Wappingers Falls, NY — One kid was wearing a white Hollister T-shirt, skin tight. Another guy showed off his brand new sleeve to a friend. On the bench next to me was an old man. He had round glasses, puffy white hair and two dumbbells resting on his lap. He was staring at himself in the mirror. I cracked the knuckle of my right index finger, turned up the volume and reached for the weights.
This was the Planet Fitness gym in Wappingers Falls. The same gym highlighted in a Nov. 18, 2006 article called “No Grunting, They Said, and He Was at the Gym.”
In this New York Times article by Anahad O’Connor the judgment free zone, or lack there of, is explained and challenged. Albert Argibay was one Hudson Valley native who swelled just a little too loud.
“I said to her, ‘I’m not grunting, I’m breathing heavy,’ ” recalled Mr. Argibay, 40, an energetic man with the hulking appearance of a pro linebacker. “I guess she didn’t like the fact that I challenged her, because she said to me, ‘Meet me up front; I’m canceling your membership.’ ”
He continued lifting, but soon was surrounded by town police officers, who told him to drop the weight slowly and pack his bag, then escorted him from the gym. Now Mr. Argibay is considering suing the club, claiming the notoriety the incident earned him in this cozy 5,000-person town 75 miles north of Manhattan is tantamount to defamation. Mr. Argibay said he has endured ridicule from colleagues who call him and make grunting noises, and he fears that inmates will lose respect for him.
Over four years later, not much has changed. People are still grunting, posing, trash talking, mixing shakes and dropping weights all over a gym straight out of Barney and B.J.‘s nightmare.
Some of the guys there tonight reminded me of Mike “The Situation” from MTV’s “The Jersey Shore.” Unlike “The Situation,” none of these guys looked like Rambo. A lot of them were tan and one or two had blow out’s. What an interesting hairdo.
- east coast paper boy
Tags: Albert Argibay, ANAHAD O’CONNOR, and He Was at the Gym, barney & friends, bloc party, dumbbells, getting huge, jersey shore, lifting weights, little thoughts, mike "the situation", mtv, new york, new york times, No Grunting, ny, ny times, planet fitness, rambo, swell, the xx, urbandictionary, wappingers falls, working out
I always think that’s what you get when you don’t charge much for a gym membership. Thankfully, the yellow and purple machines are usually distracting enough to let me concentrate on working out while saving a few bucks.
Thanks for stopping by!
Agreed. I find the sanctimonious attitude much more obnoxious than the grunting it’s supposed to prevent.
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