Do you actually make friends at the gym? How?

32 comments

1. Offer to help spot people if they appear to be struggling or take a class at the gym.

2. Join a class I think. Otherwise most people aren’t really there to socialize.

3. I’m not sure, I’ve been going frequently for about a few months bow and I have yet to make any friends.

4. >Do you actually make friends at the gym? How?

   My introverted ass tries not to even acknowledge there are other people there unless I’m passively aggressively thinking how you’re hogging something.

5. Go consistently, at the same time/same days week over week. Give a little head nod to people you see on a regular basis.

   When you need help, ask the people you recognize. Don’t do it mid-set.

6. discuss workout routines and suggest supplements and ask for advice.

7. Personally? Nah, I don’t really want to make friends at the gym, and I notice when I do talk with people it just makes the workouts take longer and causes me to lose focus.

   Plus, gym regulars tend to be vain meatheads, and I don’t really care about the things they talk about.

8. After 7 years of constantly going to the same gym, same hour, being familiar to the same people….. once a guy told me he had a great work out and that “setting his mind on the final result” kept him going.

   That’s it.

9. I personally made a few friends at the gym just by starting random conversations. What I did was talked to some people that I usually bumped into during my lifting sessions. It started with a friendly nod and as the days went by I asked what’s their workout plan for the day / sometimes I asked if they know “this guy” or “that guy” and the conversations pretty much went on from there.

   I also managed to be friends with some that I can hangout outside of the gym.

10. Join a group gym class, get to know the staff or help spot for someone. But in general people are there to workout and not socialise

11. I used to quite a bit. In college it was easy and some of my closest friends were consolidated in the gym, but afterwards I just started going around the same time consistently, and eventually (weeks) started nodding at the people i’ve see almost every time, and then sometimes a convo will start, and then the next times turn to a ‘hey! hows it going’, and then eventually we become friends. Sometimes it happened faster if we were doing the same exercise or needed a spot or something of the sort.

    This basically happened across two different gyms in two different states. Nowadays though I am not looking to make friends and I don’t have a consistent schedule, so I don’t really do this anymore or deliberately don’t start the process.

12. Usually, no.

    I just go, do my work and leave.

    How can you?

    If the gym has classes, join at least one. During a short break in in class ask someone something about the class.

    Wash, rinse, repeat.

13. No. I’m there to work out, not yap. I make friends almost everywhere I go but at the gym I need to focus.

14. I’m normally a shy guy but the gym is my element and I’m in very good shape so that helps.

    I either force myself to speak to someone – I compliment someone’s form, ask for a spot or someone asks me for advice and I progress from there.

    I met one gym friend from both wearing dragonball z t shirts and another as he was asking about where to go locally for drinking.

15. A gym is for working out, it’s not a social event

16. I dont.

    I want to do my workout and thats about it, I dont go to the gym to socialize.

17. I do boxing 4-5 times a week and have made a bunch of friends in a notoriously frosty city. Small class size really helps

18. People are always so nice to me at the gym, smiling, waving and shit and all the while I am trying to convince myself that I am blind or invisible. Gym always has two extremes. Either extremely nice folks or total dickheads

19. Ask for a spotter, great way to break the ice, plus he might help correct your form if you found someone that knows what they are doing

20. person 1 : Can you spot me?

    person 2 : yea, sure.

    *Reps end* person 1: what’s your name? You mind training with me sometime etc. nice delts, can you help me with my form?

    That sort of stuff

21. I’ve been lucky enough to actually make a lot of great friends at the gym! One thing I saw was going at a consistent time daily to see more of the same faces. This has led to being at bars or out at the same time and leading to conversation since you recognize one another. Asking for a spot while benching, squatting, etc also helps. Asking how many sets someone you more recognize they have left and asking to hop in if they’re benching. Or just being/looking approachable at the gym even with headphones. I am someone who likes to get in and out don’t get me wrong but thankful to have met some of these dudes I am now friends with. Also think its luck of the draw with these kind of events with the gyms/areas. I am someone with two sleeves so also that may play more of a factor from getting compliments on my art but who knows! Hopefully this helps!

22. When I went to a traditional gym I was not interested in making friends. I kept my headphones in and did my thing.

    I do crossfit now so I see a lot of the same people on a consistent basis and there is a lot more interaction so I’ve actually made some really good friends. If I went back to a traditional gym I’d go right back to not making friends in the gym.

23. In my 20s and 30s, yes I did. Now that I’m over 60, not so much; not many there at my age.

24. ?? people I say hi to have small talk thats all. There in group spin class are few people that been doing it for years they all text each other sometimes hook up out side gym

25. Spotting. It depends on the gym. A powerlifting one I go to is ultra friendly and supportive, a municipal one is fine, but no one talks to anyone.

26. Rarely yes, but usually I’m just there to get a work out and leave. Most people aren’t trying to talk there for the same reasons.

27. If you go to the same time multiple days a week this is really easy after about 6 months. You start by identifying who is a regular, this is your friend candidate pool. These are the people you head nod to for a couple days. Move from head nods to fist bumps and “how’s it going”‘s. Eventually mention that you “didn’t catch their name” and exchange names. Consistently greet the regulars everyday you see them and introduce yourself to the people they workout with. Ask about what they’re doing and swap tips. Occasionally work in on something they’re doing. Bullshit with eachother in between sets, nothing deep to start, mostly talk about lifting, exercise goals, diets, etc. Eventually talk about some life event that may have impacted one of the previous topics, this gives you a chance to establish that you exist outside this environment. If they reciprocate, you now have a solid gym friend.

    I probably meet at least one new person every week, and most often on the squat rack. It’s an easy place to work in with people due to the long rest periods people take. At this point I have been going to the same gym for about 18 months and I probably greet about 20 people every single time and have at least one conversation with someone. I highly advocate for building your gym community to the level where you welcome eachother. It’s very encouraging and makes you feel like you belong even if you really don’t know shit about each other.

28. 1. Ask em to spot you
    2. Engage in small talk
    3. Ask em to spot you if they show up consistently
    4. Engage in small talk
    5. Ask em to spot you
    6. Engage in small talk
    7. ask for number/social media when you ready

29. “Hey bro can you spot me?”

    It works wonders, try it out sometime

30. Bro say hi to the instuctors, share a machine or a dumbell with someone when there is too much people, advice others or ask for advice to others, in other words: be set to interact with other people and you will make friends even in jail

31. Ask the cool guys if you can carry their weights for them.

32. There is no uniculture, some parts of the country are very friendly and social, but move five miles away its intensely antisocial. There are immense political implications so people get all wound up about the topic in general. “How dare you live in an area with a voting record that indicates that people talk at the gym, those places don’t exist and good people would never live there” etc.

    Bars are kind of like gyms. There’s parts of the country where you’re not allowed to talk to people, especially women, at a bar. Other parts of the country, sometimes mere miles away, where the main point of going to a bar is to talk to people.

    I know where I’d rather live, LOL.

    The easiest way to figure out how to make friends at the gym is to attend a non-anti-social gym and then observe the regulars who are friends with each other.

    Most of the stereotypes are true most of the time, that’s kind of the definition of a stereotype. So if you want to befriend a boomer expect lots of pro sports gossip, or the broccoli hairs spend most of their time scrolling their phone so either don’t hang out with them or talk about online/phone stuff.