Thou shalt not worry about what everyone else is doing

• There’s no need to slip a couple of extra plates on the bench press and risk a crushed trachea just because that girl on the cross-trainer might be looking. Even if she is, the chances are she won’t be impressed.

Thou shalt honour the full range of motion

• A squat is only a squat if your upper thighs are parallel to the ground at the bottom, and a pull-up only counts if your chin clears the bar at the top. If you’re not doing full ROM, you’re not going to get the benefits from your programme.

Thou shalt not use thy mobile phone

• Obviously it’s fine to use it for timing intervals or rest periods, but turn the ringer off. Chatting when you’re in the gym takes the focus away from your workout and makes it less effective. And taking up a workout station while you’re discussing your social life with your mates is totally unacceptable.  

Thou shalt offer to let people work in

• When someone politely asks, ‘Excuse me, how many sets do you have left?’, it’s not acceptable to simply grunt ‘Ten’ – you should follow it with ‘…but you can work in if you like’. Allowing someone to share the bit of kit you’re on is common courtesy, unless you’re on a programme that requires metronomic precision on rest periods that last less than 60 seconds. Which, let’s be honest, you probably aren’t.

Thou shalt wipe up thine own sweat

• Sweating is good – even encouraged – but leaving a puddle behind on the incline bench isn’t the best way to endear yourself to fellow gym-goers. Your gym provides sweat towels so you can clean up after yourself. Use them.

Thou shalt not gaze at thine own reflection

• A quick glance in the mirror to check out your form is fine. A lingering appraisal of your entire physique – including a cheeky lift of the shirt to check how the six-pack’s coming along – is not.

Thou shalt put thy weights back after use

• Nothing marks you out as a gym newbie like pulling all the dumb-bells out of the rack and then leaving them scattered across the floor for other people to trip over, or leaving so much weight on the Olympic bar that smaller gym users can’t move it. Think of putting your weights back tidily as a way of warming down.

Thou shalt watch where thou art going

• You’d pay attention to your surroundings on a building site, so why should your attention wander when you’re in another environment with bits of metal moving quite quickly at head height? When you’re around other gym-goers, be aware of what they’re doing – at best you might get a nudge from an errant deadlift, at worst you’ll be concussed by a wayward power clean.

Thou shalt not curl in the squat rack

• Yes, it’s a conveniently marked space with a mirror in front of it. Yes, it’s easier to rest the bar on the uprights than pick it up from the floor at the start of every set. But the squat rack is for squats – or super-heavy bent-over rows – and using it for anything else is like swearing in a church. During a wedding service. Avoid at all costs.

Failure to follow these gym commandments is akin to iron mosquitoes, buzzing around creating a nuisance. Respect the environment, the equipment and the people in it.