereotypes are real.

I just don’t think any of us stay in one of them for very long.