14 People Share Their Most Embarrassing (Yet Very Relatable) Gym Stories

Ever had a less-than-poised moment on a weight machine, or in a boot camp class? Hey, you’re certainly not the only one. In a recent Reddit thread titled “Stupidest thing you’ve ever done in the gym?” in the XXFitness subreddit, users revealed their most cringeworthy (and often painful) workout moments—from tripping on the treadmill to gym flirting gone wrong. Here are some of the comments that had us giggling. (We recommend you stop reading now if you’re currently on a cardio machine!)

Uneven bar

User Sambeano made the mistake of unloading a heavy barbell on one side, but not the other: “It was resting on the safety bars at the time, at about knee height, with about 30 kgs loaded on the other side. The bar flipped in the air and crashed into a glass door frame … The crash was so loud everyone turned around to look.” Whoops.

Bike dominos

“I thought this bench near some cardio equipment was fixed to the ground for some reason and grabbed onto it to stretch my shoulders out. I flew backwards into a row of eight stationary bikes, knocking them all over like dominoes,” wrote Mpaellen.

Bottom out

Themortalvalkyrie got off a rowing machine with a bruised bum: “My butt fell off the rower. I was [trying to] do sprints and got a little too excited, and at one point I think my butt must have come up a little and the seat flew back and i came down on the bar. But it was funny.” (Another Redditer jumped in, “I wish that thing had a seatbelt!”)

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Nothing to sneeze at

From jazzehcakes: “Once I was running on the treadmill and closed my eyes to sneeze, which caused me to trip, land face first, and fly off the treadmill.”

When exercise balls attack

“I threw an exercise ball on the mini trampoline and it flung back hit my fingers, which then hit my face,” shared another Redditer. “I managed to grab the ball before it caused further chaos. Everyone around me either didn’t notice or pretended not to. I probably looked like an idiot laughing to myself.”

Is this thing on?

Reddutchess15 was new to the exercise scene when she tried out her university’s fancy gym. Feeling a bit intimidated, she decided to “start off easy on the elliptical,” she wrote. “Well, I get to the elliptical, try to push the start button, and nothing. I keep pushing the start button and nothing happens. So, I thought it was broken. Worse, I worried that I would be blamed. So I just left without doing any workout at all. It wasn’t until my friend starting making fun of this other girl for the same reason days later that I realized i was supposed to get on it first.” (Trust us, we’ve been there!)

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Itsy bitsy spider

“Tried to kill a spider while running on the treadmill,” user little—dolly posted. “I lost my balance, fell down, got my shirt caught up and ended up with two scraped knees and treadmill road rash down one side of my face. Oh, and I didn’t get the spider.”

Pee problem

“I peed myself while squatting in a busy gym,” wrote Souponastick. “That wasn’t the worst part. For whatever reason my brain decided I needed to announce it, so as I was coming up from the bottom of the squat I screamed, ‘I’M F****** PISSING MYSELF!’ Everyone looked and watched me clean up my puddle.”

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Right in the eye

“Saw a cute guy in the gym,” posted Tokyo1964. “I went to take a swig of water just as our eyes met, but accidentally squeezed the bottle slightly and sprayed it into my eye instead.”

Ripped pants

From Blaserea: “Ripped the crotch out of my shorts squatting, even heard it through the headphones.”

Fast and furious

Ever cranked up your speed on a cardio machine to clock a specific number of miles before your time runs out? Phoenixinda attempted this strategy, without success: “Last year I decided to go extra fast on the cross trainer for the last two minutes so that I could get a full 3-mile distance at the end of the 30 minutes. Foot slipped, fell between the pedals, and my foot fractured in three places. I was out for three months … I have been back at the gym, but I just can’t bring myself to even touch the cross trainer.”

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Mistaken identity

Vkm5028 learned the hard way to make sure you actually know the person you’re waving at before you say hi. “Thought I saw a friend of a friend out of the corner of my eye. I was in a goofy mood, and decided to make a goofy face and wave at him. Turns out, it wasn’t the guy who I thought it was, he was on the phone whenever I made the face at him, and I found out he’s a player for the local minor league baseball team and probably thought I was fan-girling at the sight of him.”

Sweat stain

“Worn pale blue leggings,” one user commented. “It looked like I’d [peed] myself half way through my gym session.”

Stuck on you

Wearing athleisure fresh out of the laundry? Make sure there’s no other laundry stuck to it before you leave the house. “I once had a thong static-cling itself to my leggings,” MyShoulderHatesMe posted. “I was at least 20 minutes into my workout before I noticed.”