At the gym, earbuds are everywhere — attached to iPods and smartphones capable of not only pumping out music but also taking pictures and videos.
So it was a short hop from the Tournament Capital Centre gym to a Facebook page filled with secretly taken pictures and videos.
The page — called Sh-- You See At TCC — is down now, but during the short time it was up, the page was used to mock poor exercise techniques used by TCC members.
It attracted 147 likes and comments like these:
"Calf raises on the bench press, because f--- gym etiquette"
"lol, this just made my day"
"How about stupid crazy awesome sh--"
"i think this is gunna be my favorite page lol"
It was all meant to be fun, but Linda Stride, TCC's health and sport development supervisor, didn't see the humour in it.
"The main issue is invasion of privacy — using phones and recording images without permission," she said.
"It's not a joke. We take it very seriously."
Gym members caught doing this kind of thing could have their memberships suspended or revoked, she pointed out.
Staff managed to catch up with one person who posted a video and let him off with a warning.
"He hadn't realized what it meant to people. He thought it was funny."
Gym member Gillian McRae noted that with the proliferation of technology, a person taking pictures or video likely wouldn't attract much attention.
In some gyms, people create videos of themselves so they can work on their techniques, she said.
Spence Donaldson said he wouldn't be happy to see himself on Facebook without permission.
"You don't come to be photographed."
Robbie Guido said he's noticed members using wrong techniques, but it should be up to staff — not Facebook posts — to make the necessary corrections.
He's also confident that staff will be keeping a closer eye on people taking pictures and videos to make sure this doesn't happen again.
Twitter: @newsonaut
