Top Tech Tabu for the Fitness Enthusiast

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I was on a peaceful hike, in the Santa Monica mountains, when I heard echoes of a telephone conversation. I enjoy chit-chat with friends when I hike with company, but find it a bit perturbing that people would have loud telephone conversations while on their hikes. There are feelings of relief in the reassurance that where we once were unable to get a cell phone signal, we can now reach emergency services if necessary. However, what is a blessing is also a nuisance, since people can now use their phones in the most secluded and peaceful areas to have conversations about their drunken excursions the evening before, which celebrity should not have been wearing a two-piece bathing suit, or how horribly a date went earlier in the week.

In honor of National Cell Phone Etiquette month, my response is to offer you this list of tech tabu in regard to fitness etiquette.

1. When at the gym, do not talk on your cell phones on the fitness floor. After all, you ought to be focusing on your own workout. If absolutely necessary, take your call outdoors.

2. Do not have your phone conversations in the locker room, either. It is disconcerting for others that you are having conversations with other people in the same area that are showering, changing, or in post-exercise bliss.

3. Following up #2, it is especially considerate to leave camera phones inside your bag when in the locker room, as well. There are many people who are incredibly self-conscious and have fear of being photographed at the gym. You may not have this fear, but please be considerate of the people around you who might.

4. Avoid texting and holding phone conversations while on a bike ride or a group workout. It is annoying and unsafe for you and the people around you when you are not attentive to your surroundings.

5. Make sure all of your devices are on silent or turned off when in a group fitness class, especially in yoga or meditation.

6. Also, avoid texting during these classes. Although texting seems silent, it is still distracting to the instructor and the participants around you.

7. When at the spa, leave your phone off or on silent, and inside your locker. The spa is a place for serenity; enjoy it.

8. When exercising outdoors, whether in the mountains, on the track, at the park, please keep your phone conversations very brief and at a minimum, only when necessary. It is very disruptive to those people around you who are trying to exercise. Encourage the person on the other line to join you and become your workout buddy!

Wellness enjoys company. Instead of feeling the need to be in contact, via telephone, while you are exercising, invite these friends, family, and colleagues to join you on your workouts and you can have those conversations while you are both journeying to good health.

If you have any other suggestions for gym etiquette, please feel free to post below.

P.S. This is the first in a series of blog posts dedicated to workout etiquette.

Tags: cell phones, gym etiquette, manners