What to do when gym is busy?

Try bodyweight training

You don’t have to wait for weights . Instead, use what you’ve got to get what you want. Body weight exercises such as push-ups, lunges, squats, wall sits and planks require no special equipment. You use your body to build muscle and get in a workout that burns fat, boosts flexibility and builds core strength.

Go for the less popular machines or classes

If your gym is like mine you can count on crowds for the most popular classes and equipment i.e. the treadmill and elliptical machines. You can still get a good workout in if you decide not to stand around and wait. Why not try the stair climber or stationary bike instead? Instead of step try Zumba. Trying something different can help you challenge different muscles. You might also find that doing something new keeps you engaged – so you are less likely to be bored. In other words, try to release expectations about what you can or are supposed to do while at the gym. Step outside of the box and be flexible to get the most of your experience when the gym is crowded.

Avoid the hot times

The gym is usually most crowded between 4 and 8pm. Obviously, there is a reason for that. Early evening is the most convenient time to hit the gym. Still, if there is any way to rearrange your schedule so that you can workout before work or even later than eight in the evening you may be able to bypass the biggest crowds. That may mean getting up a lot earlier – a challenge when it is dark and cold or finding childcare, but if you just can’t manage the crowds this may be your best bet.

Stay put

Grab a set of dumbbells and stake out a spot at the gym. You can then skip fighting for other weights and equipment. Use the weights you score to do all of your exercises. Opt for six to eight reps per set and include moves like the shoulder press, squats and bent over dumbbell rows. Add in some jumping jacks or jump rope and you are golden.

Leave the room

Many gyms have more to offer than the weight, cardio and class rooms. If your gym has a pool, basketball or racquetball court, or even an indoor track, why not use them? Swimming is a great, low-impact workout, the indoor track is a nice alternative to the treadmill and basketball or racquetball are both excellent ways to bring play into your exercise routine. When the gym is crowded, look for places outside of the common areas that help you stay active.

There’s no helping the seasonal spikes in gym memberships, or the number of people in the gym at all, but day to day, the busiest gym hours tend to be when people go to and leave work. Expect crowds between 6:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m, with a lull between 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., before the evening crowd bustles in to lay claim to every squat rack, treadmill, and stretching space. Then it tapers off again at 9:00 p.m. These peak hours are fairly consistent across the many gyms I’ve been to around the country and the world, but if you’re ever in doubt, just ask the people at the front desk. Or, check Google. They know everything.

You probably have a specific workout you want to do in mind, but your chances of following it exactly may seem bleak when everywhere you look there’s a sweaty person using exactly the same equipment you need to use. If you really wanted to, you could wait for things to open up or just ask to work in with other people while they rest; but why not use this as an opportunity to learn about so many other different variations of exercises?

For every favorite exercise, like a squat or push-up, there are plenty of alternatives and variations, too, some of which you don’t even need the squat rack for. It helps to come prepared with those alternatives in mind. Ideally, these substitutions should be similar in function to the exercise you need to replace. Let’s say you came to deadlift, but damn, not a free barbell in sight. That’s okay, hip thrusts, cable pull-throughs, heavy kettlebell swings, hyperextensions, or suitcase deadlifts with a dumbbell or kettlebell are all great alternatives, because they all follow a similar movement pattern and work similar muscle groups.

This is where databases like MuscleWiki or ExRx.net come in handy, especially if you don’t know what exercise to replace with your tried and true favorite. The MuscleWiki mobile app (free for iOS and Android) makes finding replacements or alternatives to your favorite exercises really convenient when you’re at the gym.

Your best bet is to have a whole other back-up workout ready. Sticking to one workout program is normally good practice and doesn’t require additional mental energy, but making up a workout on the fly in a pinch can be fun and forces you to try things you might not otherwise have considered. Here are some options:

During busy times, weight benches are a highly prized commodity. So if you were planning to do chest exercises or something similar, you probably think you have to give up on them without a bench. But the bench is just a stable surface (though elevated) for you to lean against. When a bench isn’t available, the next best thing is the floor itself.

You can still do some chest exercises off the floor. Obviously, push-ups are one option, but the lesser known dumbbell floor presses are another. It’s the same as pressing dumbbells from a bench, but, you know, from the floor instead. By being on the floor, however, you need to use more chest strength to lift the weight because you can’t use your legs to push. Get yourself some floor space and you could also work on the crow pose, Turkish get-ups, glute bridges, dead bugs, bird dogs, and countless other bodyweight exercises.

If you’re trying to do a strength training workout, one of my favorite fallback plans involves strategically pairing exercises together. Supersetting is one way to do this, where you pair two exercises that work opposing muscle groups and do them back to back as a single “superset.” For example, you can pair push-ups (chest) with rows (back.) Plus, when people are waiting, supersets help you blast through the exercises quickly.

In a really busy gym, I’d suggest making sure at least one of your two exercises is a bodyweight variation. This way you don’t hog up several machines, or need to wait for anything to open up before you can continue your workout. In fact, the video above shows that you can do supersets with bodyweight exercises alone.

Circuit training follows a similar idea to supersets, except you string together six to ten different exercises and go through them all consecutively to complete one circuit. Circuits are perfect when the gym is packed because you don’t need much space to get a full workout.

You can throw in any exercises you want, but the idea is to work out your whole body so a variety would be ideal. The video above by Nathen Mixon is a beginner-friendly, bodyweight circuit routine, while the video below by Bodybuilding.com involves weights and is more advanced.

Sure, your circuits can be made up entirely of bodyweight exercises, but if you want to push yourself, you can gather any one or two pieces of equipment that are available: dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, medicine balls, or anything else lying around to add to your circuits (just don’t be a magpie and exacerbate the crowded gym problem.)

Everyone goes for the treadmills or ellipticals. Very few people gun for rowing machines, but that’s good news for you. Rowing is actually an intense, full-body cardio workout. (Shhh...don’t tell anyone else!) Rowing follows a very precise rhythm and form, though, so check our previous article to learn those finer points. Be sure to practice good form, and start slow if you’re unfamiliar.

Don’t underestimate rowing, though. Even 10 minutes on the machine can get fit people winded. If you want a challenge, you can do any number of interval-style workouts on the rowing machine we mentioned, or a workout like the one from the video above.

Okay, if the dumbbells, squat racks, and machines are somehow all taken, it’s still not a big deal. Scout the gym floor for other equipment like kettlebells, battle ropes, and TRX suspension trainers. You might not have paid much attention to them before, but if they’re around you’ll instantly have access to a new world of novel, challenging workouts. In fact, we’ve covered what you could do with kettlebells, the powerful workouts you can do with battle ropes, and all the different exercises that a suspension trainer makes possible.

Some workout ideas: if you only use a kettlebell, you can do kettlebell swings for 100 reps, broken down into 10 reps at a time, and be pretty toast after that. For battle ropes, follow along with the above video by Adrian Bryant; it’s perfect for beginners. And finally, my article here dives into both an upper body and lower body suspension trainer workout that I followed for months and saw great strength-building results following.

You’re at your local Pure Gym/Virgin/DL and it’s just too damn busy. But, it’s also convenient – it’s round the corner from work or home, and your work and family commitments mean it’s a struggle to go to a gym better suited to your training.

We’d always advise deciding where your training fits into your life’s priorities, and then training somewhere that matches up (like us, for example!), but we’re realists and we get that perfection just isn’t always possible.

So, how can you follow a programme in a gym with one squat rack, bent barbells and PTs that are more interested in watching MTV than stopping you breaking your back? Short answer – you can’t follow anything too rigid.

What’s the point in starting a plan that wants you to squat three times a week if every time you get to the gym at 6pm, there’s 5 teenagers in there having a curl-off? Or you can only find one dumbbell, because the other one has ended up being used as a door stop for Susan’s yoga class?

Some flexibility is clearly needed. Trouble is, too much flexibility often means too much variety, which means that you don’t train movement patterns enough to elicit any real change, and certainly too much variety to ever feel like you’re making lifting progress.

So – if we can’t guarantee to hit specific exercises, we can damn sure hit the same movement patterns. After all, yes, a DB and BB bench press do different things, but not THAT different. You can switch up. It’s not ideal, but it’ll work and it’s better than the alternative (making it up as you go along…).

The downloadable (free!) file below gives a sample template that we’ve used with several clients that have no choice but to train in a busy gym.

RWFBusyGymProgramme

The idea is simple – every session, pick 1 exercise from each of the first sections, then 2 from the last section. The next time you train, make sure you pick different exercises, and keep rotating through. You should find that over a period of 4 weeks, training three times a week, even in a very busy gym, you have managed to hit every single exercise in the plan. The following month, you now have a reference point – try and beat the weights you did the last time you did that exercise.

It probably goes without saying that if you have a specific sporting/performance goal, this just won’t work. You’ll need to get yourself to a proper gym that allows you to stick to a plan. But, if your goal is get a bit fitter, bit stronger and look good nekkid, this’ll work a treat.

Don’t stress about things you can’t control – in a busy gym, rest periods might depend on who’s working in with you, or how long the queue is for the machine you want. Rest periods just aren’t THAT important to get worried about.

Have a go, and let us know how you get on.

And, of course, if you start to think “you know, maybe I need to switch gyms”, pop us a message and ask for a free day pass. You’ll probably find Real World Fitness a little different to the big boys! We deliberately cap our membership at a level that means people don’t have to queue for kit, and that they can follow proper training plans.

• Take Your Workout to the Floor.
• Superset Your Workout.
• Do Full-Body Circuit Training.
• Try Rowing Machine Intervals Instead of Running on the Treadmill.
• Make Use of Other, Less-Popular Gym Equipment.

September can become a pretty busy month at the gym. Somehow that back-to-school attitude still holds strong for many of us. As summer winds down, the lazy hot days are over and it’s time to crack down again. Beach lounging can only last for so long. For those who live in student towns, the influx of students coming back from summer is noticeable when there’s only a select number of machines for everyone to share at the gym. September is absolutely hopeless if you’re thinking of showing up and expecting the treadmill or bike to be free. Crowded gym getting you down? Here’s how to come prepared:

Go to the floor. If you’re headed to the gym during a busy month, bring a mat with you. Before you go, memorize a routine of favourite stretches or strength exercises. If the moves require a med ball or resistance band, make sure you pack it in the bag. Need inspiration? Check out these books for exercises tailored to runners.

Go at night. Going to the gym during an off time is the best tip for taming frustration from over-crowded facilities. If you know more people have been at your gym these days, avoid high-traffic times. Live in a student area? Go on a Friday night or Saturday night and take your pick of machine. Stay on it as long as you want.

Run before the gym and just do strength work there. Hoping a cardio machine is going to be free? Just run to the gym or find a pretty location to run around that’s close by. Get in the cardio and rely on the gym to do all your weights and toning work. We’re fortunate to have falls that give us some of the best running conditions. Take advantage before winter hits.

Sign up for a class at the gym. By signing up for a class, you’re ensuring you’ll have a spot in advance of when you arrive. It might cost a little more but classes like yoga and spinning compliment running perfectly. You may discover a new love or talent for whichever activity you choose.

Bring an activity log. Keeping a log of workouts, goals and general fitness information can give a lot of insight (here’s how to keep an effective log). Bring one of these along to the gym. While you’re waiting, update it or read it over to see if you’re on track and whether or not you need to make any changes to your plan.

Find the track. Do a track workout! Already have a workout planned? No problem, just do strides to prep yourself. Do an appropriate amount. Too many can take from the workout. Don’t let the strides become the workout.

Hop in the pool. At many gyms, the pool is the least crowded area. This may not be the case at your particular gym but it will never hurt to know when public swim times are. Keep a towel, bathing suit, cap and goggles in the bag just in case.

September can become a pretty busy month at the gym. Somehow that back-to-school attitude still holds strong for many of us. As summer winds down, the lazy hot days are over and it’s time to crack down again. Beach lounging can only last for so long. For those who live in student towns, the influx of students coming back from summer is noticeable when there’s only a select number of machines for everyone to share at the gym. September is absolutely hopeless if you’re thinking of showing up and expecting the treadmill or bike to be free. Crowded gym getting you down? Here’s how to come prepared:

Go to the floor. If you’re headed to the gym during a busy month, bring a mat with you. Before you go, memorize a routine of favourite stretches or strength exercises. If the moves require a med ball or resistance band, make sure you pack it in the bag. Need inspiration? Check out these books for exercises tailored to runners.

Go at night. Going to the gym during an off time is the best tip for taming frustration from over-crowded facilities. If you know more people have been at your gym these days, avoid high-traffic times. Live in a student area? Go on a Friday night or Saturday night and take your pick of machine. Stay on it as long as you want.

Run before the gym and just do strength work there. Hoping a cardio machine is going to be free? Just run to the gym or find a pretty location to run around that’s close by. Get in the cardio and rely on the gym to do all your weights and toning work. We’re fortunate to have falls that give us some of the best running conditions. Take advantage before winter hits.

Sign up for a class at the gym. By signing up for a class, you’re ensuring you’ll have a spot in advance of when you arrive. It might cost a little more but classes like yoga and spinning compliment running perfectly. You may discover a new love or talent for whichever activity you choose.

Bring an activity log. Keeping a log of workouts, goals and general fitness information can give a lot of insight (here’s how to keep an effective log). Bring one of these along to the gym. While you’re waiting, update it or read it over to see if you’re on track and whether or not you need to make any changes to your plan.

Find the track. Do a track workout! Already have a workout planned? No problem, just do strides to prep yourself. Do an appropriate amount. Too many can take from the workout. Don’t let the strides become the workout.