Masks while lifting?

[Isaac Medina]

Hi Rip,

I'm at a bit of a tough place. I manage a gym in ABQ, NM, and per our governor's health orders, all gym users MUST wear a mask. Absolute baloney, I know.

Members will at times pull their mask under their nose to catch their breath, which is understandable. I get it. Some members don't necessarily like that, and are threatening to call the Health Department to close us down if things "don't get better". Some people just wanna be crabby buttholes I guess.

With that all out of the way, I am wondering if you would have any recommendations on training with a mask, if any. I know it's not ideal, and I would just ignore the health order, but I'm the manager here and I have to enforce it and it would be very bad for business if members saw me training without complete face coverage. Shitty situation, I know.

Thanks for your time, Rip.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Sorry, but this is like training the squat without bending your knees. Just close the gym and admit that you live in a shitty state with a criminal governor. Failing that, get rid of the shitty snitch members.

[Soule]

Just pull it down and wear it like a chinstrap during your sets. The rest of the time i wear it with my nose out.

I’m dealing with the same shit here in Austin, so i feel your pain. Bunch of whiney liberals around here, calling people Karens and ironically complaining to the manager.

[Dr. Manhattan]

My deepest sympathy to you, eyezm. I hope you keep a mental list of the snitches and find opportunity to hand the festering masses of bacteria their just rewards sometime later in life. In the meantime, I hope you can find any opportunity to reprimand them publicly for ANY posted "gym rules" broken.

[Frank_B]

What about enforcing shitty rules on the snitches? A lot of gyms have a “water only past this point,” rule that most people ignore. Surely you can find something they’re doing wrong to badger them. At the very least, it might get across to them the idea that enforcing stupid rules annoys everyone.

[BrooklynJerry]

I thought the Karen's are liberals.

[Elle]

Maybe you can find some of those super useless tissue thin masks to sell / give away?
Actually, my favorite mask is a thick canvas type one that doesn't suck into my mouth when I inhale hard, and allows air out the top. Way better than the thin clingy ones.
But the point is, find the least restrictive mask you can.
Or install cubicles around every piece of equipment. In my state masks aren't required if you're the only one in the "room".

[Isaac Medina]

Sorry, but this is like training the squat without bending your knees. Just close the gym and admit that you live in a shitty state with a criminal governor. Failing that, get rid of the shitty snitch members.

So basically I'm screwed then. There's not a productive way to train with a mask?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Training hard makes you breath hard, and requires a big valsalva. You figure it out.

[Isaac Medina]

Dammit