Woman Is Shocked by Impatient Gym Goer — Internet Calls Out Karen's Entitlement
Published July 11 2023, 11:09 p.m. ET
For those who frequent the gym often, you know that there are all sorts of folks who make appearances at public gyms embodying the same annoying tropes. There's the lifter who always has to yell, the guy who always has to make weird political statements with his shirts, and who could forget the old guy in the men's locker rooms who obliviously leaves very little to the imagination. Then, of course, there's the impatient gym goer.
If you visit the gym often, you're probably asked "How many sets do you have left?" about a zillion times a day when you're working out on a machine. For all intents and purposes, it's an innocent question for folks in the same public space looking to use the same equipment in succession. Normal folks would politely ask and provide an amicable response based on the situation.
However, one woman encountered an impatient gym goer who proved to be a real jerk. She shared the incident on TikTok.
A woman is confronted by an impatient gym goer while trying to work out.
Mikaela Laws (@kaelalaws) is a fitness influencer with over 55k followers on TikTok. Along with regular meme videos, she posts plenty of footage of her fitness journey as she lifts, runs, and proteins up on a regular basis.
While she's very active as a gym girl, Mikaela's encounter with an impatient gym goer has completely turned her off to public gyms. In a video posted in April 2023, Mikaela recorded herself working with a shoulder press machine when another woman approached her with that age-old question.
"How many sets do you have left?" the other woman asks off-camera.
Mikaela politely answers that she only has two sets left before returning to her workout.
Unfortunately, that didn't seem to fly with our other gym goer. "Literally one minute later," according to Mikaela, the other woman went full-on Karen.
She starts complaining that she has been waiting "forever" for the shoulder press machine. Mikaela tries to stay civil, but the other woman keeps going off.
"It's just really annoying because I pay for a membership here," she complains. The Karen even threatens to "go to the front desk." Hello, Mikaela pays for a membership too!
Mikaela says she'll be done in two minutes, but her answer still doesn't appease the Karen.
"I don't have a ton of time, I have kids at home," the other gym goer argues. "I just need to hop on this machine, get it done."
Mikaela tries to talk the other woman down to "30 seconds," but our resident Karen simply replies "okay, whatever." Mikaela gave the camera a look and kept working out.
People in the comments are squarely in Mikaela's camp, with most of them incredulous at the other woman's behavior.
"She's acting like it's your problem [that] she has kids at home," one person hokes.
"Does she not know hot to use free weights?" another asks. "You can do shoulder press with those too."
Let's face it. Those of us who visit public gyms regularly are always a little annoyed when a machine we want is already taken. However, it literally costs nothing to not act as rude as the gym goer in Mikaela's TikTok video.