Woman Ends Workout After "Creepy" Guy Uses Machine Next to Her in Empty Gym, Sparks Debate

Every place has its own set of rules, a culture if you will. If you're in a top-fighting gym, then you're going to get tested in sparring and you should only really attempt to give as good as you get. If it's supposed to be a "light" contact day, don't go head/liver hunting with intent. And if you're supposed to give a little more sauce on your punches, well, be ready to bite down on your mouthpiece and fight to bring your "A" game.

But even different gyms have different rules, including ones dedicated to weight lifting. Don't expect to go inside of a planet fitness and scream to hype yourself up to hit that PR while your burly boys are egging you on, just like you don't expect to hit up a strongman training facility to work out on a smith machine and use the isolated triceps extension machine.

And if you're working out in a health club that has a sea of machines, you probably shouldn't amble up and hop on one right next to a stranger who's working out in an otherwise empty gym. It'd be like peeing right beside a guy at a urinal in the bathroom, or sitting next to someone in a movie theater when there are tons of other free seats available.

But that's what happened to one Redditor while she was using an elliptical machine.

In the "AITA" subreddit on the popular social media site, user Key_Quail_ wanted to know if she was in the wrong for "shortening [her] workout" after a guy decided to take an elliptical right next to her in the gym late at night even though there was an entire row of them available for him to use.

She writes: "I (27F) like to go to the gym later in the evenings so I can have the place mostly to myself since I don’t like how claustrophobic it feels when tons of people are there at the same time. I live around the block from a chain gym and go there most nights to use the elliptical for a while."

"When I got to the gym tonight, the entire row of ellipticals was empty, so I grabbed the one all the way on the end. Everything was fine during my workout all the way up to the last few minutes. A guy walked into the mostly-deserted gym and got on the elliptical right next to mine, which I thought was weird since there was a row of about 12 other ones that were all empty. It made me a little uncomfortable, so I shortened my workout by a few minutes and hopped off to grab a disinfectant wipe."

She continued, "When I got back to wipe down the machine, the guy stopped pedaling and asked me what my problem was. I was caught off guard and just stammered something about how I was done with my workout, which was basically true anyway, but he said something about me “treating him like a predator for no reason” and then put his headphones back in."

The Redditor capped off her post asking: "AITA for shortening my workout because some guy chose the elliptical right next to mine?"

Tons of Redditors responded that she wasn't in the wrong and that the guy was a "weirdo" who clearly had an agenda or just had a very poor understanding of gym etiquette.

"That guy is a weirdo. Gym etiquette: don't take the machine RIGHT NEXT to someone if there are other vacant ones. Especially during covid. And not next to a single woman.

He knew what he was doing which was why he called himself out on it. NTA"

Others thought that the guy was essentially "telling on himself" with the "predator" comment: "NTA. It’s weird that he would choose the one right next to you, and it’s even weirder that he then brought it up that you might be looking at him “like a predator.”

It’s like he’s telling on himself."

And then there were those who found it odd that the man was paying such close attention to her workout: "Dude was a double-down AH. First, he picked a n elliptical RIGHT NEXT TO YOU WHEN HE HAD A CHOICE OF 11 OTHER MACHINES. Then he made a big deal out of you leaving, when your workout schedule is ABSOLUTELY NONE OF HIS BUSINESS.

And, let me tell you, that by the age of 13, all males know how to pick which urinal to use when you enter a restroom and even 1 is occupied. This is basically the same exercise, and he failed miserably."

What do you think? Was he wrong to basically "corner" her by going to the elliptical right next to the woman?