The Five People You Meet at the Gym

Alex Ashton
4 min readJan 17, 2024

A guide for those joining us in the new year. Welcome!

Photo by Victor Freitas via Pexels

Let’s face it: lots of us have gotten into physical fitness over the last few years, and it’s never been easier to start.

Advanced wearable fitness technology, such a FitBit, Samsung, or Apple watch along with linked phone apps can track everything, from heart rate to calories burned and one’s diet. A culture of fitness has developed on social media, with many people sharing their journey.

While home options exist for those who have the space and capital to build out a home gym, most of us will head to the local gym to begin our journey.

I’ve been going to the gym off and on for the last decade. On my recent streak, I finally found the right combination of workouts and diet, and have put on 15 pounds of muscle in the last four months. It’s hard work — I go 4–5 times per week, and have stuck to a diet conducive to building and maintaining muscle.

During the 4–5 times per week I go to the gym, here’s a humorous take on the different types of people I’ve seen there.

The Overenthusiastic Grunter

Without fail, there has to be one person at the gym who makes sounds so loud when lifting that others can hear them through headphones.

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Alex Ashton

History, culture, family, religion, data, and technology from a center-left, civil libertarian, middle-class perspective. Publisher: The Missing Middle.