I've been a member of many different gyms pretty much since the time I could first start going with my uncle as a guest. When I made the transition to Planet Fitness, I critiqued them for many reasons, but the biggest reason... "The Lunk Alarm."

For those of you that don't know, Planet Fitness has a slogan, "The judgment-free zone," but the "judgment-free zone" is also accompanied by a huge, loud, and noticeable, "Lunk alarm." The alarm goes off when someone who is working out really hard drops a weight or grunts really loud in their workouts. It basically attracts attention to the people who are working out intensely and therefore the entire gym judges them for setting off the alarm.

As a gym, it's understandable to want everyone to feel welcome, but to set off an alarm on the people that lift heavy and workout hard? Seems a little extra. If there are people in the gym that can barely workout, some just take up space, and others that just play on their phones, then why can't there be people on the other end of the workout spectrum that lift too much and grunt too loud?

Everyone is different and there are many different ways to workout and some people can't help but grunt or make some kind of noise when they workout. It's natural. I get not wanting people to lift more weight than they can handle and grunt so loudly that the entire gym gets disrupted, but the alarm replaces all of that! When the alarm goes off, the entire gym is aware of it.

Aside from humiliating the "lunks," the alarm poses as a distraction and an annoyance to other members of the gym. It's safe to assume that most people workout with headphones, but the alarm blasts way beyond your workout playlist. For some people, getting "in the zone" is the hardest part about working out, so for that alarm to disrupt the workout mentality, it's annoying and unnecessary. There is no reason why the entire gym needs to be thrown off by the obnoxious sound of an alarm just because someone wants to work a little hard or may have dropped a weight.

There are so many other ways to represent equality and acceptance throughout a gym. The alarm is just not necessary. Half the people in the gym don't pay any mind to others anyways. I know I don't. I'm in the gym to get in a good workout and leave. The only thing I ever care about are the people that just take up space and text while they are on the machine I need! The lunks don't bother anyone. If they want to hurt themselves by lifting too much weight, that's on them, but is is necessary to humiliate them even more by setting off an alarm? Planet Fitness will never be a "judgment-free zone" as long as the lunk alarm continues to single people out.