A couple days ago I was reading a Facebook feed from Gold's Gym, the subject matter being complaints about people who train at gyms. Needless to say, there were lots of comments in response. And at discussion boards such as the one at Bodybuilding.com, threads on gym complaints are often the most active.

My feeling on gym complaints is pretty simple - if someone flaunts safety and/or courtesy rules, I'm not happy. But other than that, there's just not much that bothers me to a serious extent.

Racking weights and wiping down equipment are my two major concerns. I always do both, unless I simply forget. And I don't like it when people don't bother to do one or the other.

But many of the complaints I read are kind of nit-picky. For example, there are many complaints about people using cell phones at the gym (which I don't do by the way). But if someone wants to chat on the phone during a workout it's their loss, not mine.

Another peeve is grunting. Again, I'm not a grunter, but if someone grunts - even if they don't seem to be pushing a lot of weight - why should that bother me? I am bothered by Maria Sharapova's grunts during her tennis matches, but her grunt is actually a blood-curdling scream, and I don't hear those in the gym.

In summary, my suggestion is to just relax - gyms are a public place after all. As long as people obey safety rules and are reasonably clean, I'm not going to complain. Besides, whom among us doesn't do one or two things that others probably find a little unusual?