Excuse me.. could you grunt more quietly?

It often amazes me the things that turn up in the ‘world’ section of the daily newspaper. You’d think that this would be the domain of the true ‘living on the edge, boots in the mud’ journalist, right? Well, what do you do when you get tired of dodging bullets and sleeping under bridges with the homeless? You head over to a Planet Fitness in NY and interview the gym manager whom is being publicly hauled over the coals by a weightlifter whom she expelled from her gym for grunting loudly, repeatedly and ‘intimidatingly’ while squatting 500lb (227kg).

I’m actually in two minds about this. Firstly, sometimes you can’t help it. You are reaching for a new PB and you might just let out a grunt. It could even come out a bit louder than you intend, especially if your ipod is cranked up loud enough to drown out whatever tormenting Girls Aloud remix is blasting from the in-gym sound system. I think that’s ok. Also, if you an Olympic Weightlifter hefting hundrends of kg's in front of a huge TV audience, then that's ok too. However, I have also had the experience of having to change my habitual training times because of a grunter. His grunting was so loud and explosive that it would cause me to lose focus. Losing focus or being surprised by a loud noise while working with heavy weights is not fun. You may lose your lunch during a workout, but losing focus can’t be allowed to happen. I’m sure he was doing it as a sort of “look at me Alpha Male” mating call to the well-off ladies peddling away on the cycles with their own little plasma screen TV.

You can read another take on the story here on the FightingArts.com forum.