Dealing with Gym Lurkers?

Has anyone ever felt like a person or persons have been lurking on them at the gym? And if so, how did you go about hiding ? (LOL)
Here is my situation :

Two gym bro’s seem to be everywhere I am no matter how many times I rearrange my workout routine. They are there, near me standing…waiting…awkwarding …

FOR EX: The water fountain behind the squat rack is no where near the bench presses they are using, but when I am there they go there to fill up their water bottles literally every 6-7 minutes and just stand there forever. Sometimes they visit it alone, and sometimes they visit it together. …
If I am in the other part of the gym they go over there and use cables right beside mine etc…
They also always take weights and collars from whatever machine I am using, and always intentionally try to cross paths and bump into me when I am in search of plates and collars and whatnot .

NOW I KNOW OK HUGE BITCH alert (MOI), BUT they have approached me to converse before and are by FAR the most unintelligent people I have EVER spoken with. I have worked in customer service for 15+ years, I have paid my dues . I DOOnOTTTT want to chat .
And lurker Boy B Has DM-ed me on instagram ETC , so it can’t be entirely in my head.
ALSO, another point about it not just being in my head:
I am not a very confident person with a huge inflated ego. I rarely think people like me, check me out , etc… I have also never thought this about anyone in the history of my gym go-ings before so it’s not like it’s some regular thing where I am like OH HEY EVERYONE IS FOLLOWING ME because I am QUEEEN
.
nO
These two just really irritate me, and also have the most cringe worthy form on every single exercise they have ever done .
I have shifted and moved around and they aRE AWLYS THERHE!QFKdsjkhsdgjhkdfjg
KTHX
BYE

Have you asked them to leave you alone?

The closest thing I’ve had to a lurker was a guy who would alway squat in the smith machine while I was squatting in the squat rack. He’d always do a single quarter squat with a weight close to whatever I was working with, then shoot a glance my way and nod his head at me.

I just nodded back at him and continued on. He seemed satisfied with it, so I never actually spoke to him.

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Base gym in Guam (98 time frame) had two lurkers - these two old ass Asian chicks. They always wore matching gym outfits, makeup to the nines, enough old-lady perfume to choke a rabid moose. They were right at that point where Asian women stop aging gracefully and suddenly look old as dirt, but they would follow whatever young guys were in there around, always using the machine right next to you, chattering away in whatever language they spoke. Didn’t matter what you were doing they would follow you around - middle of a set when you finish and move? All stop, follow to next spot. Best part was (like I said) it was the base gym, meaning they were either spouses or widows of retired mil guys. Never tried to talk to any of us, maybe a brief smile at most if you made eye contact - almost like they were following you around to make a big show of ignoring you.

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Hijack coming…

Last week, I was training and I just happened to follow around a very hot young lady. Almost at the end of each set. So she’d finish move and I’d tail her.

I wanted to show her my phone with the session pre-written up but didn’t know if that would be even creepier.

In the end, I made peace with it and convinced myself she probably never noticed. Thanks to this thread, I am now dreading going again :stuck_out_tongue:

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“Some motherfuckers just want to look at your hog.”

But, yeah no, can’t say I remember being in that kind of situation. When I was a floor trainer, I did have a member who never hired me but would always seek me out to help him stretch. Nice enough guy in his 40s, nothing crazy, just consistently taking advantage of about 10 minutes of my time a few days a week. I was pretty much stuck.

If I had to guess, you probably popped up on their radar because you’re a girl, and you’re a girl who lifts, and you’re (safe to assume) a girl who lifts more than them. Whether the lurking/staring/“flirting”(?!?!) is because they’re interested, threatened, intimidated, or reminding each other that they’re totally the broiest bros of the bro’dom, who knows.

Are you on friendly terms with any gym staff? Maybe make them aware, not to tattletale or get them kicked out, just so someone else can keep an eye on them as well.

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I had my share of pushy followers and god awful pick up line.
Snappy witty come back line, old Iron Maiden t-shirt.
Last guy who ask me out in a crud way did it while I was doing pull ups and next to my boy friend. I just let go of the bare laughing so hard. I was half my age good looking but NO thanks

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I actually do talk to the desk girls quite a bit! If anything it would probably just feel good to complain to them without actually wanting them to do anything about it haha .
I do know one girl who works there really dislikes them because of their painful to watch deadlift form and them dropping each rep on purpose .

A sex shop opened up near my work in Los Angeles so a group of us decided to check it out on our lunch break. The group was a mix of guys and girls.

So, I’m poking around the shop and suddenly some dude is saying “Hey, I know you”. Some guy from my gym 30 miles away in Long Beach. I had a brief awkward chat with him in the toy shop and got kidded about it by my coworkers the rest of the time I worked there.

What my coworkers didn’t know, or maybe they did 'cause I can’t remember what I told them, was every time I saw that guy at the gym he just had to come over and chat with me. Not a stalker but I dreaded having to converse with him.

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That’s what you think :joy:

Head phones. ‘Don’t eff with me’ face. No eye contact. Works for me.

Also, become 55 years old. That works really well too.

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Have you considered murdering them?

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Also, tell them you have ~50 dads/big brothers on T-Nation, and we’ll come beat the crap out of them if they annoy you.

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Lmao every single day :joy:

Lol I actually go out of my way to avoid eye contact. If They take plates from one side of the squat rack I look the other way and when they move to the other side I turn my head again haha

I say turn the tables on them. Not even lurky, but like aggressively pursuing them.

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Omg LOL :joy: this would turn out disastrous no doubt

Two ways to handle this…
First and best way. Guaranteed to work.
Go in like you are having a really bad day. Be angry! Resting bitch face. Start slinging stuff around, and making some noise. When they get close, have your back to them and them really, really, get angry! Drop something close to where they are standing and when you come up, throw it on the ground as hard as you can and get in their face and scream violently, " and just what the fuck do you want!!!"
Guaranteed to work! Every time!

Second option…
Works depending on what kind of psycho your dealing with. Eat whatever food gives you the worst gas possible. Every time you squat let one rip!! Preferably loud and noxious! If they leave you won. If they stay call the cops, you have a bonafide problem.

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Maybe its just all a massive coincidence.

That’s happened to me before. I went into the gym one morning and it was juts me and a smoking hot young lady. Whatever program she was on was the same as mine, although she just happened to start 2 minutes before me, so It looked like I was just been a copycat but I was just doing my usual Friday morning routine.

I think she freaked out a little and I have not seen at that gym since.

tweet

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Damn that sucks! Also… Where have you been mate??

Well maybe… but it would be massive indeed as it’s been happening consistently for months now .

Hulk smash !!!