DallasNews Family

OK, so I was at the health club Sunday, all set to use an arm machine whose name escapes me. Anyway, I was pulling down on the weighted bar when I heard a MMM..RRRRRRMMMFFFFF. I practically dropped the bar, at first startled, then, yes, too tickled to lift without guffawing.

I looked up and saw a muscularly tattooed fellow using a leg-strengthening machine with the very most weight available. He did a few reps, stood up and walked away. He returned, did a few more, always letting out the MMM...RRRRRMMMFFFFF grunt.

A woman across from me stopped her workout and came over.

"He's not even using a towel to wipe that machine after he uses it!" she said.

"Yecch," I responded. "I thought the grunt was distracting enough; now just thinking about his sweat is rather undoing me."

She told me she'd read about a health club with a no-grunt policy. When someone grunted particularly loudly, he was asked to leave. When he didn't, she said, police were called.

The episode begs a question or two: What do you think about exercise grunters? Or What other pet peeves you have with fellow gym rats -- too much talking on the phone, hogging machines?

Fill us in...and, not to single out any particular gender, but if males or females tend to be more guilty, we'd like to know that, too!