Gym comes up with No Grunting Rule

Personally, I don't like when people grunt while lifting because I think it's embarrassing for the lifter and it creates a sort of eyebrow-raising discomfort for others.

"If I've just heard you grunting in the weight room like a walrus, there's no way I'll talk to you." --Nina, 24, florist

I disagree with the notion that grunting is useful if you learn how to breathe without grunting from the start. Some people grunt as a way to exhale a little bit of air and after lifting like that over and over, it becomes a habit.

Grunting on the last repetition to complete the set, might be acceptable. But some people grunt on every rep. IMO, they use too much weight for themselves without realizing it and grunting is an attempt to retain some control of their lifting form. This habit is easy to develop if during every set and every workout you try to lift as much weight as possible (going "heavy duty") instead of varying one's routine now and then.

Nevertheless there is a gym that is yanking memberships for grunting.

"Planet Fitness is not interested in such vocal lifting.

Members who violate the grunting prohibition a second time are subjected to the lunk alarm -- a siren that flashes blue.

The New York Times recently featured an article about a Wappingers Falls, N.Y. bodybuilder who ran afoul of the grunting rule.

A manager of the Planet Fitness in Wappingers Falls canceled the bodybuilder's membership after the muscle-bound member challenged the manager about the grunting charge." [link]

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WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y., Nov. 13 — Albert Argibay, a bodybuilder and a state correction officer, was at a Planet Fitness gym with 500 pounds of weight on his shoulders one afternoon this month when the club manager walked over and told him it was time to leave. Mr. Argibay, the manager explained, had violated one of the club’s most sacred and strictly enforced rules: He was grunting.
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At most health clubs, grunts elicit little more than annoyed looks or sighs of irritation. But at Planet Fitness, a national chain with 120 locations, it is a matter not only of etiquette, but also of club policy: one too many offending noises can get a membership revoked
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The no-grunt policy is one of several eyebrow-raising rules — no bandannas, no jeans, no banging weights — that managers say are intended to make their target clientele of novice exercisers feel comfortable. [link]

Their rule about no banging weights should be a standard rule in every gym, just like this one:

"Your Mom does not work here. Put your own dumbbells and weights away when you're finished. "