WHEN you first join a new gym, it definitely feels as though everyone is staring as you try to make sense of the equipment.
So with this in mind, we can't blame anyone for feeling a bit self-conscious during their work-outs – but let this woman's horror story be a warning before kicking off at any of your fellow gym-goers.
Sharing their dilemma on Reddit's Am I the A****** forum, an anonymous man explained how he recently joined a new gym with his wife.
He wrote: "I generally do cardio for the first 40 minutes I’m there (cycling). I put my headphones in and zone out, I don’t really look at anything."
Although he thought he was just staring off into space, the man was then confronted by a woman nearby who accused him of staring at her.
"I’m going to be honest and say that I’m not even sure if I was looking at her," he wrote. "I’m pedaling away on a f**king alpine pass in my mind and jamming out to some 90s alternative."
At first, the man claims he didn't noticed the woman and she actually had to poke his shoulder to get his attention.
He continued: "I pulled my earpieces out and asked if she needed something. She proceeded to loudly shame me for staring at her while she was working out.
"I explained that I was zoned out and not really 'looking' at anything. I was 26 minutes in at this point and sweating from my ride."
Despite his best attempts to "diffuse" the situation, the man claims she kept shouting at him and drawing more attention to them.
He added: "So I finally just said, 'Get over yourself. Why the f**k would I be staring at you, when that’s my wife over there on the elliptical?'" Ouch.
The man said she looked "wounded" by his response and it prompted her to back down.
But as him and his wife were leaving the gym, they were approached by a trainer who had seen the whole thing play out.
The man continued: "They said that what I said wasn’t necessary and that they would talk to the manager about revoking my membership. Which seems pretty bulls*** to me."
Turning to the forum for advice, the man asked if he owed the woman an apology or whether his response was the right course of action.
Insisting that he wasn't in the wrong, one replied: "That comment doesn’t even 100% read as an insult even in the most offensive way it could be interpreted as simply being faithful to your wife.
"She was harassing you- she started the whole confrontation, not to mention that zoning out and ‘staring’ is almost universal on those machines."
Another added: "Yes, it is a crazy problem women have in the gym with creepy men. However, this wasn’t the way for that woman to handle it, especially when you weren’t looking at her.
"There have been plenty of times where I just zone out and I’m not looking at or noticing anything. However, if someone were to look at me, they would think I was staring at something."
I pulled my earpieces out and asked if she needed something. She proceeded to loudly shame me for staring at her while she was working out.
Giving followers an update, the man edited the post a few days later to say that they'd taken a look at the CCTV.
He wrote: "She was talking to me for a solid minute before she pushed me, I looked startled from said push. I then have both my hands up at chest level palms out trying to explain that I was not staring at her and she had the wrong impression.
"She steps closer and pulls her mask down to get louder and that is when I gesture to her and then my wife – saying 'why the f**k would I be staring at you, when that’s my wife?'"
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